The Snack Shack by the Oak Park High School football field has been closed due to health code violations and will not reopen until all problems have been addressed.

The snack shack’s lack of compliance with health codes was determined at the end of the 2017-18 school year, when it was inspected by the Ventura County Health Department.

“We don’t have a three-bin sink in our snack shack — that’s a requirement. We don’t have hot water, which is a requirement. Our rolling gate doesn’t close adequately for a complete seal,” Assistant Principal Jason Meskis said. “To be up to code we need to get all those things fixed, in addition to maybe some unforeseen things.”

According to Superintendent Tony Knight, getting the snack shack back up and running would be very expensive — at least $100,000 that the district cannot afford to spend when there are higher priority matters to attend to.

“At the kitchen at Medea Creek Middle School, we have the same situation that happened on a bigger scale, but the project there is costing us — and we have to do it there — is $1.5 million,” Knight said.

The snack shack is run by the Athletic Boosters Program, a group of parents who buy and distribute the pizza, sodas and candy typically sold at the snack shack. Although the snack shack is an important source of revenue for the school, Meskis said it does not bring in very much money “in the big scheme of a school district.”

The snack shack is estimated to bring in ten to 12 thousand dollars a year, which is used to pay the athletic trainer, Brenda Pasqua. Now that this source of income is gone, the Oak Park Unified School District has stepped in to make up for lost funding.

“[The athletic trainer position] is something that we feel the district should be paying for anyway,” Knight said. “Parents should not [have] to be out raising money for that because it’s really a safety concern.”

In order to continue raising funds, the Athletic Boosters Program has arranged for food trucks to be brought in at football games and other sporting events.

“We’ll cover the cost that they were raising the money for, we’ll allow the food trucks to come in, There will probably be a good profit to be made from the food trucks, and that’s going to go toward the Booster Club,” Knight said. “I think it’s a win-win for everybody.”

According to Meskis, the attending food trucks at the five remaining home football games will be Apollo’s Coffee and Epic Tacos for all five, and the grilled cheese truck for Sept. 28, Oct. 5, Oct. 19 and Oct. 26.

According to Athletic Booster Club President Joshua McAlister, the club had already arranged to have Apollo’s Coffee come to the football games before the snack shack was closed.

“They graciously agreed to donate 20% of their sales at the games back to the school,” McAlister wrote to the Talon.

Principal Kevin Buchanan says that if the snack shack is refurbished and reopened, there will be a greater emphasis on selling food that meets the district’s health and wellness policy.

“If we’re going to invest in it and bring it up to code to meet health code requirements, it’s not a place we’re going to want to continue selling hot-dogs and pizza out of. We’ll come up with much more interesting and healthy foods,” Buchanan said.

But until then, Oak Park community members who attend football games will have the option of enjoying coffee, iced drinks, grilled cheese sandwiches and tacos from the visiting food trucks.

“Is [the snack shack] a top priority? No. We’re going to see how it works with the food trucks this school year, and you never know, maybe people like it more,” Meskis said.