Students got a surprise pizza day, as Wall Food Services unexpectedly did not provide students with lunch.

Wall High School supplies all lunchtime food sales and their own employees work at CHS, Principal James Gleason said. But they didn’t show up on Friday because their school was off for Memorial Day Weekend.

“The bottom line is that the Wall Food Service wasn’t here,” Gleason said. “I guess I found out at around 10 o’clock because I walked down there and I saw the gate was still down.”

After realizing the scheduling gap, Gleason notified students about the lack of lunch service during second period with an announcement that asked students for “a little bit of cooperation today.”

To solve the issue, Gleason surveyed the student body to get an estimate for pizza orders. He said of approximately 270 students, around 200 purchase lunch everyday. To accommodate these students, he ordered 30 pizzas from the pizza chain Dominos and local pizzeria Dominick’s. The cost of a small Domino’s pizza is $8.99, which would total about $270 for the surprise pies.

Pies arrived about halfway through lunch, and a second helping came during the start of third period.

Gleason called students with dietary needs to the office at the end of second period, including junior Kierin Rogers of Keansburg. Rogers said her busy lunch schedule and her dietary needs made Pizza Friday complicated.

“I have a lot of things I have to do at lunch, and I was planning on just buying lunch,” Rogers said. “They are saying that we can order pizza, but I’m dairy and gluten free so that’s the exact opposite of what I can eat.”

Ms. Kuwera picked up salads and salad dressing from Whole Foods for students with dietary needs, Gleason said.

For Ghillian Ferriola of Colts Neck, it did not feel like a real school day.

“Everyone was frantic, and patiently awaiting their pizza,” Ferriola said. “The day was definitely exciting, and fun as well.”

Friday was also delivery day for NHS’s Broad Street Dough Co. fundraiser. Sophomore Caroline Savage of Brielle opted out of the pizza and said she was lucky for the NHS fundraiser’s timing.

“I was happy that they provided pizza for us, but I don’t like pizza so it didn’t really benefit me,” Savage said. “My lunch was basically a [Broad Street] Dough Co. donut. It was really convenient that that fundraiser was on the same day that we didn’t have any lunch.”

Photo credits to Cate Escueta

Update: Guidance counselor Carol Caruso brought the salads, not Ms. Kuwera. The Inkblot regrets this mistake.