By Emma Bailey, Clarion Staff Reporter
On May 3, the John F. Kennedy Food Fair returned with much anticipation as it has not been held in a few years due to COVID and has had some cancellations in the past due to state and District guidelines.
ASB Treasurer and Kennedy Senior Hannah Chu explained the importance of the Food Fair this year.
“I think it's important because it's good for all students here, and everyone got to interact and get to know each other, and get to know clubs. It also helps clubs make money to have them be supported as well.”
The clubs represented at the Food Fair on May 3 were California Scholarship Federation(CSF), National Honor Society (NHS), VIP, JFK FISH Club, Medical Club, Mesa, Key Club, BTS Army Association, and Interact. ASB, the Freshman class, Sophomore class, and Junior Class were also selling food, drinks, and merchandise at the Food Fair. Some of the most popular businesses and food sold were Raising Cane’s, In-N-Out Burger, Spam Musubi, Tastea, and Gunther’s.
Chu also mentioned that since so many businesses were represented at the Food Fair, the clubs got more visibility and were more supported.
Director of VIP Club, Alyssa Orot, explains the success of the event for VIP.
“It was super successful, everyone that came and bought from us made such a huge impact because the kids have been working so hard to just get money to have team jackets. We are all going to use that money to spend on team jackets.”
Orot also recognized the importance of the Food Fair for the school.
“I think it is super important, it's an opportunity for all clubs to raise money for themselves, especially an opportunity to serve their classmates and the community as well and it's been awhile since that's happened.”
For several years, Food Fairs were held during lunch every quarter to help Kennedy clubs and organizations fundraise by selling food.
James Lam, Kennedy Math teacher and advisor for both CSF and FISH Club, says that Kennedy “used to do it every quarter. It was kind of like a celebratory fun thing, and of course for the clubs to raise money because a lot of the clubs wanted to do things, raise funds for different reasons. It was shut down originally a lot of the things that were sold at the food fair, like fast foods, were deemed unhealthy.”
It was an event that many students attended so when it was temporarily shut down in 2017, students were devastated. Although, the Food Fair was modified to follow the District guidelines about food fundraisers in 2018. The same guidelines were followed for the Food Fair this year as it was held afterschool on the blacktop.
Lam stated, “ FISH club is my smaller club ,and this was the first fundraiser they had of any type. So for them to be able to raise some funds for the club that's really good. They are really excited – they already know what it's going to go towards.”
“For CSF, we've done fundraisers in the past. This has always been one of the bigger ones so it's kind of really nice to have this one back. This is going to help offset a lot of things for other members of CSF and then that helps us build our scholarship fund, so definitely beneficial for both the clubs.”
Dylan Lourenco, Kennedy junior in MESA Club member, mentioned that the Food Fair was very successful for MESA and a lot of people supported their club. Recently, they were also successful at MESA Regionals, with Chris and Sean Fetros placing 1st in MESA Machine competition and creativity & design and Jorge Rodriguez, Candy Yu, and Angie Li placed first in creativity & design in Moon Base.
Lam expressed, “I love to see it, it was great to bring back not just for club involvement but the students to come in and support it. It’s great for adding to the school culture and it really gave a sense of things are kind of returning back to normal and we definitely needed something positive for the whole student body to experience.”
Although COVID is still here, Kennedy is finding ways to start bringing back school events in a safe way. The Food Fair was one of those events that not only helped clubs that are starting to get back on their feet after COVID and distance learning, but also supported the student body and brought back an event that Kennedy students love.
Photo: Dylan Lourenco and Landon Niem leading the MESA table at the Kennedy Food Fair.