What do you do for food?

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

A few regionals allow this, but in general the answer is no. See the Rules section 7.4.

Wetzel

The rule in question:

Originally Posted by FIRST

You cannot bring food on site…..at all. Not even as a promotion.
Do not provide teams with candy, water, fruit, soft drinks, etc. This is
to promote good will and the spirit of partnership with the venues.

On the other hand, you're completely free to leave the venue to go get food if need be. That might be your best alternative.

[ZoNeGuY]

Wow this is pretty helpful, so far its been pretty ruff unless the moms do some extreme hot-doggin. But I'll Take into hand the taco-bell idea. I like that.
Just have everyone bring in like $5, then have like 100 bucks in the dinner pot. Send someone over to The bell, and bam! Dinner is served.

[Iain McLeod]

I know Tom posted already but I'd like to clarify...

We get Chinese on weekends...since there's always too much for the people who ordered to eat, anyone who didn't get anything usually just takes what they can get from the leftovers... and of course there are lots of fortune cookies for everybody We also seriously have a hundred little packets of duck sauce in our room... maybe we'll use them to power our robot

On the weekends, we get catered by The Garage, a truly awesome place that makes the best subs.... our lunches on saturdays are epic. We wander in, eat, wander out, work, eat, work, eat, work, and the conversations we have throughout are just amazing.
We always make sure to put the Garage on our shirts and on our robot.

Occasionally we'll get a pizza, but that hasn't happened in a while.


Note to Newbies: Just call around. Letters are your best bet, but phone calls work too. Small caterers and food shops are nice, because you get to know them and it feels great when you put their decal on your robot and show it off... but big stores will help out too. It's more or less like finding a sponsor for robotic supplies, except it has more immediate results. When all else fails, pool your money and get a pizza or something. Or maybe make a picnic dinner if you don't have the cash.

Of course, we *could* just eat before we come... but that would be too easy a solution. We robotics people need a challenge!

sandwiches... mmm....

[ThamiorLianodel]

Well, we could eat before we arrive, but that's entirely to logical. After all, this is the Hauppauge Robotics team. Logic has no place here whatsoever.

Essentially, at the height of the build time, some of us live on Chinese food and caffeine alone. It's quite effective, actually. As for building up a relationship with a local restaurant, well, lets just say by the end of the year, we knew the delivery person personally, didn't have to give directions straight to the robotics room, and our free stuff sometimes came in a seperate bag.

The meals do tend to be great places for conversation as well. Then again so does most of FIRST.

[sirbleedsalot]

We normally work from 3 to 5:30 which is when our mentor normally likes to get home. But on weekends we have one of our guys (who just happens to work at pizza hut) run and go get us some on his employee discount and we divide the bill between the students later.

[FusionDude364]

I think that we have it really good for our food during build season. We have meetings on Mon, Tues, and Thurs from 4-8, then on Saturdays from 1-6. Saturdays we eat before we come, but during the week everybody's parents sign up for one night where they bring food for the whole team, and it is always really good. During the course of the build season we can have anything from pizza, nachos, red beans and rice, chicken and dumplings, jambalaya, sandwiches, spaghetti, and all kinds of really good stuff. I think our whole team comes out of build season a little heavier.

[Halon]

Team 662 works in an empty store in our local mall, so the problem is pretty much solved for us.
We also have a snack team that runs to the K-Mart in the mall to get sodas and snacks that we sell to the team for a quarter each(enough to break even to get more snacks).

[Tigerlily-87]

Our team's robot room got moved to the former Food Lab at the high school.
We don't have food problems.
*evil laugh*

[Li Jianliang]

I think my team's getting a bunch of $1, $5 coupons for local restaurants. That'd cut down the costs a lot during the build time, but I think the local restaurants (McDonalds, Burger King, Arby's, etc.) are going to end up fattening half of the team if everyone decides to have that diet.
For now there are parents bringing homemade dinner every night. And a fridge full of soda that's being constantly restocked.

[russell]

I just weighed myself and I have gained two pounds since last Saturday. Thats a sign of a good robotics team.

[Tsom467]

Part of our team expectations is that the parents of each team member must provide a meal for the team. We have one wonderful parent that organizes the whole schedule for the build time. Our "short" days - Tues, Thurs 5:30 - 9, and Sun 12:30 - 6 don't require food. The long days - Mon, Wed, Fri - 2:30 - 9 and Sat. 12:30 - 9 we need dinner. The parents are fantastic - so far this year we've had chicken fingers & fries, Chili, turkey dinner (w/ potato and veggie). Last year I even brought in my barbeque grill and we had burgers and hot dogs. We eat well! The school's food lab is across the hall from our build area, and the school is gracious enough to let us use the space to eat and store some of our food items like paper products. We use the dinner time as a team bonding time, rookie members sit with returning members and get to know each other. We also use the time for team meetings.

[Mr. Van]

A suggestion for those who might meet right after school on your school site: Ask if the cooking/catering class might want to help out. Ours delivers food for the team on the three weekdays we meet.

-Mr. Van
Coach, 599

[robert]

During the week, 5:30-8:30, everyone is responsible for their own food and on Saturdays a couple of parents get together and one person brings chip, another buys drinks, sandwiches, etc.

[team66t-money]

Since i am involved with class council so much and many other school events i run into this problem all the time. hey you have to put ur foot down and say hey listen if u wanna eat 1) bring something 2) bring money too eat 3) have wonderful robomom's that switch up and they bring in food 2 or 3 times a week 4) if no moms bring food or if they have no money and brought nothing then have them share with someone that is willing or they are just sol. because u will get people that act like they have no money but actually have probley more than me and u so yeah stick it to um i mean the team can't pay for it all then u would spend all ur time fundraising and not building and competing with a robot T-Money

[lilszek24]

we dont feed you on weekdays, your on your own or eat before you come of course theres always leftovers in the fridge (if your desperate or john B.) and theres snacks like cookies and stuff. but we send out a "food list" and everyone takes a turn bringing in a meal, drinks and wut not. snowdays or holidays we usually pool together and get pizza or send a willing student to run to KFC.