There have recently been a lot of complaints about the Cougar Den, specifically the pricing of cookies and other menu items, and the items sold. The cookies had a price jump from 50 cents to 75 cents, causing many students to stop ordering them, along with other items they would purchase at the same time. 

Kerri Ferate feels that this price change was actually really needed. 

“We had to raise the cookie price because the cost of buying the cookie dough has gone up so much,” said Ferate, marketing manager of the Cougar Den. 

She also explains that because the cookies are made fresh, it was difficult for workers to keep up with the amount ordered.

The Cougar Den is a student staffed store in the commons that sells healthy snacks and drinks to students at lunch. The food is usually healthy, or off-brand health versions of well-known snacks.

“Michelle Obama was the first lady, we have to meet the healthy snacks guidelines,” said Ferate. “So every item that we sell has to run through a Smart Snacks Calculator. And we have to keep all the sheets that say this item is approved.”

This is the same program that changed school lunches, meaning that it is not the fault of the Cougar Den for not selling the students’ desired snacks.

The Cougar Den is not alone, school stores like this help raise money for the schools ASB.

“All over the country, Bremerton has it, North Mason, all over our area,” said Ferate. “They’re all called SBE, School Based Enterprise or student stores.” 

The Cougar Den not only raises money for the school though.

“The profit is divided between DECA and ASB,” said Ferate. “DECA uses it for conference competition registrations.”

Prices of items sold are roughly doubled according to Ferate, and are sourced from online orders at places like Amazon and Costco. This does raise the question of if the pricing is fair. CKHS freshman Andrew Starkenburg mentioned that he no longer used the Cougar Den very much, and when asked why he explained that the Cougar Den was “quite expensive,” and “pricey.” The prices and especially increased prices of some items may be negatively impacting the amount of customers the den receives.

Students seem to have mixed opinions about the quality of service from their fellow students. 

“I know a lot of the workers, a lot of them are friends, but they’re good workers,” said Starkenburg.

Although this is not the case for all students.

“Sometimes they would just kind of like blow us off,” says Charlie Tran, CKHS freshman. 

The students working at the front rotate weekly, which may be an explanation for these contradicting experiences.

In terms of the items made fresh, such as smoothies, the cougar den handles it well.

“They all have to have food handler cards through the Kitsap County Health District,” says Ferate. “The first three weeks of school are training.” 

Although these drinks may be made safely, there seem to be some big issues with wait times. A hot chocolate made with powder mix could have students waiting for a good sized portion of their lunch, or even all of it. 

“Sometimes they take longer and sometimes they don’t take long at all,” said Starkenburg. “But I know that I’ve had drinks that just don’t come out and I’ve had to wait and get passes.” 

In conclusion, there are mixed experiences and views of the Cougar Den. Although the Cougar Den remains a good place to buy healthy snacks while supporting the school.