硅谷骇客松点餐撇步 1 2 3 (上) | 7 Ways To Save Money in Hackathon Meals (Part A)
2017年四月底，没有打码经验的我参加了我人生第一场骇客松。
At the end of April, 2017, I participated in a hackathon with no prior coding experience.
在之后的一年里，我学会了全栈开发和加入了一个叫硅谷人工智能(Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence，简称SVAI)的非盈利组织，在2018年五月初和组织里的小伙伴们一起在Salesforce组织了一场专注于乳头状肾细胞癌（p1RCC)的骇客松。通过这场骇客松，我们希望能够集结美国顶尖的机器学习，人工智能，和生物医药人才为这种病找到更多治疗方向方案。
Since then, I learned full-stack development and joined a non-profit organization named Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence (SVAI), where I helped organized a cancer genomics hackathon for Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma (p1RCC) in May, 2018 at Salesforce. The goal of this hackathon was to gather top-tier AI/Machine Learning engineers and biomedical scientists to discover new research directions for p1RCC.
在这场活动中，我担任为大队点外带的任务。我秉持用最好的食材在可用度$1,2000的情况下只用了$8,100左右在三日内人均正餐餐点价位$15–30饮料$4–8的三藩市喂饱了150个大人，揽括早中晚餐外加饼干甜点起司薯片咖啡红牛牛奶果汁到欢乐时光的酒水零食。
My responsibilities in this event revolved around everything food-related, including catering and food purchasing. We fundraised about $1,2000 for this event, to mainly spend on feeding ~150 people. Through bargaining and budgeting, I was able to cut the cost down by 30% and spent only $8,100 on food. This includes healthy and high quality breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks, and happy hours.
骇客松期间，我又认识了一位对大规模点餐颇有经验的女士，在交流了彼此的经验以后，我总结了以下x个心得：
During hackathon, I exchanged thoughts with someone who was experienced in ordering catering on a corporate level, and here are the results of our brain storming session:
1. “场地赞助商，有什么好推荐吗？” | “Location sponsor, do you have any recoommendation for food?
暂时来说，SVAI还没有开始以盈利为目的而开展活动，所以我们大多数的活动门票都是免费的。每一次举办活动，我们不仅要找经费赞助（来买食物和其他必需品）还要找场地赞助。这一次也不例外，所以找场地和经费几乎要同时进行。如果场地需要我们提供保险担保证明，我们甚至要先找到经费才能再找场地哦。
Because the main goal of SVAI has been, so far, mission driven instead of business drive, so most of our events were free of charge for entry, including this hackathon. We worked hard to fundraise enough money to purchase food and necessities, and also secure a location where we could host this event.
虽然过程非常烦絮，赞的一点是，场地赞助商也可以赞助食物哦！
Although there was a lot of work involved in securing a locaiton, the good news is that, some of the location sponsors offer to sponsor food as well!
*Though that was not the case for us.*
介绍一下，硅谷的很多公司有特别优待非盈利或为大众服务的组织，在提供场地的同时也预备了足够的预算经费来帮忙管饭，可以在请求赞助场地的同时也询问一下有没有餐点赞助方案。这种餐点赞助通常包揽（一天）100人左右的餐点，供餐的餐厅也是公司，而且因为这种公司大多数财力雄厚又不吝啬，所以提供的餐点品质通常有中上水准。只要在询问的同时告知他们大概的用餐人数就好了，非常方便。
There are many corporations in the Silicon Valley that offer sponsorships in many ways to non-profit organizations that want to make the world a better place. Besides providing locations for the event, some of these corporations also throw in enough fundings to feed the event attendees decently.
So when you ask a corporation if you can borrow their location for an event, you can also ask them if they can help feed your attendees. If they do have such sponsorship, ask if your organization/ event qualifies for this sponsorship, and let them know about the dates and the approximate number of attendees for the event.
为大型活动选择餐厅外加菜色和运送，要兼顾大家的口味和禁忌，还要想着为组织省钱而和好不容易选定的餐厅和运输公司讨价还价，是非常耗时间的。如果有一家公司能够为你节省这些钱和时间，你就有更多的资源来投用于其他更重要的方面，或者在组织下一场节目里。
Besides looking at the price tags of each meal, ordering catering for such a large group of people consumes a huge amount of time and considerations in tastes, delivery, and awareness in ingredients for health issues. If your sponsors are kind enough to take the catering responsibility off your shoulder, take the offer and then you’ll have some more time to make the other parts of the event more perfect.
2. 选择健康，调查市场 | To Opt for Healthier Food, It’s Important to Do Research on the Healthy Food Market
这次参加骇客松的人有很多，在订餐的时候预计每一餐的用餐人数有120到140人左右。在接受参赛者登记个人欣喜的时候时，每一个人的食物禁忌都有录下来 — — 对花生果仁敏感的，有乳糖不耐症的，有面筋不耐症的，等等 — — 以祈我们点的餐点对每一个人来说都是安全的。
Because there were so many attendees for this event, I was very aware of the fact that food allergic reactions would be a big concern. That was why we included questions in the event registration form to survey for food allergies, so everyone could enjoy their meals without a worry.
虽然硅谷里大多数餐厅菜色都有标明用料，但是那些隐藏在厨房里的调味用料就不是那么清楚了，而对某些非常容易过敏的人来说，使用的是花生油还是橄榄油是决定生死的关键。
Although most restaurants in the Valley mark the ingredients used in dishes on their menu, often it’s still unclear what condiments they use to cook those food. And for some people, the difference between peanut oil and olive oil is the difference between life and death.
所以我都会尽量选择”健康型”的餐馆/配餐服务。
And that’s the reason I opt for “healthy style” food/ catering services.
什么是“健康型”呢？
What defines “healthy style” services?
简单地来说，就是时蔬和肉类搭配并不复杂而且调味配料很健康的，外加在Yelp或者Google上面口评不错的餐点。
To put thing simply, food services that offer dishes with simple vegetable and meat combinations, with additions of minimum condiment yet still manage to taste great. Another tail tale for successful “healthy styles” catering service are the good ratings on Yelp or Google.
在通宵比赛这种情况下，健康担当就是由餐点来负责，如果进口的食物能让参赛者减少一些心理负担那就再好不过了。再者，这种较少添加物较多有机食材的餐点选择可以减少因为添加物而产生的各种急症，是餐选的上选。
When it came to late night events that last for days and sleep was sacrificed for optimized event experience, carefully-selected healthy food was the optimal resource to help attendees maintain their health and to prevent any health emergency from happen during the event.
3. 餐点干净为第一 | Number One Requirement for Food Service Selection: Cleanliness
既然健康担当是由餐点来负责，那我们一定要对制作这些的餐厅环境监察进行检验，确定这些餐点真的是里外兼优。
I made sure the restaurants that handled our meals were well qualified for food services by checking out the cleanliness of the restaurant through reviews, pictures, or visits onsite.
同时，因为场地是赞助的，赛后清洁要不自己做要不付钱请人帮忙，两种选择都非常费时费事。如果餐点少屑或者餐具能够有效地防止意外的发生，那就能够在清扫的时候比较省事。所以餐点品种选择很重要。比较不建议选择像是汉堡，pie，汤，热狗，taco，或者任何吃起来非常麻烦又会弄得满手是调料汁或油的餐点。而像Pizza或者各种单独包起的burritos，越南卷，和三文治是不错的选择。
The other kind of cleanliness I was looking for originated from food types. I only considered the type of food that would not leave bits and pieces wherever people go. For example, burgers or tacos were definitely not on my list because I know for a fact that they were messy food, and I did not want to spend hours after the event to wipe out sauces from tables or pick up lettuce from the floor. I also don’t recommend getting anything greasy food — you’ll definitely get it on your keyboard after a few bites! Thus, individually wrapped burritos and sandwiches, or food bowls that did not involve soup were great options as event foods!
更多的省钱小撇步，请看下章。欢迎大家关注留言，或是分享一些如何写作的心得！
Check out the next article for more ways to save on event food services! Share your thoughts and opinions with me below! I would love to see some ideas on how to improve on writing on Medium :)
你也可以在我的LinkedIn上和我打招呼哦！
You can also say hi to me via LinkedIn!
想要看更多比赛照片，可以在我的Twitter这里看到更多活动照片哦！
Additionally, check out my Twitter account to see more event pictures!
下篇文章见！
See you in the next article!
