When NASCAR arrived at the Auto Club Speedway the weekend of March 23-25, five Colton High School students were given an opportunity to prepare a meal for AJ Allmendinger’s racing team as part of the Food For Success program.

The students selected to participate in the Food For Success event were enrolled in Kathleen Dickerson’s Foods course at Colton High School. Dickerson held a competition among her students in which she hand picked one winner who came up with the best recipe fit for the event. Senior Anthony Facundo was named the victor of the competition, and was permitted to select a team of his own to participate in preparing the meal for AJ’s team. The teammates Facundo chose included Erica Navarro, Jeremiah Neasman, Alyssa Nunez, and Marlaina Garcia.

The students were given the opportunity to prepare the meal at the Inland Empire location of the Art Institute in San Bernardino. “It was hard, but a really good experience,” explained Facundo of their preparation at the Art Institute. Navarro described the difficulty the team faced when making the dishes as a result of their lack of familiarity with the facility’s equipment, but that it was a good learning experience.

Dickerson supervised Facundo and his team as they transported the meal from the Art Institute to the Auto Club Speedway on Saturday, March 24th. The students delivered the food to the gate of the garage area where members of Allmendinger’s team greeted them. “They were really nice and appreciative of what we did for them,” said Garcia of Allmendinger’s team.

Delivering the food to the garage area gave the students access to a much closer viewer of the cars. “It was a rush seeing the cars and how they work,” said Facundo. Even Neasman, who had attended races before, experienced the track from a new perspective. “It was fun being able to see everything up close,” said Neasman.

Overall, all of the students involved gained a good experience from their participation in this Food For Success event.