Cooking for the community is a club that aims to attract culinary enthusiasts who care deeply about their community. Their purpose is to be able to donate meals and food related items to those who are less fortunate and also to the important individuals who serve our community, like hospital staff and police officers. Each month, members are given a new recipe to prepare, and the finished dishes are then donated to these organizations. Some of the places that the club donates to include the San Marino Police Department, the Huntington Hospital, and City of Hope.

During the summer, the club was very active, hosting three different events that brought old members together to prepare meals. The three items that were made over the summer were fudge brownies, chicken alfredo pasta, and teriyaki chicken. This served as a preview to the upcoming school year, giving students something meaningful to do over the summer. 

The first club meeting of the new school year was held in Mrs. Hsu’s room on August 29th during lunch. The first meeting was a great success, with a large turnout of both returning and new members. The vice president, Tony Dun, 12, shares, “The meeting was slightly stressful as we had to accommodate around 80 people in one small classroom, but nonetheless, we were thrilled to welcome so many new faces.” Morgan Herrera, 9, says, “I attended the meeting because the name of the club was very intriguing and I thought I would enjoy it, especially because I like cooking for fun in my free time.” 

The first event was making breakfast bagel sandwiches. This recipe required the following ingredients: bagels, avocado, arugula, cheese, eggs, tomatoes, and bacon. Sophia You, 9, shares her experience cooking: “I love cooking especially for the police because they deserve food too for all that hard work.”

In the end, around 500 bagel sandwiches were prepared and donated to the San Marino Police Department and to the Huntington Hospital. Compared to previous years, this was the club’s largest event to date, and they hope to continue achieving this level of success in their future events.