WelCom October 2018:
Mrs Amelie Kelder, HOLA Languages
Simone Lenora and her mother Mrs Lakshmi Lenora prepare delicious Sri Lankan food.
During term two at St Mary’s College Wellington, Year 10 Languages and Māori studies’ students learned about food and customs around food. The two groups wanted to further celebrate the variety of cultures we have at St Mary’s and to create an authentic learning activity for the school community by organising a cultural food fair evening. The project demanded huge organisation. The Parents Association (PTFA) kindly offered their support. So we decided the event could also be a fundraiser to benefit PTFA.
The project involved the whole school: Year 10 English students wrote invitation letters; Year 9 Languages and Māori studies’ students ran a poster competition to advertise the event; and the student council organised performances for the night.
It was a lovely evening where we could welcome our school community and beyond in an informal way. We shared kai of different origins – Māori, Sri Lankan, German, South African, Japanese, French, Samoan, as well as a sausage sizzle and some beautiful baking. We also enjoyed some talented performances from all over the world with Philippine dance, Judo dance, Sri Lankan drumming, a youth choir, a French choir and lovely duos.
For a first food fair it was a success as around 300 people came and nearly all stalls ran out of food.
The Languages and Māori departments as well as the PTFA thank all involved in our fair especially the many stall holders who prepared the delicious food. We are already looking forward to next year as we would like to make it a tradition!