Browning apple cores and cut-up pieces of cheese lay on platters in a room away from the dancing. Four members of the food committee, wearing bright-orange “Fooders” t-shirts (the back: ”Delightfully tacky, yet unrefined”), stand around talking. In from a side door come a group of students carrying crates of Monster energy drink.

“You’re not allowed to have caffeine on this level,” Medill senior Zach Samson tells them. “The dancers might see it.”

“We can’t donate it?” one of the drink-bringers asks. He’s wearing a wristband with the Monster logo on it.

Samson, the co-chair of the food committee, leads them down one floor to the Chicago room. That’s where an Exec Board meeting is about to take place. Samson says Exec members will use Monster’s donations for themselves.

The perks of the job have kept Samson on the food committee for three years.

“I get to eat all the time,” he says. “And the dancers love us because we feed ‘em.”

For the rest of Dance Marathon, the “Fooders” will keep both dancers and committee members from going hungry. Each block they’ll bring out different snacks to the dance floor. They’ll also be serving a few meals: Cereality for breakfast, Noodles and Company for lunch.