For the first time, the Cardinal staff reviews the positives and negatives of the March 1 food fair.

One of the few reasons I like Hoover is because of the food fairs we have. Although there is always a lot of people and long lines, but I really like this event just because of the food. I usually get there as soon as possible to be able to buy what I want and have some time left to eat and spend it with my friends. I hate being around too many people so I don’t really spend a lot of time walking around, I plan ahead of time what to buy and how much will I need. Thursday’s food fair was probably the best one out of the ones I have attended. This time I did not buy a lot of tickets, and I got exactly what I needed. I got an exact amount of tickets, but when I got to the Octagon Club they didn’t have the cookies with ice cream I wanted so I had to look for something else. Long lines are usually never a problem for me because I am small enough to cut, and most of the time I know the persons who are selling. I bought some carne asada nachos from AHHC and strawberries and cream from the track and field team, which were both very delicious. The best part is that I even had more than 20 minutes to eat and hang out with my friends. The only problem was that I felt the portions were not worth the high prices they sold their food for.
Elizabeth L.

Working the food fair again was fun! My favorite part was cutting the pies and working with my friends. I liked cracking jokes and clowning on people we saw with my friends, that part was cool and funny. The idea that the food fair made the day go fast was also exciting. The part I didn’t like was people being obnoxiously loud. I understand that it’s a food fair, and it’s going to be loud anyways, but there are some people that are just too loud. I felt like I had an easy job. Just cut the pie and put it on a plate and repeating the process. I would’ve hated to be the server, just because some people are annoying. For me it felt good that our table sold out of pies. At first I thought we would have leftovers. I’m glad we didn’t have any lame people helping us, like people that would slow us down. I also thought the new guy working with us was cool. Just me and my peers working together was funny and the vibes were cool. That was the highlight of the whole food fair. Yeah. Cool.
Carlos S.

For this food fair, I walked around and also worked. I first walked around buying food since I had to work the second shift. There wasn’t really good food this time; there was nothing new. I bought a few things; the first thing was a pizza, and it was three tickets. In my opinion, that’s a lot for just one piece. I got thirsty so I bought a lemonade. The thing I didn’t like about it was that it was a bit too sweet. The last thing I got was ice cream from the club I’m in. The only thing I hate about the food fair is how crowded it gets. You can’t really go anywhere without a person bumping into you. I think next time the tables should be more far apart from each other or it should in the back quad. I’ve worked the food fair before I knew what to expect. Set up went pretty good like always. When I came to work my shift, we were already sold out of cookies. Most of the time, the customers were nice. They would get upset when we told them that we didn’t have anymore. The thing I dislike about working is when a lot of people come at once. It gets overwhelming and customers start to get impatient.
Jessica S.

I wanted to go to the food fair so bad but I couldn’t because I had a basketball game. I swear they should have had that food fair on Friday because it was very boring sitting in the room with white walls and hearing everyone having fun out there, eating. Coach Stahley said she didn’t want us eating all that unhealthy food before the game because it’s going to make us tired and lazy. Our basketball team had to eat subway in room 1101. The principle bought us the subway and I was very grateful for the food because it was still good. We sat in there the whole lunch period, talking about the game, how we were going to win, goals we had, and things we need to work on. We also watched film on the past games, because we were playing Madison for CIF. After we those two things she told us we can nap for a while or we can go in the big gym and shoot around. I choose to go to the gym and practice my shot. On the way there I saw one of my friends and he had an extra slice of pizza so I “accidently” ate that pizza and then went on to the gym like nothing happened.
Alissa P.

My first experience in the food fair wasn’t bad at all. I expected bad food and hot breathe. It took me a while to decide on what food should I get because most of it was overpriced and didn’t look that appetizing for it to be expensive. Some of the food looked good and others looked really bad. I was only looking for the tostilocos, but it was nowhere to be found. I was getting irritated because it took me a while to decide was I was going to get. I decided to get a hot dog from SABE because they looked really good. The bread was cold while everything else was hot so that was the only bad thing about it. After that, I went to the 2018 cabinet stand where they were selling Capri Suns for two tickets so I got two. When everything was over I went to go play four square with my friends, and we accidently hit the new vice principal on the back. I had to apologize for that. That’s pretty much how my food fair experience was and in my opinion it was a good day.
Jorge L.

At the beginning I thought it was going to be an easy job and everything was going to go calmly. We weren’t selling much at the beginning however when more people bought their tickets a whole crowd was lined up to get their pie. We encountered customers that were desperate to get their pie and it made the job a bit hard because we had to serve them fast. I liked it because my group was funny and time went by fast with serving and selling. However I disliked how some customers were impatient when they had to wait for their turn.
Giovanni L.

I think the food fair should be done on the football field, because there is way more space for people to walk around. The only con about the idea of it being held on the football field is the sun, but there can be tents, I don’t know. Just a thought. The food was not that good, I told my friends that we could have just gone somewhere to eat, where the food is way better rather than spending our money on the food that was being sold. Four tickets for a tamale? Are you serious? That’s pretty much two dollars for a tamale, ridiculous. On top of that, they weren’t even that good. The bacon hot dogs and the fries were probably the best thing in my opinion. Then I was cheated. I was buying Capri Suns, two tickets for a Capri Suns. I bought five. That’s 10 tickets (five dollars). Then after buying them, they started selling the Capri Suns for a ticket each. So I was pretty much robbed for two dollars and fifty cents. It’s whatever though. All in all, the food fair wasn’t that good. It was a bad experience.
Joel P.

I think the food fair is the same every year; it’s crowded and hot. I felt like this time there wasn’t much of a variety to pick from, not only that, but they are starting to raise the prices on the food items. I think the stands are always super crowded and it’s annoying to have to wait in a line when the stands are disorganized. I think a way to improve the food fair, is if they spread it like bringing some of the stands to the back quad. There should also be more people selling tickets because it’s usually only two lines for tickets. I also think that there should be more food fairs throughout the year. Overall I can’t complain. What I ate was good and I was content. I got hot Cheetos with cheese, pizza, & a soda. It felt good to eat because I never eat the school food. Usually I am always hungry after school and yesterday I wasn’t for the first time.
Giana T.

This year’s food fair was quiet disappointing. There were many flops as in the food items and the pricing. Compared to every other food fair, this one was the one I really do regret using my money in. To start off, the fair didn’t have many new items. Almost everything was the same as last year. I expected it to be more different. Not only that, but the food items were too small for the amount of tickets the booths were asking for. This year the food was gone quickly. The boba stand last year made a lot, but this year they had very little. To continue with my rant, this year the pricing was a joke. “It was quite sad to see that that’s how broke our school is,” I recall my friend telling me to which I agree. The small cup of fresas con crema was four tickets which was two dollars, oh heck no. I wasn’t going to give four tickets for a tiny cup, but sadly since I had bought my tickets, I had to use them on the ridiculous pricing of fresas con crema. My friends and I went from booth to booth trying to find the best priced items but everything was overpriced. Also some kids were mad they spent real money on tickets for overly priced food items.
Violet A.

Although much of the food at the fair looked delicious, I was unable to buy any food. I had forgotten my wallet at home and the only thing I could do was eat the regular school lunch. Well actually I got to try our schools newest addition to the school menu; chili cheese fries, and they weren’t so bad. During the food fair it seemed like any other lunch day, other than the fact that there were a great amount of people buying food in the front quad.
Josiah C.

My experience in yesterday’s food fair was really active and stressing. I had to help out my swim team set-up, sell, and clean-up. What we sold were tostilocos, esquites, and nachos. At the beginning everything was calm and I’m guessing it started to get busy when everyone got their tickets. Everyone went crazy for the tostilocos and three people doing them weren’t enough, so more of us had to help out in making them. It was really busy and people started to get crowded and the line that we had turned into a circle of people around us. We kept losing track of who paid and who didn’t. I had to stand in front of a chair to scream, “EVERYONE PLEASE GET INTO ONE STRAIGHT LINE OR YOU WILL NOT BE SERVED!” So people started to move into a straight line and everything was a little easier. We eventually ran out and many people were still in line to get more. I just screamed out, “WE’RE OUT OF TOSTILOCOS WE STILL HAVE ESQUITES AND NACHOS ON THIS SIDE” some students moved and some students left. Other than the obstacles we had, I had a great experience next to my swim team.
Andy R.

If you go to Hoover High you should be very familiar with the food fair. It’s a cultural food event basically ran by students, where the whole student body can eat different foods at a lower price. It’s supposed to be very fun and very delicious, but was that the case in this year’s food fair?
Well this year I not only attended the food fair but I also helped out and cooked. Cooking for the food fair is like behind the scenes of a show. I cooked for BSU, and we were selling fried Oreos. This is one of the messiest things to cook and it takes a lot of help to make if you are trying to sell a lot of them. We started cooking during 3rd period and it took awhile for the oil to get hot, which delayed our cooking time. When it was finally hot enough to cook we started getting straight to work, but we still weren’t done when the food fair started so some of us were left behind. We continued cooking but others wanted to leave and so they did, which left others like me frustrated because we had to keep cooking while everyone else were eating and enjoying the food fair. So overall working the food fair to me is not the best option in my opinion.
After I cooked, I went to try and enjoy the food fair. As I went to buy my tickets, surprisingly there was no line, which made me very confused because in the previous years, there used to be a long line. I also noticed that there was no entertainment acts. I remember last year we had choir performances or music playing, but not this year it was strictly just the food. So as I went to attempt to buy food, each table either ran out of food or ran low on products that went on the food. This was very sad because there were fewer tables this year and the tables that were there different bring enough. So I was left with buying two drinks and one pancake, just so I could use my tickets that I bought.
If you know me you would now that I usually enjoy the food fair. I love having a longer lunch and being able to eat different foods. But this year I was very disappointed. I think the future food fairs should have music playing or some sort of performance. I also think that the food fairs should have more tables selling food so if people do run out there are still other tables selling. Overall, I love food fairs! It’s a great event for students to learn and eat cultural foods. Food fairs are what makes Hoover different and exciting. So we need to keep it that way and make sure every food fair is better than the next.
Ebony B.

If you go to Hoover and never experienced food fair, you’ve been missing out on a lot. Food fair is one of the biggest school events where any club can fundraise. Not only clubs are there but sports teams and class cabinets. For food fair you need to pick a country, make and/or buy the food and drinks, and advertise. In my opinion, food fair is also one of the most stressful school events that ASB puts on. I had to run all over campus during second period to check in with clubs. Sometimes going to the same class over and over again. Also, I was not in a good mood because of this so I didn’t stay at food fair long. I just stayed long enough to buy some food from Class of 2019, APAC, and drinks from Key Club. After that, I went to the back quad. I was peppering (playing with the volleyball) with a couple of friends because that’s what we do everyday plus they didn’t want to go the front quad because it was too crowded. In the end, to me this food fair is not something I liked. Food fairs before this were way better.
Rose Y.

During the food fair, I did not buy any food or participate in any way because I did not know they postponed the food fair and because of the lack of money as well. Instead, I just did the same thing I do every time it’s lunch. The only difference was that I did not eat lunch that day because they were not serving lunch at the place I was at due to the food fair. I just hung out with my friends and we talked about various different things such as our classes and their difficulty, what had happened yesterday, and future plans. We discussed upcoming sports fixtures in sports such as football, soccer, boxing, etc. We also argued about gun control laws and if it would work effectively to deter the amount of deaths each year. What I disliked about this food fair is that they didn’t give lunch where they usually do for the students that didn’t have any money for whatever reason. Next time, I think they should also reduce the prices for overly priced items. I also think they should introduce foods that haven’t been tried by the majority of students.
Josue L.

My first time working food fair wasn’t that bad, and I can say it was a fun/good experience being able to participate and sell pies at that the food fair with my friends and cracking jokes. The food that was being sold looked really good but was expensive as always. We encountered some alright customers, who weren’t that bad and were patient when we ran out of whipped or ice cream. Some would crowd up and we would get mixed up on who bought what. I liked how I had an easy job, just scooping ice cream and a lot of people ordered pie with the works. The thing I didn’t really like was the fact that we were in the sun and the ice cream would melt quickly and it made me get sticky, but other than that everything was good and we sold everything real quick. We even started selling ice cream with whip cream on it and even that sold out. No one got on my nerves actually, it was a really fun experience overall.
Ramon J.

My experience from yesterday’s food fair wasn’t so good yet again. After being excused from my third period class my group of friends and I decided to walk to the lunch tables by the bungalows. We were sitting on the lunch tables for around half an hour then we all decided to go and grab something to eat and hoping that the food fair lines would’ve died out. Now making our way to the front quad we all see the food stands still being over-run by our peers and it’s irritating for us because we had a game that same day and we couldn’t eat anything therefore we had no energy later that day. I truly believe that our school could surely improve our food fairs by relocating it to the back quad. Just by tweaking a few things for the food fair could greatly improve the experience for students and for the staff on duty. If there was more space between stands then there would be way more room for students to walk by and view what people are selling. This will also mean that the clubs who are selling at the food fair would be able to make more profit for their club because they will be able to sell to everyone.
Fernando M.

I didn’t go to the food fair, but I hung out with my boyfriend during lunch. Yesterday was his birthday so we just wanted to spend time together instead of buying food. We talked about how our grades are. We also discussed what we did in our classes and the activities. We basically spent lunch together talking about how we’re doing. We also talked about things that are going on at home, and when his parents were doing his party. Since they didn’t end up throwing him a party on his birthday. Then we went to the cafeteria to get school food and we ate. Then we went to walk around school and some of our friends gave us food from the food fair. We tried the fried Oreo, and it was delicious. We also got tostilocos with everything and that was good too, especially because we both like hot stuff. Some of our friends told us the food fair was good, and they liked the tamales and champurrado. I would’ve got some of those too because I’m Mexican and I love tamales. We just didn’t go to the food fair because it was packed and crowded and we also couldn’t find where the lines ended.
Natalie V.

My experience at the food fair was tragic. While I was walking around, I noticed that there were not that many tables set up like the previous years. There were not as many new foods now and some tables sold the same food. It was way too crowded and students kept on bumping into each other. I felt that some foods were too over price even though you only get a little. By the time I got my tickets, there was no food left. I wanted to buy some food so I went to get in line to buy tickets but after I came back to the table, there were nothing left and it was sold out. All I ate was pie sold by yearbook and chips because there were nothing left for me to buy. After I finished buying my food, I couldn’t hang out with my friends because we couldn’t find a place to sit. I can’t find anything I like about the food fair because it’s way too crowded, there was not a lot of food, and I couldn’t buy anything. I only liked the pie with whipped cream and ice cream because it was sweet and I became happy. Without the pie, I think I would have been frustrated because of the heat and crowd.
Chanmonita L.

During the food fair yesterday, I walked around with my best friend and my other close friend looking for something actually worth eating. From what I saw, people were selling hot Cheetos, hot wings, lumpia, and other fast food items. One of the items I bought were some hot Cheetos with cheese that was supposed to be warm but was ice cold. The weird thing about it was it still tasted really good. I don’t know if I should be ashamed of that, but I ate those chips quicker than I expected. I also bought some wings that seemed to be overpriced. It was three hot wings for six tickets, and that pissed me off. But my fat self, wanted to have some so I bought them anyway. The last thing I bought was some watermelon juice- only because they ran out of Capri Suns. One thing I liked about the food fair was that I got to hang out with my friends. Honestly, besides that- everything about it was weak. We didn’t have buffalo fries or carne asada fries like we did last time. Everything that was served was basically stuff you can buy at the store.
Aneica P.

So after we bought tickets, I smelled brownies and pizza, but also a lot of different things. But our first stop was for apple pie with ice cream and lumpia with noodles. The pie was very good and my girlfriend really liked the lumpia and noodles. Our next stop was suppose to get hot dogs wrapped with bacon but they ran out, so then we wanted rolled tacos and they ran out. We started to get real frustrated because how do you have a food fair but run out of food before it ends. So me and my girlfriend shared spaghetti with meatballs which were very unique, and then we shared fried oreos which were very good and tasty. I feel like this year food fair was OK but it could have been more organize and more productive.
Henry S.

I have two very different perspectives about the food fair. I think that the food fair at school makes every culture shine throughout our community. It also makes me realize how different everyone is yet how all of us form part of City Heights. I am thankful to be part of this diverse community. Throughout the food fair, I’m able to learn a little more about every ethnicity, simple things that I would not be able to learn on my own.The food fair is a great asset to fundraise but at the same time I find it repetitive and old. Every food fair consists of the same thing every year; I have seen the same food being given out the only thing that changes is the academy providing it. The food fair isn’t worth the time or the money. The lines are too long and the front quad is too crowded, the amount of food they give for the price is unbelievable. It is cheaper to just save your money and buy food. Unfortunately poverty surrounds City Heights, many people are low income and as much as I understand that the school needs to raise money it makes me question if the prices are reasonable for students.
Kimberly R.

Food fair is a time when clubs, sports, academies, and programs get a chance to make money to help support them. March 1st was the first food fair of the year and Hoover students love it because it’s a time to eat good food and be with friends, however, it wasn’t what I wanted to be.
Food fair for students is a time to eat good food, but that’s not how it always turns out or they’re not serving what you want. For example, out of all 57 items that they sold, I only wanted roll tacos, hot Cheetos with cheese, ice cream, and a drink. However, the only thing I enjoyed was the ice cream and Kool-aid. The roll tacos was sloppily put together and the cheese for the hot Cheetos was cold and was only put on the top of the chips. Also, I don’t like how the sellers ignored you when you’re standing there and they help other people who are behind you and you tell them 1,000 times that you have been waiting.
Food fair is also a time for you to hang out with your friends, but I don’t have friends so I spent food fair alone. However, I enjoy being by myself because I don’t have anyone to annoy me or make me mad. I just sat down, ate and played games on my phone and relaxed. There was more dislikes than likes but food fair wasn’t too bad just somethings that need to be changed.
Olivia A.