Focus the Nation student organizers are trying to find a way to repay the cafeteria after ASDVC declined to pay the full amount for food served at their Feb. 25 event.

The ASDVC Governing Board voted to give the Focus the Nation organizers $1,012.18 out of the $1,755.93 recommended by the budget oversight committee, headed by ASDVC Controller Chelsea Cheung.

“After this experience, I don’t think I would go back to ASDVC for support,” Fabiola Ramirez, Focus the Nation student organizer, said.

Cheung said the budget committee may have misjudged its recommendation due to the urgency of the fund request. At the same time, she said that if ASDVC covered the full amount, it would have spent 10 percent of its operations budget.

During the March 8 ASDVC governing board meeting, Focus the Nation organizers Keith Montes and Ramirez explained the March 25 event and their need for financial support.

Panera Bread was the food vendor for the event; however, it backed out after realizing that it would have donated over its allotted amount per quarter, said Montes.

Ramirez said the organizers had to hire the DVC cafeteria to cater the event

Focus the Nation organizers approached the budget oversight committee for funding request during a Feb. 23 meeting.

The committee recommended to grant the full amount of $1,775.93, which covered a $4.75 meal for each of the 275 expected guests and stage set-up fees, Montes said.

Cheung said that ASDVC does not traditionally grant that large an amount for a food expense.

“We have to support it, but we think the number is too huge; we recommended to reduce the number [of expected guests] from 300 to 275,” Cheung said.

A documented 150 guests came to Focus the Nation event. The ASDVC governing board decided to cover $1012.18, which included set up fees and a $4.75 meal for the 150 guests.

“After this point, I know there will be some fund requests coming in for student events, so we hope to serve more students. That’s why we suggested to reduce the number,” said Cheung.

Ramirez saw it differently. “They made a big deal about not getting a certain amount of people attending,” she said.

Montes said the Feb. 25 event lacked guests because of cancellations and weather.

While organizers decided to hold the event in the cafeteria because of rain, a high school class field trip and DVC class did not attend as expected, he said.

Focus the Nation organizers are now trying to find funds to cover the $763.75 debt, which they say is holding them back from finding solutions for environmental and green energy roadblocks discussed during the Feb. 25 event.

“It was shocking as a main organizer,” said Ramirez. “By funding, I thought we would have a connection. If we had the support of the student body, we can start our project and things would be going a lot smoother.”

After repaying the cafeteria, Focus the Nation organizers will continue their plan.

Phase 1 included presenting information about green energy and obstacles hindering its use.  

Ramirez described Phase 2 as finding “what can we do as students of this college to make our college, and later our city, more energy efficient.”

“It was really sad to see that [ASDVC] didn’t follow through with their mission of helping students who want to make a difference at this college,” said Ramirez.