The Indian Student Association hosted their fourth annual cultural food fair on Oct. 19 during both lunches in the courtyard. Ten cultural clubs served various dishes that represented a wide variety of foods for students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school to sample. 

Students and teachers purchased tickets for $5 to attend the event during their lunch. Ticket were available for pre-purchase on the e-store leading up to the event or in cash at the event. The ticket allowed them to sample three food dishes of their choice. 

The Culinary Club, French Club, Jewish Student Association, Black Student Union, Asian Student Association, Caribbean Student Association, Spanish Club, Brazilian Student Association and the Muslim Student Association all presented cultural dishes that were donated from local restaurants in the community. 

“I think it is great that our school does something like this, and it is nice to see so many kids excited about learning about new cultures, even if they are just eating really tasty food,” freshman Riley Cousans said. “I like how everyone can engage in the fair and get the full experience.”  

The booths were set up in a rectangular formation and were surrounded by yellow barricade poles to prevent students from stealing food from the tables, which was a problem at previous food festivals. 

Some of the food offered included empanadas, bagels and cream cheese, poutine, fried rice, croissant, falafel, fortune cookies, chicken and vegetable biryani, samosas, coxinhas, brigadeiro, rugalah, jamaican beef patties, haitian pāté, humus and pita, jamaican cola, pāo de queijo, phulpurie, zarda, madeleines, conchas and croquettes. 

Junior Shree Choksi attended the food fair and selected the bagel and cream cheese from the JSU, a croissant from the French Club and a brigadeiro from the BSA. 

“I got [this brigadeiro] because I know this one tastes really, really good because I had it last year,” Choski said. 

Previously, ISA donated profits from the food fair to Pakistan floods. This year, the participating clubs will split the proceeds evenly amongst themselves. 

Clubs participated for a variety of reasons, which included the opportunity to share their culture with the school. 

“I hope that people got to try new things outside their comfort zone, and hopefully discover a new food that they haven’t tried before,” Vice President of ISA Ria Sethi said. “I think it will open people up to all the diversity at our school.”

The cultural food fair raised a total of $1074, a little more than last year’s event. The ISA plans to raise the same amount, if not more, for another food fair in the spring.