GILROY
– Judging from the visitors that often headed to Gilroy High
School’s campus during lunch, students were trying to follow the
lead of well-known cult figure Jeff Spicoli.
During lunch, a steady stream of deliveries
– mostly pizza and fruit smoothies – made its way onto
campus.
GILROY – Judging from the visitors that often headed to Gilroy High School’s campus during lunch, students were trying to follow the lead of well-known cult figure Jeff Spicoli.
During lunch, a steady stream of deliveries – mostly pizza and fruit smoothies – made its way onto campus.
While students at Gilroy High School may not have ordered pizza during class – á la Sean Penn’s character from the 1982 movie “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” – they now aren’t ordering out during lunchtime, either.
Administrators are enforcing a standing rule that bans deliveries from outside food vendors to the GHS campus, citing state law and safety concerns. Students, while balking at times, are compliant.
Assistant Principal Greg Camacho-Light said the trend of off-campus food deliveries has been growing, most notably this school year. Students used their cell phones to order as many as five or six pizzas and up to 20 fruit smoothies at a time on any given day, Camacho-Light said.
“It became a problem because we were facilitating other food on campus,” he said.
For the past nine years, food service for Gilroy Unified School District has been managed by Sodexho, a part of Marriott Corporation. The district’s contract with Sodexho, along with the California Education Code, prevents it from allowing students to purchase food from outside vendors, Camacho-Light said.
Student safety also is a concern, he said.
“When it’s something that’s brought onto campus and is shared with other people, then we’re liable for that,” he said. “We can’t monitor food coming onto campus … and I can’t tell how the food is prepared.”
Students were notified last month that GHS would be enforcing its ban on deliveries via an announcement in the daily bulletin that ran for several weeks. In it, Camacho-Light reminded students that they may still bring lunches from home. Parents also may drop off a lunch, which he said is a popular option.
One freshman said she and her classmates were upset when they first heard the announcement and still resent the rule.
“It’s just dumb because you just can’t do what you want any more,” said Tatiana Casci.
Many of her friends were ordering fruit smoothies from local vendors on a regular basis, she said, and she ordered one once.
“There’s not Fruit Friz on campus,” she said, referring to the First Street smoothie-maker. “On campus they have smoothies, but they’re gross.”
Her friends have since stopped ordering deliveries, Casci said. She said she knew there were reasons behind the more stringent enforcement, but could not remember what they were.
The GHS student school board member told the district’s food service manager that he should come to campus to talk to students about the rule and their lunch options. During a recent school board meeting, senior Mindy Marquez said students were contemplating a boycott to show their disapproval.
“A lot of students don’t like it because they just feel like the food we have at school isn’t healthy enough – like cheese fries – or you have the same food for so many months you get tired of it,” she said. “The school shouldn’t be worried about how much money they make, but (that) the food we want to eat is the food we get to eat.”
The manager of a pizza parlor near the high school said he will accommodate the new rule but worries that it will hurt his business.
“Before, we would go every day, (with) like, six, seven, eight pizzas every time,” said Wais Amin, manager of Fast Pizza on Church St. “Actually, it’s not OK with us because the students like our pizza; they call us all the time.”
Although students have tried to order lunchtime pizzas several times since the rule was enforced, Amin said he won’t deliver during school hours. After school, however, is fair game.
“They called us yesterday and we delivered,” he said.
Fruit Friz Smoothies also has no problem cooperating with the rule, said Manager Carol Ivelich, who was contacted by Camacho-Light when he stepped up enforcement.
“That was a service to the students entirely, those students that wanted to have something that they considered more healthy for their lunch,” Ivelich said. “Those kids already are regular customers. They were just getting a smoothie at lunchtime, too.”
GHS used to allow students off campus during their lunch period. That policy changed following an on-campus fatal stabbing in 1995.
“It’s hard for us because we don’t have an open campus,” Marquez said. “At least let the food come to us if we can’t go get the food.”
Instead, GHS has now added 16-inch pizzas to its menu.
“We’ve done it in the past – a year or two ago – but it’s making sure we were providing something if it’s what the students really want,” Camacho-Light said. “If they really want pizza, they can buy it.”
