High school students create cheesy weekly tradition with Mac Monday

#eastidahonews #macaroni #kindness

RIGBY — A quick lunch break for a group of Rigby High School students two years ago has turned into a cheesy tradition involving hundreds of teenagers.

It all started when Max Webster invited a small group of friends to have macaroni and cheese at his house on a random Monday.

“We have 35 minutes for our lunch break. It takes about 10 minutes to drive from the school to my house and another 10 minutes to drive back – so we only had 15 minutes to make the mac and cheese,” Max tells EastIdahoNews.com.

The teens quickly boiled the water, poured in the noodles, added some milk and butter and tossed in the cheese. They loaded up their plates and scarfed down their pasta during the drive back to school.

The following week, they met up again for mac and cheese. And almost every Monday since 2022, Max and a rotating group of kids celebrate “Mac Monday” in his kitchen during lunch.

“There’s a group of us who are the original ‘macmeisters,'” says Brigham Raymond, a friend who has enjoyed Mac Monday since the beginning. “Over 250 boxes later, and we are still going strong.”

Max’s parents supply the butter and milk, but the teenagers buy the boxes of macaroni and cheese themselves. They’re particular – only Kraft, no other brands.

Sometimes roast beef, prime rib or other meats are added to the macaroni, and some of the guys drizzle ketchup, barbecue or other sauces on their pasta.

“We take mac and cheese making very seriously. Each of us has our own job that we do every week,” Max explains. “One of us boils the water, the other dumps in the pasta, the other has the butter and milk ready, the other pours – we have it down.”

Max says there’s an open invitation to whoever wants to attend Mac Monday. A photo is taken each week, and attendees sign a book. Once you’ve attended five times, you are officially a ‘macmeister.’

Earlier this year, the group was proud to have Rigby High School Principal Bryan Lords participate and on Monday, Jefferson School District Superintendent Chad Martin attended.

“Max reached out to our principal and asked if he could come. Because of school policy, he couldn’t leave campus, but we told him we’d bring him a box,” says Adam Harris, another macmeister. “We came with a plate, and he ate it in the front office.”

Mac Monday sometimes has special themes – like on Halloween – and one week during the winter, when school was out of session, some of the kids boiled water and made macaroni and cheese over a small fire while camping. At the end to the school year, over 50 teenagers gathered at the park for a massive macaroni party to celebrate the start of summer.

Max and the original ‘macmeisters’ graduate this year but will continue to hold Mac Monday until many of them leave on missions or for college. They say they’d love to have the Kraft CEO, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Latter-day Saint Church President Russell M. Nelson join them for macaroni one Monday.

“It’s just been a lot of fun and helped create community and brotherhood,” Brigham says.

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