Food, drinks and music were just a few things shared at the cultural potluck presented by the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council after school on Jan. 24 in the Forum. Cadence Okuwobi, ‘27, head of the cultural potluck and member of the DE&I, said the idea came from one of the club’s brainstorming sessions.
“We have three subcommittees in DE&I and one of them is awareness,” Okuwobi said. “We wanted to raise cultural awareness, and high schoolers love free food.”
The potluck went beyond Okuwobi’s expectations, and she was surprised by the large turnout.
“It was like 300 to 400 people, which we weren’t expecting at all,” Okuwobi said. “We had five clubs and nine individual people bring food. At 3:10 we started serving drinks, and then at 3:15 all the food was gone.”
By hosting the potluck, Okuwobi was able to learn about foods from other cultures.
“Before, I didn’t know the proper names for all the food and I couldn’t really identify [them],” Okuwobi said. “Planning the potluck helped me learn about those cultures and those terms. Also, we had fun facts at all the tables, [and] researching for those fun facts helped me learn about the different cultures.”
DE&I aspires to expand the ideas of this event on an even bigger scale.
“Going forward, we want to have an event with food outside, like food trucks and different cultural vendors,” Okuwobi said. “Last year, we planned a culture fest, so this would be a combination of that and [the potluck].”
Haley Do, ‘26, brought a Vietnamese fruit dessert called Che Thai. She agrees with the importance of events like these but thinks more preparation needs to be made.
“At my old school we used to have a similar event, and I just thought it would be cool to do that this year,” Do said.
“I think a lot of people took the experience more as just free food to eat and less as [an occasion for] understanding the culture,” Do said. “I think it was a good amount of different foods and cultures, but there were a lot [of cultures] that weren’t represented.”
Lauren McGill, advisor of the Jewish Student Union, one of the five clubs that participated, found it hard for JSU to decide what foods to bring.
“We actually had a hard time going back and forth because we wanted [to bring] things that were very emblematic of our cultural heritage,” McGill said. “So we brought homemade potato latkes, which is a fried potato and onion pancake served with either sour cream or applesauce that you eat during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. We also brought chocolate babka, a dessert bread.”
McGill enjoyed seeing the variety of cultural foods on display.
“Every club has their unique food items. That’s something we can all connect with: food is emblematic of your customs and culture,” McGill said. “I think that the number of groups that participated and the variety of foods was really a showcase of how diverse our student population is, and it would be even more incredible if there were cultural blurbs attached to the foods so that students would be able to better appreciate [the cultures].”
McGill hopes to see more clubs contribute to inclusive cultural events like the food potluck.
“I like the idea of culture clubs having a giant council with one or two student representatives from each culture club [that brainstorms] ideas to have new events,” McGill said. “I think that would make other clubs have even more respect for [one another] and they would get to learn more from each other.”
Teaching at WHHS and events like these remind McGill of how unique the school is.
“Walnut is for sure a special place because it is so diverse and not just diverse in culture but also diverse in student population, political thought and all the markers of diversity, and that is what makes it so special,” McGill said. “It’s truly a realistic snapshot of what the outside world is like. I don’t know if high school kids realize how lucky they are to be around this much diversity.”