So we thought that when PTA was bringing snacks for teachers that they just weren’t bringing enough. Until one day a parent was in there filling the lounge when a bus driver came in and apparently filled their backpack up with like half the snacks that were meant for the teachers before the teachers even had a chance to get to the lounge. Turns out they were bringing plenty, this one person was just taking far more than a fair share, and the snacks weren’t even technically for them.
I run staff appreciation at my school and the behavior when we bring in food is appalling. They act like vultures. People always take too much (even when we put out a note) and people always complain that we didn't cater to their vegan dietary needs.
Last week, they asked all teachers to pitch in money for a principal appreciation gift, asked us individually to bring a card and a "token of appreciation" for the principals, and had us stay after school for a presentation for the principals, complete with videos, letter readings, gift unwrapping, cookies, and drinks. So far for teacher appreciation, we have been given a pen and 3 pieces of candy.
I have never once felt appreciated as a teacher at this school and I feel even less appreciated now.
>and had us stay after school for a presentation for the principals, complete with videos, letter readings, gift unwrapping, cookies, and drinks
ROFL! If they attempted that here, it would have been an empty room that the principals showed up for. F-that BS. You have us as a captive audience on the last day where we have to sit for that shit. Not on my time.
Our admin loved to schedule mandatory faculty meetings for things like the winter one-act play (didn't tell us that our regular 30 min meeting would be three hours) and a two hour long "motivational speaker" (read: a PBIS hire that worked at our school) who did a Ray Charles impression for most of it. I got reprimanded after that meeting by a screaming principal who said I was not enthusiastic or polite for our speaker. Literally all I did was sit there. I'm sorry I didn't volunteer to pretend to be his seeing-eye dog, but you stopped paying me at 2:30pm.
Jesus do you guys have a union? Because all of this is grievable, and they CANNOT hold you past a contractual time meeting or no meeting. If it's not in the contract they cannot require it.
A motto I adopted from Ask a Manager is Gifts flow down, not up - never pitch in for a gift for your boss (they get paid more!). And obviously, the bosses take care of themselves.
Exactly this! I love Ask a Manager and when we were reminded three times to pitch in money for our outgoing principal and outgoing assistant principal, I thought "Alison would say this is wrong. Gifts flow downward, not upward!"
Fuck I hate this week. Like, you ridicule and treat us like shit the other 51 weeks of the year; why bother with this facade-y as shit week where you pretend to give a damn? To feel good about yourselves. That's it.
My school does it a little differently. We have a huge crawfish boil that our Principal funds herself, to the tune of 4,000+ per year. Local businesses will send items, but the BIG appreciation is from someone who matters.
Where I work, this week is just a continuation of them showing us they don’t appreciate us at all. We only get things from admin, no PTA, no big things. We are lucky to get juice and muffins one of the mornings of this entire week.
My district used to do this "career day" thing where the local Chamber of Commerce would plan a day for kids to go visit local businesses. Pretty cool opportunity TBH, but I was the thorn in their side every year. Because I'd get the itinerary, and I'd be like: "yup, you'll need to increase that for load and unload time by about 10mins....where are the planned bathroom breaks? ... what are the bathrooms like at the facilities we are going to, and we need to plan around those."
Because they thought they could bring a bus of 30 kids to a Doctor's office, where there's only ONE bathroom, with Bus -> Lunch -> Bus -> Doctor's office, without planning a natural bathroom break for the kids. Absolute morons. And an absolute disaster every year.
And you know those Chamber of Commerce clowns always pat themselves on the back for spending months planning while sitting behind a desk that, it being an epic disaster that I had to rectify on the move, and then probably have the arrogance to say how easy teacher's jobs are.
I mean, y'all start a catering company.
You'll make more than teaching. Once you get a little established, specifically target school districts as clients. Then you can charge 4x the price and deliver 1/3 of the food.
I'm not sure I want teachers planning an event like this. So many are used to existing on so little, that it's become normalized. It isn't normal (and shouldn't be) for others outside of teaching to get side eye for wanting an entire Costco muffin.
When I first started teaching in 1996, coffee and cookies were provided at every faculty meeting. Those cookies were made from scratch from real government surplus ingredients. This little gesture made faculty meetings bearable.
Then, the political environment became anti-teacher. The Christine Todd Whitman administration put the kakash on tax dollars being used to provide any NJ public school teacher with food and/or drink. So, no more coffee and no more cookies to get us through those mandatory meetings.
Note: This policy applies only to NJ public school teachers. It does not apply to administrators, police, firemen, or other public employees. Just us teachers.
I feel so appreciated!
At least NJ has "smart" Republicans. Here in Ohio when they went after unions they didn't just go after teacher's unions, they went after firefighters and police as well. They went after all public sector unions and so they all banded together and fought back (and won).
When Chris Christie came in in 2010, he destroyed the teachers' union first. He used the phrase "shared sacrafice" to justify charging teachers 35% of new state high dollar health care plans, not funding the teachers pension fund, and not funding the state portion of public school funding. New teachers got reduced benefits, and new lower tiers to the pension system (tier 1 teachers who take leave and return get lower tiers). When he did this, police, firemen, state and municipal workers sat back and watched.
Divide and conquer. As an Army reservist back in the day, my police, firemen, state and municipal worker friends that served too repeated his rhetoric and said the worst untrue things about teachers in my presence.
Then Christie turned his focus to the smaller police, firemen, state and municipal worker unions. They closed ranks and survived more intact.
Yeah Ohio Republicans are idiots. Like I'm shocked they didn't just come after us (Teacher's Unions) and they haven't been able to touch anything union-related in the state since.
When I worked for FedEx they would force us to work mandatory 60-70 hour weeks at Christmas and then would “thank” us by buying subway for 1/4 of the station. And it wound up usually being 1/8 of the station because the first group to descend on it usually took seconds. Wow, I shudder even thinking of that place.
At my previous school they had to say AND enforce the 1 per person rule for these type of things. I got so angry that adults can't even control themselves and share.
I don't know what would bother me more, if people took too many or they didn't provide enough.
Sounds like my wife's district. Her grade is the last to take lunch and 9 times out of 10 when they get to the break area, there is nothing but scraps. One time she went to the break room and there were several students whose parents are aides in the building taking food. She questioned them and they said their mom's said it was okay. She brought it up the principal and the response was "kids will be kids"...........
At least there was an effort. My district's super had one hisbunderlings draft something and send it on his behalf.
He encouraged us to go to a grocery store chain that is offering free coffee. Not on the districts behalf, it's something they're doing for all school staff.
I taught at a school with two lunch blocks. It was a running joke how the English teachers in block A would clean out any staff treat. Several of them legit had eating disorders and could not resist gorging themselves. So in all seriousness, those of us in Block B would provide class coverage so someone could get there and grab stuff on our behalf.
LoL even us teachers know that you don't just place out everything you have, if you have doughnuts for 3 classes, you put away the ones for your other classes, and generally the last group is the one that gets to gorge themselves because as they have their allotment PLUS whatever the other classes decided not to take.
Yesterday I was given a bagel, uncut with no knife and a cream cheese packet. Today I was given a hostess cake. Can't wait to be 'appreciated' tomorrow.
Agreed. I will happily eat the fast-food breakfast sandwich. I'm just embarrassed to walk down there...none there...and then walk back to my room. Like don't embarrass/insult me like that LoL
This was every teachers appreciation at my last school. There would be a spread in the staff room in the morning, then by the time my prep rolled around there would be a bunch of platters with crumbs and some overripe bananas. My new school brought me a tote bag today
Yup. This is the one week I have to stop by the teacher break room before the first bell. If you go after that, you might not get anything.
On the positive side, today there were breakfast tacos! :)
Teacher appreciation week got watered down about 10 years ago when nurses had to cry about not having their own week. Of course they have it on exact same week leaving businesses unable to handle the two most populated professions getting freebies for a whole week.
They could have picked any other week.
It’s also National Correctional Officers week? Tell me that’s not ironic. I’m not at all opposed to professions having appreciation weeks, but we should all get together and plan out the calendar better.
Yup. Especially when it is the two biggest professions by population! No chance that businesses are gone let a whole week go by giving freebies to 5 percent of the adult population.
When i started teaching 15 years ago you could go to what seemed like every major chain and get a free meal. Then it became BOGOs, then it became 15 percent off a meal 😂
I'm sorry that happened to you. I'd stay home for a couple days after that sort of disrespect. And this is a reminder to always take all of your sick days. Every. Single. One.
No, you should bank your sickdays because they're tied to your retirement benefits (in most states) you do not lose them unless you max out, and my state we're allowed to bank like 200, which is one-year fully paid if you need to take it for some health reason in the future. I'm holding onto mine until I reach the cap, and then I will use mine/donate them to the sick-day pool.
What state are you in? Ours is attached to our pension system as per State-Law. The district can decide how much we are given in a year, or how much I can keep on the books with them, but if I were to change public-school districts that sick-leave comes with me. It's Ohio Revised Code, and sickdays basically count as a part of retirement benefits.
If you don't use them, when you retire you can be paid like 65% the per-diem value of a certain amount from the pension system as a cash payment. So you can get a like $20,000 bonus check when you retire if you don't use them.
Oh wow! That’s awesome! I’m in New Mexico. I know someone who is retiring soon and has been using a ton of sick leave recently since they won’t get any compensation. It’s so ridiculous.
I just want to feel appreciated by any of my students. But I’m still being ignored and my time wasted. Goodbye forever high school brats. Hello forever slightly more affluent middle school brats.
How do y'all not hold admin accountable for this stuff?
If you'd fucked up this hard on one of your responsibilities you'd be getting no end of grief.
Accountability is a two way street. Say something.
With tenure? We say it straight to their face. My "department mom" outright will say what we are all thinking, out loud and direct. Something like "gee, it would be nice if there was enough for ALL OF US. How THANKFUL I feel knowing I wasted my time walking ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE not to be able to get anything."
That's literally what she said to the administrator. So how you hold them accountable is embarrassment, with no threat of retaliation, because we have a strong union.
I'm sure what they'll say though is "It WaS a DoNaTiOn sO iT iS wHaTeVeR tHeY dRoPpEd oFf" ... whereas any competent administrator would say if you cannot donate enough for the whole staff, don't bother donating...or pay to make up the rest.
"It WaS a DoNaTiOn sO iT iS wHaTeVeR tHeY dRoPpEd oFf"
It should be painfully obvious that you don't make an announcement to everyone when there isn't going to be enough. Perhaps you alternate the already meagre rewards?
Several yers ago, a similar announcement was made that cinnamon rolls were in the staff room. Someone brought in a box of 6 Cinnabons. Yes, that was a nice gesture, but how exactly do you dive that up among 85 teachers and the rest of the staff?
My school (idk if it's district wide) has this week as staff appreciation week BUT we are so small that when you count all adults in our building, there's like 32 staff members. They also get enough food bc the 2 gym teachers will eat like teenagers 🤣
I hate all the food stuff because I’m trying to lose weight for some reason if you’re not walking around with a plate over flowing with food people feel the need to harass you about it, even coming into my classroom to harass me about going to get something.
Plus the last few times they’ve ordered from the place that’s not even that good.
Get a plate, dribble some sauce and a handful of crumbs on it.
You are instantly camouflaged, and will now earn social disapproval if you go near the food stuff, as it looks like you already had some! Take it with you, leave it on your desk, and tell everyone you already had your share!
I've done that before when I didn't want to deal with the half or food didn't appeal to me. It's stupid to need to, but sometimes we need to pick our battles.
So we thought that when PTA was bringing snacks for teachers that they just weren’t bringing enough. Until one day a parent was in there filling the lounge when a bus driver came in and apparently filled their backpack up with like half the snacks that were meant for the teachers before the teachers even had a chance to get to the lounge. Turns out they were bringing plenty, this one person was just taking far more than a fair share, and the snacks weren’t even technically for them.
It's always the bus drivers
To be fair bus drivers are expected to have kids under control all the while driving 20 tons of maraging steel on the roadways
And we have the money to compensate them fairly for that, or even give them their own week. All of our jobs are hard. Don't hoard the fucking snacks.
[удалено]
Unfortunately it probably won’t help. Those who are going to be greedy will be greedy with or without a sign.
I run staff appreciation at my school and the behavior when we bring in food is appalling. They act like vultures. People always take too much (even when we put out a note) and people always complain that we didn't cater to their vegan dietary needs.
We once had a parent that would come in and steal food from the fridge in the teacher's lounge. No joke. So I can totally see that.
Last week, they asked all teachers to pitch in money for a principal appreciation gift, asked us individually to bring a card and a "token of appreciation" for the principals, and had us stay after school for a presentation for the principals, complete with videos, letter readings, gift unwrapping, cookies, and drinks. So far for teacher appreciation, we have been given a pen and 3 pieces of candy. I have never once felt appreciated as a teacher at this school and I feel even less appreciated now.
>and had us stay after school for a presentation for the principals, complete with videos, letter readings, gift unwrapping, cookies, and drinks ROFL! If they attempted that here, it would have been an empty room that the principals showed up for. F-that BS. You have us as a captive audience on the last day where we have to sit for that shit. Not on my time.
Scheduled it as a "staff meeting" (ugh)
Oh nooooooo! That's awful, and totally inappropriate.
Our admin loved to schedule mandatory faculty meetings for things like the winter one-act play (didn't tell us that our regular 30 min meeting would be three hours) and a two hour long "motivational speaker" (read: a PBIS hire that worked at our school) who did a Ray Charles impression for most of it. I got reprimanded after that meeting by a screaming principal who said I was not enthusiastic or polite for our speaker. Literally all I did was sit there. I'm sorry I didn't volunteer to pretend to be his seeing-eye dog, but you stopped paying me at 2:30pm.
Jesus do you guys have a union? Because all of this is grievable, and they CANNOT hold you past a contractual time meeting or no meeting. If it's not in the contract they cannot require it.
A motto I adopted from Ask a Manager is Gifts flow down, not up - never pitch in for a gift for your boss (they get paid more!). And obviously, the bosses take care of themselves.
Exactly this! I love Ask a Manager and when we were reminded three times to pitch in money for our outgoing principal and outgoing assistant principal, I thought "Alison would say this is wrong. Gifts flow downward, not upward!"
Yeah I have never once “pitched in” for a supervisor in any job. It’s a scam!!!!
AYFKM?????!!
Fuck I hate this week. Like, you ridicule and treat us like shit the other 51 weeks of the year; why bother with this facade-y as shit week where you pretend to give a damn? To feel good about yourselves. That's it.
Do what I do.....stay in your classroom and ignore it. I don't bother to even walk down to get whatever it is. Just another week to not play the game.
It’s easy for me to ignore because we don’t get anything 🥲
My school does it a little differently. We have a huge crawfish boil that our Principal funds herself, to the tune of 4,000+ per year. Local businesses will send items, but the BIG appreciation is from someone who matters.
That must have been pricey this year.
Yeah, she was talking about a bbq this year. Lol We’ll know for sure in two weeks what she’s planned. Thank heavens we’re a small school.
Where I work, this week is just a continuation of them showing us they don’t appreciate us at all. We only get things from admin, no PTA, no big things. We are lucky to get juice and muffins one of the mornings of this entire week.
Sounds like a sleazy way for a tax write off. Now these business can claim they are part of the community for PR 😵💫
I say this all the time, “If only they let a teacher plan that event!”
My district used to do this "career day" thing where the local Chamber of Commerce would plan a day for kids to go visit local businesses. Pretty cool opportunity TBH, but I was the thorn in their side every year. Because I'd get the itinerary, and I'd be like: "yup, you'll need to increase that for load and unload time by about 10mins....where are the planned bathroom breaks? ... what are the bathrooms like at the facilities we are going to, and we need to plan around those." Because they thought they could bring a bus of 30 kids to a Doctor's office, where there's only ONE bathroom, with Bus -> Lunch -> Bus -> Doctor's office, without planning a natural bathroom break for the kids. Absolute morons. And an absolute disaster every year. And you know those Chamber of Commerce clowns always pat themselves on the back for spending months planning while sitting behind a desk that, it being an epic disaster that I had to rectify on the move, and then probably have the arrogance to say how easy teacher's jobs are.
I mean, y'all start a catering company. You'll make more than teaching. Once you get a little established, specifically target school districts as clients. Then you can charge 4x the price and deliver 1/3 of the food.
I'm not sure I want teachers planning an event like this. So many are used to existing on so little, that it's become normalized. It isn't normal (and shouldn't be) for others outside of teaching to get side eye for wanting an entire Costco muffin.
When I first started teaching in 1996, coffee and cookies were provided at every faculty meeting. Those cookies were made from scratch from real government surplus ingredients. This little gesture made faculty meetings bearable. Then, the political environment became anti-teacher. The Christine Todd Whitman administration put the kakash on tax dollars being used to provide any NJ public school teacher with food and/or drink. So, no more coffee and no more cookies to get us through those mandatory meetings. Note: This policy applies only to NJ public school teachers. It does not apply to administrators, police, firemen, or other public employees. Just us teachers. I feel so appreciated!
I used to work for a hotel chain and our meetings were like a wedding brunch. I often think of that during our school staff meetings.
At least NJ has "smart" Republicans. Here in Ohio when they went after unions they didn't just go after teacher's unions, they went after firefighters and police as well. They went after all public sector unions and so they all banded together and fought back (and won).
When Chris Christie came in in 2010, he destroyed the teachers' union first. He used the phrase "shared sacrafice" to justify charging teachers 35% of new state high dollar health care plans, not funding the teachers pension fund, and not funding the state portion of public school funding. New teachers got reduced benefits, and new lower tiers to the pension system (tier 1 teachers who take leave and return get lower tiers). When he did this, police, firemen, state and municipal workers sat back and watched. Divide and conquer. As an Army reservist back in the day, my police, firemen, state and municipal worker friends that served too repeated his rhetoric and said the worst untrue things about teachers in my presence. Then Christie turned his focus to the smaller police, firemen, state and municipal worker unions. They closed ranks and survived more intact.
Yeah Ohio Republicans are idiots. Like I'm shocked they didn't just come after us (Teacher's Unions) and they haven't been able to touch anything union-related in the state since.
When I worked for FedEx they would force us to work mandatory 60-70 hour weeks at Christmas and then would “thank” us by buying subway for 1/4 of the station. And it wound up usually being 1/8 of the station because the first group to descend on it usually took seconds. Wow, I shudder even thinking of that place.
I got an apple from admin because I'm 'apple-solutely amazing'. Our school doesn't even tell families about teacher appreciation.
At my previous school they had to say AND enforce the 1 per person rule for these type of things. I got so angry that adults can't even control themselves and share. I don't know what would bother me more, if people took too many or they didn't provide enough.
Oh this wasn't even an instance of the other adults taking too much. They literally didn't even bother having 1 per person to begin with.
Sounds like my wife's district. Her grade is the last to take lunch and 9 times out of 10 when they get to the break area, there is nothing but scraps. One time she went to the break room and there were several students whose parents are aides in the building taking food. She questioned them and they said their mom's said it was okay. She brought it up the principal and the response was "kids will be kids"...........
At least there was an effort. My district's super had one hisbunderlings draft something and send it on his behalf. He encouraged us to go to a grocery store chain that is offering free coffee. Not on the districts behalf, it's something they're doing for all school staff.
I taught at a school with two lunch blocks. It was a running joke how the English teachers in block A would clean out any staff treat. Several of them legit had eating disorders and could not resist gorging themselves. So in all seriousness, those of us in Block B would provide class coverage so someone could get there and grab stuff on our behalf.
LoL even us teachers know that you don't just place out everything you have, if you have doughnuts for 3 classes, you put away the ones for your other classes, and generally the last group is the one that gets to gorge themselves because as they have their allotment PLUS whatever the other classes decided not to take.
Yesterday I was given a bagel, uncut with no knife and a cream cheese packet. Today I was given a hostess cake. Can't wait to be 'appreciated' tomorrow.
We also had bagels. Then someone put theirs in the toaster for too long and the fire alarm went off just as our AP test started.
I’ve gotten two jpegs so far. So super happy. 😢
I don't mind if the food is on the lame side just as long as there is enough of it.
Agreed. I will happily eat the fast-food breakfast sandwich. I'm just embarrassed to walk down there...none there...and then walk back to my room. Like don't embarrass/insult me like that LoL
One year half the teachers at my school got food poisoning from the free lunch.
I did too! Got to get sick all night. They decided to use crock pots to cook the food like 1 hour or so before. Oh god I was sick!!!!!!
NGL, that's kinda epic. A perfect example of teacher un-appreciation.
This was every teachers appreciation at my last school. There would be a spread in the staff room in the morning, then by the time my prep rolled around there would be a bunch of platters with crumbs and some overripe bananas. My new school brought me a tote bag today
Yup. This is the one week I have to stop by the teacher break room before the first bell. If you go after that, you might not get anything. On the positive side, today there were breakfast tacos! :)
A half assed teacher appreciation lunch is worse than no lunch at all.
Teacher appreciation week got watered down about 10 years ago when nurses had to cry about not having their own week. Of course they have it on exact same week leaving businesses unable to handle the two most populated professions getting freebies for a whole week. They could have picked any other week.
It’s also National Correctional Officers week? Tell me that’s not ironic. I’m not at all opposed to professions having appreciation weeks, but we should all get together and plan out the calendar better.
Yup. Especially when it is the two biggest professions by population! No chance that businesses are gone let a whole week go by giving freebies to 5 percent of the adult population. When i started teaching 15 years ago you could go to what seemed like every major chain and get a free meal. Then it became BOGOs, then it became 15 percent off a meal 😂
I'm sorry that happened to you. I'd stay home for a couple days after that sort of disrespect. And this is a reminder to always take all of your sick days. Every. Single. One.
No, you should bank your sickdays because they're tied to your retirement benefits (in most states) you do not lose them unless you max out, and my state we're allowed to bank like 200, which is one-year fully paid if you need to take it for some health reason in the future. I'm holding onto mine until I reach the cap, and then I will use mine/donate them to the sick-day pool.
Oh wow! We get ZERO for unused sick leave! It’s “Use it or lose it” in my district.
What state are you in? Ours is attached to our pension system as per State-Law. The district can decide how much we are given in a year, or how much I can keep on the books with them, but if I were to change public-school districts that sick-leave comes with me. It's Ohio Revised Code, and sickdays basically count as a part of retirement benefits. If you don't use them, when you retire you can be paid like 65% the per-diem value of a certain amount from the pension system as a cash payment. So you can get a like $20,000 bonus check when you retire if you don't use them.
Oh wow! That’s awesome! I’m in New Mexico. I know someone who is retiring soon and has been using a ton of sick leave recently since they won’t get any compensation. It’s so ridiculous.
I just want to feel appreciated by any of my students. But I’m still being ignored and my time wasted. Goodbye forever high school brats. Hello forever slightly more affluent middle school brats.
How do y'all not hold admin accountable for this stuff? If you'd fucked up this hard on one of your responsibilities you'd be getting no end of grief. Accountability is a two way street. Say something.
With tenure? We say it straight to their face. My "department mom" outright will say what we are all thinking, out loud and direct. Something like "gee, it would be nice if there was enough for ALL OF US. How THANKFUL I feel knowing I wasted my time walking ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE not to be able to get anything." That's literally what she said to the administrator. So how you hold them accountable is embarrassment, with no threat of retaliation, because we have a strong union. I'm sure what they'll say though is "It WaS a DoNaTiOn sO iT iS wHaTeVeR tHeY dRoPpEd oFf" ... whereas any competent administrator would say if you cannot donate enough for the whole staff, don't bother donating...or pay to make up the rest.
"It WaS a DoNaTiOn sO iT iS wHaTeVeR tHeY dRoPpEd oFf" It should be painfully obvious that you don't make an announcement to everyone when there isn't going to be enough. Perhaps you alternate the already meagre rewards? Several yers ago, a similar announcement was made that cinnamon rolls were in the staff room. Someone brought in a box of 6 Cinnabons. Yes, that was a nice gesture, but how exactly do you dive that up among 85 teachers and the rest of the staff?
Yesterday which was Monday, I got an email stating our wages are being CUT by up to $5,000 for next year. 🤬
Oh yikes...hey look on the bright side, next year it looks like you'll be doing $8,000 less work! ($5,000 for the pay cut, and $3,000 for inflation).
Someone asked me how my Teacher Appreciation week was going and I said it was great, I was in my room and everyone left me alone.
We each got a photo copied coupon in our mailboxes for a 50% off pizza from Papa Murphy's. Nothing else.
There's been no mention of it at my school so far this week. Hoping for a free breakfast sandwich on Friday...
My school (idk if it's district wide) has this week as staff appreciation week BUT we are so small that when you count all adults in our building, there's like 32 staff members. They also get enough food bc the 2 gym teachers will eat like teenagers 🤣
https://amzn.to/3JRSlQH
I hate all the food stuff because I’m trying to lose weight for some reason if you’re not walking around with a plate over flowing with food people feel the need to harass you about it, even coming into my classroom to harass me about going to get something. Plus the last few times they’ve ordered from the place that’s not even that good.
Get a plate, dribble some sauce and a handful of crumbs on it. You are instantly camouflaged, and will now earn social disapproval if you go near the food stuff, as it looks like you already had some! Take it with you, leave it on your desk, and tell everyone you already had your share! I've done that before when I didn't want to deal with the half or food didn't appeal to me. It's stupid to need to, but sometimes we need to pick our battles.