The negative effects of FRC

[Siri]

Originally Posted by The other Gabe

don't matter how well you plan lunch if it's cancelled due to the event running behind

Planning well doesn't involve relying on the lunch break. This should be better advertised to rookie teams especially, but hopefully most veteran mentors understand how unreliable it is.

Fortunately, even in small (district-size) events, teams don't play every match. There's is always a way to get everyone fed, but you need to prioritize and plan and/or adapt well. I've been pit lead/supervisor and operator/coach simultaneously, as both student and mentor, leading understaffed crews through dozens events ranging from small districts to Einstein and including full elim runs with major lunchtime robot rebuilds. More illustratively, I've been a referee (dual-hatted inspector) at events that don't have a backup ref and cancelled the lunch break. Meaning we literally must be reffing every single match that's played--and we still eat at resets. Don't just give up; it takes teamwork but you can't simply write off teammate health. (This isn't to say I haven't previously written off my own nutrition, sometimes because I was wrong and sometimes because I'd get nauseous.)

Don't trust the lunch break and don't trust the venue guards or food lines or unknown prices. Sometimes lunch/dinner means taking food into venues (which is not always feasible), squirreling it away in robot carts (more foolproof), eating at odd times, and/or darting through labyrinths or out side doors to scarf down food outside of the venue area (very common). Middle-of-nowhere venues often require excellent planning, twenty-minute drives by food runners, or good inter-team cooperation. Sometimes food/hydration just involves asking authorities nicely, and occasionally it even unfortunately reaches the paramedics (especially a problem for hydration). As with eveything it usually involves teamwork and should have contingency plans--this will become unremarkably automatic for your team over time.

I'm not saying FIRST's system is at all perfect, but we can't abdicate responsibly just because there's something to complain about. FIRST is part of real life, particularly when you're dealing with real students' health. We can help FIRST improve the system, but we can't just blame them and wait.