Students of William Rice’s Marketing 188 class will attempt to
break the world record for the largest smoothie on Friday. The
event will start at 6 a.m. students will attempt to exceed the
current record of 330 gallons.
Infographic by Dalton Runberg and Esteban Cortez / The Collegian

The end of spring break marks the start of a series of attempts by different marketing teams within the Marketing 188 class, the first of which, on Easter Sunday, was to paint the most Easter eggs. On Friday, a second group will attempt to make the world’s largest fruit smoothie.

Starting at 6 a.m. at P-R Farms, students will begin mixing frozen strawberries, orange juice and strawberry yogurt together and in an attempt to fill a 500-gallon tanker.

Until around 5 p.m. students will try to not only beat the current record of 330 gallons, but to reach the number of 500-gallon mark. Their output will be certified by Robert Borec of Fresno County Weights and Measures. The smoothie will then be trucked downtown to Chukchansi Park in time for the 7:05 p.m. start of the Grizzlies baseball game, where samples of the smoothie will be available. All proceeds will go to the Central Valley Ronald McDonald House in Madera to fund the money to provide more beds in the hospital.

“The house only has 18 beds currently,” marketing senior Jeremiah Martinez said. “But they have such a long waiting list, they’re trying to expand to 64 beds. This should help.”

Since there are about 130 servings per gallon, if all 500 gallons were sold at the Chukchansi event for the requested donation, Ronald McDonald House could receive almost $200,000.

Every semester, Marketing 188 classes have to complete final project and pick a record from the Guinness World Records Book to try to break. In the process of attempt, students use what they’ve learned in marketing.

Last spring, students tried to break the record for largest water balloon fight. Last semester, Marketing 188 did beat the record for largest fruit salad.

There are Guinness guidelines that students have to follow in order to have a valid record attempt, such as an actual recipe to follow, which then has to be amplified into the 500-gallon goal.

“We’ll put a set amount of ingredients into each container and then blend those with our hand blenders,” Martinez said. “For each Guinness record it always varies and with food it has to be edible and it has to be able to fit into one container or be one whole piece.”

For the smoothie record, Guinness did not set a time limit. But since the smoothie will be sold to the public, the Public Health Department set time limits on the preparation, requiring that the students to compete it at P-R Farms where there is refrigeration and requiring the team to write out a safety plan. The group must also obtain a Food Handler’s Certification for the event.