The thick scent of grilled spam and steamed rice wafting through the Liberal Arts Campus quad drew students toward a spam musubi popup, with a price of $3 getting both faculty and students lined up.
LBCC fraternity the Order of Tong had its food stand out on March 7-9, selling spam musubi to students and community members as a way to provide cheaper food options in the absence of a cafeteria.Â
Spam musubi is a traditional Hawaiian snack composed of grilled spam, steamed white rice and seaweed wrapped together.
The Order of Tong’s practice of philanthropy and service to Long Beach Community College is prevalent among the community. The club certainly lives up to that reputation.
“We want to help out our community. In our club, one of our purposes is philanthropy. We do a lot of community service,” said Order of Tong member Justin Rodriguez.
It took eight fraternity members to prepare ingredients, such as cooking the rice, preparing the seaweed, grilling the seasoned spam on the grill, and tending to customers. Many students stood in line to purchase soft drinks, water and spam musubi.
They sold 60 spam musubi to students on March 6th and 31 spam musubi on March 7th.
Due to the lack of food production and the absence of a cafeteria, Rodriguez insisted they sell these hot snacks to students as a charitable cause and at a cheaper cost.
“The students don’t have a cafeteria, and we became more exclusive and want students to experience their own cafeteria. So we did this fundraiser with the Hawaiian snack spam musubi since it was pretty popular. We didn’t make it expensive because we wanted people to be able to afford it. Our main purpose is to help our community,” said Rodriguez.
Benefitting from this charitable cause, LBCC student Naujala Bruck couldn’t help but gush about the affordable price and the great-tasting dish.
“I feel like many people came by because it’s pretty cheap and tastes pretty good. The spam musubi here was pretty good because it was not just cooked spam. It was marinated and seasoned pretty well, so I like it,” said Bruck.
The inspiration and idea behind the spam musubi food stand fundraiser was thanks to Justin Rodriguez’s friend and alumnae. Rodriguez recalled the events of his first time trying the dish.
“My alumnae and I were at the beach; this was the first time I joined the club. He gave me a spam musubi. I was a little hesitant because I’d never tried this before. It was like sushi, and it was super good. I also wanted the rest of the school to get that feeling when they first tried it,” said Rodriguez.