From cupcakes to mozzarella sticks, cluster munches offer a variety of foods and desserts and an opportunity for students to bond with others within their cluster community. Every Wednesday evening, each cluster holds a cluster munch where students can take a break from their everyday tasks and gather to indulge in a snack with their cluster. Students reflected on their favorite cluster munch food and their favorite aspects of the weekly event.
Adele Tissier, PG
“I think it’s the cookies, I really like chocolate chips and sugar cookies. Or when we have cinnamon rolls. I really like cluster munches. I always see my friends here, they all come, and we hang out, and it’s fun. We also get to talk with [Dr. David Gardner, Dean of Pine Knoll Cluster] and see other people from the cluster that we don’t usually see.”
John Sanchez ’23
“I would say chicken nuggets [are my favorite] because I feel like that selection brings the most amount of people. I think the environment is just a lot of hungry teenagers consuming chicken nuggets and spilling out how they feel about the term or anything on their minds. I think it’s just a really nice community space and I feel like chicken nuggets just prompt a sort of community. You get to see everyone’s little social niche groups and their smiles, laughter, and the sense of genuine care that they have for each other. [Cluster munch] reminds me that outside of the things you do, there are also people to interact with and the sense of a grander community of [Andover] that is worth tapping into.”
Dakota Chang ’23
“I like most of the cluster munch foods. I just like food in general, but I would have to say cereal is probably the best one. Even though we get cereal at [Paresky Commons], eating cereal at night with my peers from my cluster just hits different. Being able to enjoy breakfast snacks with a lot of my friends and people from different dorms feels like I’m at home and it makes me feel like I’m a part of a great community that cares about each other.”
Ryan Chen ’24
“My favorite cluster munch food is probably something warm, either the cereal or the chicken tenders. [Cluster munch] is something you can always look forward to on a Wednesday night when you don’t have much going on and there’s always food, so if you’re hungry, you can pop in and you can see your friends. For work duty, I bring the cart over and I bring it to Commons, into the den. I get the food and I bring it here, and then I clean up and set the tables. It’s pretty fun because a lot of my friends are also part of the munch duty and it’s pretty chill.”
Andie Shim ’25
“My favorite cluster munch food is probably chicken nuggets. Chicken nuggets is my favorite Commons food to begin with and I also like all the dipping sauces. One of the things I like about cluster munches is getting to talk to all different types of people and classes. It’s really nice to talk to Seniors and Uppers as a [Junior].”
June Fan ’24
“I think my favorite cluster munch food has to be mozzarella sticks. I just think munches in general are really fun where you get to see everyone together. It’s also cool when you get to take food back to the dorms. I think my dorm also has the general consensus that mozzarella sticks are the best. I feel like we don’t always see everyone in our cluster together, so I think it’s cool when we do get to talk to everyone and bond as a cluster.”
Neil Shen ’22
“I really love the chicken nuggets, especially when they happen not to be soggy. I like cluster munch because of the people. I really enjoy talking to outstanding individuals of the [Andover] community.”
Prince LaPaz ’24
“[My favorite is] probably mozzarella sticks because I love them so much. A close second is chicken nuggets because they’re both classics. [My favorite part of cluster munch] is probably the food. After a long day and halfway through the week we get food – I just love that.”
