The Intercambio Club hosted their Thanksgiving Tasting in the PAC Cafe last Friday after school. The event was organized by the Intercambio Club, Intercultural Leadership, and English Language Learners (ELL) teacher James Nelson to bond students through a variety of Thanksgiving dishes. The event gave ELL the opportunity to get a taste of traditional American dishes served on the holiday.
The event started in Nelson’s classroom seven years ago, when he prepared traditional Thanksgiving dishes for his students to try. “For a long time I did all the cooking myself. Now, we have kids who are doing fundraisers to raise money to pay for all this stuff that we’re buying. We have a whole bunch of parent volunteers who are getting involved,” he said. “The Intercultural Leadership class is fully involved. They’re doing all kinds of stuff. They’re making decorations, and now there’s a whole bunch of people coming together.”
The Intercambio class started with sending out emails to parents and organizers about the event to begin putting it in motion. Sophomore and member of the Intercambio Club Fatima Gallardo Aguirre had a target for the event. “My main goal was to give students a chance to experience and learn more about American traditions, especially Thanksgiving, particularly through the food. Since many students don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving and I personally don’t either, this event was a way to introduce it,” Gallardo Aguirre said.
Students lined up at the doors at the PAC Cafe and filled their plates with the various options of food and desserts to try, from green bean casserole to apple pie. The Intercambio Club and parent volunteers helped serve the food.
The tables were full of classic Thanksgiving dishes like turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes with gravy. With the aid of the Career Tech Education (CTE) Food and Nutrition class, students made a variety of stuffings, from Hawaiian pineapple and Portuguese sausage to a classic American herb.
Nelson hopes the event connected students from various cultures and showed them the types of classes available at M-A. “What I’m really hoping is that the kids in my class will see that, ‘Oh my gosh, you guys cooked this food at school in our unbelievably amazing industrial kitchen that we happen to have in the S-wing? This professional chef taught you how to make these unbelievable stuffings?’ Then they say, ‘Oh, that’s a cool class I could take,’” he said.
Nelson wants his students to come together through sharing their culture. “The whole part about Thanksgiving is to try and create a larger, greater sense of community through the sharing of food. That’s what this is—letting people know that, regardless of what people say and regardless of what you hear in the media, you are welcome here,” he said.
As the afternoon of tasting came to an end, many students were encouraged to take food home and share the taste of Thanksgiving with their families. Nelson hopes that students who are born in the U.S. will grow closer to ELL students by connecting through events like these. “I hope they have an appreciation for what they have and realize ‘I actually do have an American culture that I can share with people,’ and that they get that sort of great joy of helping others,” Nelson said.
The Intercambio Club also hopes to continue being a connector within M-A for ELL students to learn more about American culture. “I hope students feel included, engaged, and more connected to the school community. I also hope they become more familiar with American culture and the Thanksgiving tradition, enjoy the food, and get to spend time with friends.” Gallardo Aguirre said.
The Intercambio Club meets on Thursdays in G-2.
