Students hurried up the steps to check out the wide array of new snacks at the Snack Shack, which reopened Jan. 3.

After being shut down for two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Snack Shack, which provides students with fun and delicious food during lunch and after school, had been used as a COVID-19 symptom monitoring building.

“I was really excited for it to reopen because I had heard so much about it and had visited it on my shadow day, so I was super bummed when it was closed but am happy it’s reopened, and we can experience it,” Laila Elkhoury, a sophomore, said. 

Both the freshman and sophomore classes were not able to enjoy the Snack Shack and had been long awaiting its reopening.

The Snack Shack is also popular after school because students can “sometimes run up to the Snack Shack if [they] have a sport and buy a healthy snack or energy drink,” Anna Rende, a sophomore, said. 

“During freshman year, the Snack Shack was the way I got to meet my entire class,” Isabelle Ashley, a junior, said. “We would all hang out around it and would sit like 17 at a table, have snacks and get to know each other. Now it’s a nostalgic place for us, and I am so glad it’s back after two years.”

With the reopening came large changes from previous years: for example, addressing the environment. Entering the Snack Shack, one might notice how there are no plastic water bottles, and all of the drinks are reusable aluminum cans or glass. 

When relaunching the Snack Shack, parent volunteers started “working with one of Mr. Z’s environmental science classes, as they have a group working with us on being more sustainable,” said Yi-Ling Chen, a Branson parent in charge of the reopening. “We are trying to cut down on single-use plastics and are researching new products that are more environmentally friendly. It is harder with the candy, but we are always looking for new ways.”

In addition to the sustainability goals surrounding the Snack Shack, the arts department also called upon students to display their artistic talent by painting the building. 

Lily Richards, a freshman in this endeavor, said, alongside other upper- and lower-classmen, a group is “working on a mural which will brighten up the Snack Shack and make the environment more festive and add a personal touch.”

With the selection ranging from cookies and candy to ramen and drinks, students once again have a wide variety of fun snacks available to them during lunch and until 4 p.m. after school. 

“I love having the Snack Shack open because it draws students from every grade level, and they can hang out and eat snacks all together, which just adds to Branson’s tight-knit community,” Richards said.