It was like the United Nations of cuisine on Wednesday as Lorne Akins hosted its second annual international food fair for its students. Instead of bringing their usual sandwiches and bag lunches from home, most of the school’s nearly 500 students enjoyed a variety of exotic edibles including beef rouladen, raisin pie and spanakopita.
The Taste of Akins is a popular event with a two-fold purpose. It offers these delectable alternatives as a way of bridging cultural gaps. This year it also helps bring attention to the plight of the displaced people from Slave Lake. Organizer Maria Lekkos said she felt compelled to do whatever she could to help those in need.
It all stemmed from a sporting event that the school held last year to coincide with the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
“We had a Gator Winter Olympics and we wanted a cultural aspect of it,” explained the French and social studies teacher. “We just thought this would be a great idea to get the students involved, those students that think, ‘This is my chance to bring in something from my culture, my background.’”
She pointed out the ethnic mosaic of the city is changing while the school’s student population appears primarily homogeneous but very open-minded.
“We have seen a lot of different cultures starting to come in within the past five years. It still needs a little bit more culture but it seems to have grown quite a bit. Events like these show students that there is a lot of culture in the school.”
That’s why it seemed like a good eye-opening exercise to help bridge the cultural gap, the philosophy being ‘win over their stomachs and you win over their minds.’
She called the inaugural run last year “the event of the year” that people raved about. That enthusiasm set up hopes that the 2011 Taste of Akins could improve on the old one. The gym was virtually bursting at the seams with vendors and gourmands alike.
That group of gustatorial adventurers included Grade 7 student Callum McEwen. He bought samples of food from the selection of more than 35 dishes from 20 countries. He was clearly impressed with the gal-bi ribs from Korea and a Portuguese doughnut.
“It was really good,” he exclaimed. When asked if it was a good learning and dining experience, he replied, “Oh yeah!”
All of the food eventually sold out, although the doughnuts were clearly gone before the delicious yabrit arash and zahtars from Algeria. The event ended up bringing in about $1,650 for the Canadian Red Cross’s Slave Lake relief effort. The aid organization’s website states that financial support is still the best way to offer assistance to those who were directly affected by the devastation from the wildfire.
To learn more or to make a donation to the Canadian Red Cross Alberta Fires Response, please call 1-800-418-1111 or go to www.redcross.ca.
