At the beginning of the school year, the snack bar shutdown within the first two weeks. Students were left wondering the reason behind the closure.  

The primary reason for the shutdown is staff shortage throughout the district. When other schools in the district have low staff issues, the cafeteria staff also goes to their kitchens to help out. 

“It’s just demand,” cafeteria team leader Mandy Saunders said. “We have a shortage in custodians, we have a shortage in bus drivers, and we have a shortage in the cafeteria. There’s so many other jobs and opportunities in this area that it might or might not work out for someone to come work here.”

In the meantime, students haven’t been too disappointed at the disappearance of the snack bar. 

“I kind of miss the convenience of the snack bar,” sophomore Himani Gangineni said. “However, the cafeteria staff is really nice here. They’re all so kind and welcoming. When I’m getting snacks or other things, they’re easy to talk to and ask questions to, so I don’t mind too much.”

Another reason for the closure is restrictive laws. Supported by Former First Lady Michelle Obama, the Department of Agriculture passed Smart Snacks laws in 2016, limiting what food items schools could sell for student purchase. The cafeteria staff is responsible for purchasing all the snacks.

“There are pages and pages of rules and guidelines of stuff we can and can’t sell,” Saunders said. “When I first started here, we sold Pizza Hut pizza in our snack bar, and here we are 12 years later, and we can hardly sell anything [in the snack line]. As the laws get less restrictive, we might roll back over there, but for this school and this purpose right now, the snack bar just doesn’t make sense.”

The staff currently has no plans to reopen the snack bar. Instead, they moved over many of the snacks to the main cafeteria, so students still have access to most of those snacks.

“We are doing so well on the inside and we still make more money just on the inside,” Saunders said, “What I’m hoping is that we can figure out another thing to do over there, like another theme or another thought, to open up another line to bring in more people.”