Clubs change their perspective on Club Day
The quad filled up with the stands from nearly every club on campus on Oct. 11 at lunch, with club members raising money and informing high school students about their unique groups.
However, several of these groups were either unable to fundraise or forced to find new foods to sell last-minute because of the new guidelines about food on campus. The California Health East Schools Act placed regulations on food served on campus, including decreasing the amounts of trans fat, sodium and sugar.
“The law changed Jan.1 2017, and the rules became a lot stricter across the entire district, I believe. They had to alter food guidelines to fit the new law, and there is a new person at the district who is following the guidelines more closely than years past,” Carly Adams, Assistant Principal of Activities, said.
Clubs such as as Technology Student Association (TSA) attempted to get their food items approved to sell on Club Day.
“Originally, we were going to sell these layered chocolate cakes called trifles that we had baked, but we had to submit something else to the district saying that we were using fruit and applesauce in our dish because we wouldn’t be able to get it otherwise. It was a lot harder to bake it, and in the end they didn’t even check if we actually used those ingredients so it was pointless to even put those restrictions in at all,” Smith* said.
Science Olympiad was also impacted significantly due to the stricter rules. In years past, the group has sold Chinese food and has been quite successful at Club Day, but with the arrival of harsher regulations, Club Day was quite different for them.
“After we found out (Chinese food) had been rejected, we were forced to come up with an idea really quickly, which was one of the reasons we didn’t make as much of a profit this year,” Kevin Chen, senior and Science Olympiad treasurer, said.
The group went from making hundreds of dollars last year to making less than $20 this year, and are now turning to different ways to fundraise for their competitions.
“We have been sending out a lot more emails to remind people to pay their membership fees because they are so much more important this year,” Chen said.
Pizza and Chinese food were two of the largest contenders from last year’s Club Day, but they were both denied because of the new law passed, and several clubs such as Science Olympiad and FBLA were impacted by the change.
“I think (students) are very disappointed, as am I,” Adams said. “You will go off-campus and have the same kind of foods off-campus, and for two days a year, on Club Day and International Day, it would be nice to sell what we like, but we have to follow district guidelines and the rules and policies.”
Students and teachers alike have similar opinions on the new laws passed.
“It’s a kids own choice to buy the food, and we do try to make it as healthy as we can, but even if it is a dessert, they are choosing to buy it,” Smith said. “They have the choice to decide what they eat, and they are paying money to get it, so they know what they are putting in their bodies.”
*Name change upon request
