To wait in line for their meals, students line up in front of the food trucks. Students sitting at tables along the walkway leading to the school eat their lunches. The skies may be gray, but the students are content. The fall Stay Day was originally scheduled for Nov. 5 but was postponed due to concerns with rain. Despite these setbacks, this year’s fall Stay Day was held on Nov. 11. 

Among the numerous school traditions that many students are fond of is Stay Day. Stay Day aims to prevent students from leaving campus for lunch, which cuts down on carbon emissions. Keeping students safe is an added benefit of this, as accidents may occur when students leave campus for lunch. The annual event is organized by Senate officers thoroughly. The Senate officers have a master list of all the food trucks they need to get in touch with by calling the businesses and gauge their interest. 

“It happens more by chance; we had so many that declined but some gave us more food trucks,” senior Sana Shahid said. “The people in the industry know the best [food trucks] so they’re the ones who gave us pretty good lists. We just kept on adding more and more to the list. Out of the almost one hundred that we called, we managed to get 13 vendors this time, which is more than last time.”

This year, the senate committee in charge of planning Stay Day wanted to offer a wider selection of food trucks. Particularly, they wanted to expand their horizons to include more cuisines and more variety among the food trucks.

“We want to have a huge array of different foods,” Shahid said. “We had an issue with food trucks being all the same type of cuisine so we wanted to avoid that. We’ve reached different cuisines that we didn’t get last year. I tried to push for halal options specifically because there weren’t any last year.”

This event is a huge hit with the students. Students view it as a day to loosen up and take a break. 

“It makes me feel excited,” junior Siri Mokkala said. “It’s kind of like a fun little day. Even the teachers relax a little bit when it comes to classes. It’s a nice little mental health break day. I think my favorite part is the food. Being able to get food and not having to drive to get stuff. It’s a nice little treat to have.”

Senior Kaylee Thompson, said that after their first setback, communication was crucial to making sure everything went smoothly.

“I think everyone has been really great with talking to each other, talking to the sponsors, talking to the principal of student activities, Mr. Eppler; our sponsor has done a lot for us,” Thompson said. “[Our sponsor] postponed her curriculum day to call people for us and we had a bunch of help from other committees calling people today. We’ve been rolling with it as it goes and kind of dealing with it as it comes.”

The senate members know that students looked forward to Stay Day and hope they enjoyed it.

“I feel like we would want them to come, participate, and enjoy it for themselves,” junior Quynh Le said. “I think that they do feel that way because I’ve heard that a lot of people last year came for Stay Day in the spring and the fall so I’m hoping the same thing happens this year too.”