I have a son who’s 10 years old. He goes to school in the district in which I work. When he was in third grade, I was asked to volunteer at his school’s Harvest Festival. The third grade team was selling nachos. “Sure, not a problem. How bad can it be?”
What I walked into was in one word–EPIC. A math teacher’s dream. I was scheduled to only work a half hour. I stayed the entire night.
6 crock pots of nacho cheese were brewing. Bags upon bags of nacho chips. It was quite a production. Selling nachos was “serious business.”
And so a math problem unfolded right in front of me. The team of teachers was selling cheese nachos for $2.00 and nachos with cheese and jalapeños for $3.00. By the end of the night, the nacho leader proudly informed me that they had made $700 which was amazing. But the question remained…how many nachos did they really sell?
Let me clarify something from these pictures. There are 8 desks/tables filled with nachos. Being there the entire night, these tables were fully filled twice. (27 bowls of nachos can fit onto 1 table)

Selling nachos with the third grade teachers

Selling nachos with the third grade teachers

27 nacho bowls can fit onto one table
I can’t eat, smell, or touch nachos without this experience being remembered. My husband still has nacho burn marks on his hand. However, we wouldn’t trade in that night for anything.
Kristen