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.
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.
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).
Our team’s robot room got moved to the former Food Lab at the high school.
We don’t have food problems.
evil laugh
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.
I just weighed myself and I have gained two pounds since last Saturday. Thats a sign of a good robotics team.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
I have been on a few teams and they have each done different things. In high school my team was sposored by Papa John’s. While they never gave us any monetary donations they did send us pizzas twice a week. On that same team I was also comissioned to cook team dinners. I was given money from the team account and I bought pasta- it’s cheap and filling. I cooked in the home-ec room in the school so it was close and easy. Another team I was on signed up parents to bring in food. There would usually be 2 or 3 parents each night that would bring something. Other times it would just be each person for themself as far as getting or bringing food.
At competitions it is more cost effective to go to a grocery store and purchase sandwich making items and keep them in a cooler. While you cannot take them in the venues you can eat outside during a break.
One thing we do every year: Bulk cup-o-noodles! those rock, although you get a little tired of them after about 4 weeks, but conveniently, thats when you stop needing food!
We had everyone on the team ante up 20 bucks.
Then one of the team moms stocked the Lab’s kitchen full of snacks. We have soooo much food but we eat like pigs so I think in another two weeks we will be all out of food.
I forget what we do about saturdays, and our meetings normally don’t last through dinner, but we usually keep chips and stuff handy.
Well I guess I thought a lot more people did what we do… but I guess I was wrong. Our team is in a “research park” type area with restaurants everywhere within a 10 mile radius (plus we’re right off the interstate… so thats not so bad either) but we basically just call up every restaurant and grocery store and ask if they would be willing to donate food for our endeavor (feeding 25 people). Believe it or not… nearly every restaurant and grocery store doesn’t mind at all… and what nights are left over we allow parents to bring food. We would get like 25 hamburgers, 25 chicken snacks, 10 medium pizzas (you heard right), a sub sandwich tray, a chicken nugget tray, jumbalaya, etc. You wouldn’t believe the amount of food they are willing to give up to help out.
Last year we had every day of the build period… including saturdays… covered except maybe 6 or 7 days. Mmmm… food.
I guess our team should start appreciating this a lot more… :o
We have each parent bring food once and sometimes twice. Most parents are happy to do this. They don’t have to feed there kid dinner but once or twice during the whole build period. They figure it’s cheaper and easier to provide food for 30 kids once than one kid 30 times. We also went to Cosco and baught bulk ramen, chips, and water. Nothing to elaborate.
hahaha i feel you.
we don’t usually organize food unless it’s getting towards ship date. our lab is near charlottesville’s mall, so a few of us occasionally run for food. we generally rely on the loving parents bringing in various snack foods 
heh. at VCU, food is absolutely banned… that is of course, if they catch you…
(we always have food ready because it’s quite expensive around Richmond)
We got Papa Johns as our sponser! HEHEHE!!! 
Of course, we only get it on Saturdays because of our meetings that run from 9 - 3 ordinarily. 