After seeing students trending on Twitter for competitive lettuce eating, junior Stephanie Halsey was determined to start her own Lettuce Club.

“I thought it was a cool idea because it’s really funny and weird,” Halsey said. “Eating lettuce by itself is so gross and hard to do, so I thought it would be a fun thing for my classmates and I to do.”

Although the idea seemed simple, Halsey knew launching the club was not something she could do by herself.

“I asked [junior] Krystal Li to be the co-founder of the club with me because she is one of my best friends and it’s the type of thing we would do together,” Halsey said. “[Li] and I asked [U.S. and World History teacher] Mr. [Mark] Massey to be the club sponsor because he is one of our favorite teachers, so we knew it would be the type of thing he would go along with.”

There were spoiled feelings about the Lettuce Club once students began to learn about it, but Halsey remained unbothered.

“When people first heard about our idea for the Lettuce Club, they either thought it was really funny or really dumb,” Halsey said. “We didn’t mind it though, it was still a cool idea so we planned on going through with the Lettuce Club either way.”

Students paid dues of $5 to buy their own head of lettuce to eat at the competitions each semester. If a member ate the head the fastest, they would become the president of the next meeting. Once the date for the first meeting arrived on Oct. 26, Halsey was unprepared to eat a whole head of lettuce.

“In the actual competition, I did horrible, and I was really trying,” Halsey said. “I’ve never liked iceberg lettuce, but I didn’t think it was going to be as gross as it really was. The lettuce was just so disgusting that I could barely eat it.”

Challenges Halsey faced in the competition caused her to realize that she needed to do something to make it a little easier so students will romaine in the club to the next year.

“In the future of Lettuce Club, we’re going to try to switch it up by using different foods that are easier to eat,” Halsey said. “We might try watermelon or cantaloupe or something in hopes of having more members.”

Halsey hopes this to be a way for students to let loose and forget about their responsibilities.

“I think the Lettuce Club has really brought a more fun and lighthearted vibe to Heritage,” Halsey said. “It’s just something to take our minds off all the work and pressure we have and helps us have fun.”