Homecoming is an American tradition that elementary through college students look forward to every fall. At Brainerd High School, a unique tradition has accompanied their homecoming week for the last three years.

“This is called Lunch Jam. This is a super exciting way for people to get together from our school. Advisors, everyone in the school gets together and we eat really good food,” said Aubri Metz, Junior Class Cabinet President, who helped organize the event.

“There’s tons of kids just walking around having a good time. This is kind of a school pep thing that we started a few years back, my freshman year, as an idea just to get kids together and raise some money for all different sorts of clubs,” explained event organizer and Junior Class Cabinet Vice-President Nolan Reynolds.

During Lunch Jam, each club at the high school hosts a table offering a different food item.

“Kids are given the opportunity to come in and purchase the foods that they want and we also obviously jam,” added Lunch Jam founder Alexis Marcelo. “The kids enjoy it. They dance, they sing, they’re having fun.”

Each student who attends purchases tickets, and then all the proceeds go to whichever club they bought food from. The event is an opportunity for students to mix up their usual lunch, while also learning about all the different clubs available at the school.

“It’s just a little different. People really love to get their own food and have a ton of different options,” Metz added.

“We have Interact Club, Key Club, our class cabinets for seniors, juniors, as well as freshman. We have FFA,” said Marcelo.

For Lunch Jam organizers, it is important to have an event like this because many students are not aware of all the different clubs that are available and how much they can add to student life.

“We have so many clubs and we have so many things to showcase different personalities,” said Metz. “People really find their fit in different groups.”

“A lot of kids have their own cliques in school and sometimes there’s clubs that they don’t even know, they don’t even associate with,” added Reynolds. “It really just broadens their horizons for what they want to do in the future.”

By — Rachel Johnson

Lakeland News Lead Reporter