“They have always been amazing,” said Mercy Garriga, Track & Field coach and Parker Class of 2014 Alum.

But what could Garriga be talking about? The Weekly staff members? February Break? Free periods?

There is one clear answer here. It’s next to the coffee stand, near the salad stand, and occasionally near the cookies on the chip wall.

Parker’s bagels.

Many Parker students don’t realize the time and effort it takes to make the bagels. “The bagels take two days to make. At 7 a.m. on day one, we start a poolish, which is a tiny amount of yeast combined with flour and water. After three to four hours the poolish is lively and bulby.  We then mix the dough using only four ingredients: flour, water, yeast and honey. The dough rests for forty-five minutes before we shape the dough into bagels. We get about ninety bagels per batch and we make two batches each day. The formed bagels go into our cooler overnight. At 5:30 a.m on Day Two the bagels come out of the cooler and are dropped into boiling water for one to two minutes. They are then baked, cooled, and ready to go,” Chef Zac Maness said. 

The joy a Parker student gets when there are bagels left by 1 p.m. is akin to winning a game in a March Madness bracket. The average Parker bagel has a lifespan of five to six hours sitting in the cabinet. “Depending on the day, they sometimes run out around 10 a.m. Sometimes they don’t run out until 11:30 or 12.  On a few occasions we have bagels remaining at the end of the day,” Maness said. The appeal of bagels stretches farther than most Parker students realize: “Even though I can’t really eat Parker bagels because I’m allergic to them, the one time I’ve tried them, it is literally like a life changing experience. They are so good and I wish they had gluten-free bagels,” gluten-free sophomore Sascha Keller said. “They’re so good. I’m always so sad when I get down to the cafeteria and there are none out,” an anonymous bagel-enjoying junior said. 

Another benefit of the Parker bagel is its accessibility. “They’re a really good vegan option in the cafeteria,” an anonymous sophomore said. “I love the bagels.” Nearly everyone at Parker can share in the joy of the bagels.

But what is a bagel on its own? The toppings are an unskippable aspect of the bread product. There are options for butter, cream cheese, jelly, sunbutter or anything else if you get creative enough. “I love them,” sophomore Ava Kling said, “especially with butter.” 

Overall, like the bagels or not, they are a part of Parker. From accessibility to the delicious toppings, the bagels are a fan-favorite. Hard work goes into making the bagels that make so many Parker students smile every day.