Seniors were treated to free tacos from Tacos El Gallito on Dec. 13 by the Harvard-Westlake Parents’ Association’s Grad Night Committee.

The senior class received an email from Assistant Head of School Michelle Bracken on Thursday instructing them to come to the quad for a “surprise”— one which the committee had been planning for a few weeks.

Seniors were given hot pink wristbands from parent representatives of the committee for free tacos on the quad from fourth through seventh period and were asked to line up for the food truck on the track around Ted Slavin Field.

“We were just talking about the food trucks that we’ve already had,” senior parent Catherine Strom (Arielle ’14) said. “And we wanted to do one that we haven’t had yet.”

Strom said that there was no official reason for the occasion, which was purposefully timed a week before winter break so that students who would be out of town and excused from school early for their vacations could still participate in it.

“I liked it because Mexican food is my favorite food,” Glenne Carter ’14 said. “And it caught everyone off guard because it was a nice surprise to have, in the heat of all the college stuff.”

Other students also echoed Carter’s appreciation of the relief of stress right before college acceptance letters were to be sent out.

“The tacos were tasty,” William Lee ’14 said. “I thought that it was pretty nice for the parents to do that for us, especially because a lot of people are getting their college acceptance letters and it was kind of nice of them to give us a free meal.”

This event is part of a series of gifts for seniors sponsored by the Parents’ Association eventually leading up to Grad Night. Seniors had received M&M’s and a quarter at the end of first quarter and class sweatshirts from the committee reading “Harvard-Westlake Class of 2014.”

“I thought it was good,” Miles Williams ’14 said. “The tacos were good. I think it’s a good idea and we should have it more often. I think it’s pretty relieving. It helps to calm down.