Beginning March 7, Timber Creek Theatre Boosters will be ushering in a new phase in the life of their Chick-fil-a sales by switching to a pre-order business model. Students may visit www.givemechicken.com all week, prior to 8:00 a.m. each Tuesday, to pre-order a sandwich for $5 while off campus.
The reasoning behind the switch is rooted within the Timber Creek compliance with state and national nutrition guidelines. Primarily, the sandwiches compete with cafeteria sales, and do not meet the nutritional requirements for an entree. This conflict very nearly resulted in the elimination of the sandwiches at Timber Creek, as it was the administration’s only option to avoid cuts to funding if the school did not meet the criteria outlined in Section 20 of the Competitive Food Nutritional Standards.
The prospect of losing a popular choice for lunch did not sit well with many students, however their disappointment was nothing compared to that of the Theatre Boosters. The supportive parents of the theatre programs at Timber Creek were responsible for beginning the sale of the sandwiches and not simply to turn a profit for the department, but to return to the students in those theatre programs in the form of scholarships at the end of the year. In 2016 alone, the group raised over $20,000 to give to students attending theatre camps in the summer. With the death of Chick-fil-a at Timber Creek, this would no longer be possible.
However, a clause within Section 20 has given the group enough room to keep their sandwich sales alive, albeit in a very roundabout way. Stated within the Exceptions to the Competitive Food Nutrition Standards, “students or their parents may order and pay for food and/or beverages off campus that do not meet the competitive rules and have the food and/or beverages delivered to the students to consume on the school campus during the school day.”