Market Week gets partially shutdown
Photo Credit: Joyce Wen
Sarah Dinell
May 3, 2010
Filed under News
This year, business teacher Derrick Carter experimented with a new program for his entrepreneurship students so they could have a chance to further their knowledge of how business works: Market Week. The first semester went off without a hitch. This semester, however, Market Week did not go as smoothly: it was partially shut down on the second day.
“We were selling Little Cesar’s Pizza and Arizona Iced Tea, but we aren’t allowed to sell those anymore,” senior entrepreneurship student Corey Parker said. “Now we’re going to help other groups sell their products.”
Carter initially just let the students pick what they wanted to sell and gave them a lot of leniency.
“I let the students pick what they wanted to sell, and I gave them very few restrictions,” Carter said. “A cafeteria person contacted me so that we could get on the same page to find out what the students were selling, so that they didn’t make the same number of pizzas as normal. I thought there was no issue.”
However, Rick Griffith, the Director of Food Services for the district, contacted the Corona administration about possible health concerns, which they then forwarded to Carter. Carter responded and stated that the students would be wearing gloves, and that he had already spoken to the cafeteria about possible issues. Griffith believed the Corona students violated health concerns, so he sent a health inspector to investigate the food that was being sold.
“I didn’t think that county regulations were being followed, so I notified the county,” Griffith said. “There was a student at Desert Vista who died from contaminated ice, so we have to protect ourselves.”
Students were doing their best to keep the food sanitary, but there were limitations.
“The students were wearing gloves, but there was no way to keep the pizzas warm, and the ice cream was melting,” Carter said. “He (Griffith) contacted (Principal) Susan (Edwards) and said that the students were not allowed to sell pizza, hot dogs, and ice cream and all other food has to have a sign on it saying that it is not approved.”
Parker’s group was disappointed with this desicion.
“It bummed me out, because we had a lot of fun selling our products and we gained a different perspective about being a entrepreneur,” Parker said. “I’m glad that we still get to participate in Market Week though.”
Carter, however, is not angry about the Market Week restrictions.
“I can understand why the health inspector said that, but I’m annoyed that Rick (Griffith) was trying to shut down Market Week,” Carter said. “But I’m happy that the administration let us continue Market Week.”
One ending result of Market Week food being banned is that the cafeteria sales will return to normal. The cafeteria lost a fair amount of money from market week because students were buying the food that the students were selling, rather than buying food in the cafeteria.
“We lost $1,800 to $2,000 on these days alone,” Griffith said. “It affects the ladies who work there because their wages for next year will be lowered to make up the difference.”
Senior Mark Naufel was not content to let the market week fiasco slide. He organized a school-wide cafeteria strike scheduled to last from May 10 to May 14. Naufel set up the strike partly because of Market Week, but also because of other restrictions that were placed on Student Council fundraisers.
“They made it a really hard process for us to do fundraisers so we’ve only had one barbecue this year as opposed to four or five a year,” Naufel said. “Also, prices have risen greatly and boycotting the cafeteria will send them a message.”
Naufel created a facebook page to advertise the strike and he plans to spread the word the week of May 3-7 as well.
“I feel like Monday (May 10) some people won’t do it because they haven’t heard about it, but hopefully with peer pressure from their friends everyone will do it,” Naufel said.
With the boycott, Naufel hopes to make Griffith aware of the student’s issues with the cafeteria.
“I want to send a message to the cafeteria to not mistreat those who support them,” Naufel said. “They need to treat us fairly because we don’t have to buy food from them.”
