Before the hectic schedule of exams and graduation begins, students look forward to their last Cupcake Friday of the year. As students wander around looking for cupcakes, they quickly remember that “Cupcake Fridays” are no longer happening.

After a complaint was brought forth by two parents at Lawton Chiles Middle School, SCPS set up a meeting with all principals and the superintendent to discuss the federal laws for selling food items at school. In the meeting, it was explained that schools were not allowed to sell snacks from the midnight before school until 30 minutes after. They were also told that the snacks sold could not compete with Red Apple Dining, the county’s lunch program, and needed to follow the “smart snack standard” which is the state’s standards for healthy food.

After the meeting was over, principal Robert Frasca informed the PTSA that the school store had to overview the items being sold. He also informed the senior class committee that Cupcake Friday had to come to an end, as it violated both the smart snack standard and the time when food could be sold. 

“All rules and laws are in place for a reason. I understand both sides and it’s been frustrating for everybody on all sides of this scenario,” Frasca said. “But the bottom line is, we are breaking the law if we continue doing that. As a principal, I may not have known all the repercussions of that before. I’ve got to make sure that we are trying to do things the right way.”

 PTSA decided to close the school store for the remainder of the year to make sure they are able to meet requirements from the smart snack standards. They will continue to make sales for their spirit merch in the online store.

“Our school store is going to revamp to help support those expectations, so we need some time to do that well,” PTSA president Gaynor Brock-Edgar said. “Because of this, we had to close the school store for the remainder of the year, but our plan is to reopen for next year.”

Cupcake Fridays were a staple for many students, so it has been upsetting for them to see it go.

“I loved looking forward to an occasional cupcake so I am pretty sad about the closure of both events, everyone loved it,” junior Carter Bruno said.

As of now, no concerns have been brought forth for the current senior class as their prom and senior week events have already been paid for from the fundraising and previous Cupcake Friday sales. However, upcoming senior class sponsor Jacob Colquhun just learned about the change, and he and his officers have yet to figure out their options. 

“Anytime things change, you have to get over that initial frustration, and everybody’s got to come together and put their thinking caps on and try and figure out what options we have and how we can do something different,” Frasca said. “We have a lot of volunteers, a lot of parents that are involved in this school, that do so many things to support our students and our staff, and I hope that collectively they can come up with another great idea that maybe is even better than what we have been doing now.”