This club was formed for teachers to bond and socialize through the appreciation of different kinds of food.

Waianae High School has four different academies. Within these academies teachers rarely get to interact with their peers outside of the classroom. Toward the ending of last school year, Jennifer Sugahara a Natural Resources Academy culinary arts teacher and teacher mentor Tess Kaji came up with the idea of The Epicurean Club. This club was formed for teachers to bond and socialize through the appreciation of different kinds of food. Sugahara’s goal is to just share food and get to know the school staff.
Epicurean comes from the Greek philosopher Epicures meaning a person who is devoted to foods. Because food is a universally understood want and need, Sugahara knew is the one thing that can easily bring teachers together to socialize. “ In a high school, teacher’s are very compartmentalized and very individual, like they only work with the students they see all day, so its a good opportunity to meet new people and just try new recipes,” said Sugahara.
So far the club has held two meetings with six teacher’s attending. “In our first meeting our topic was desserts. We just opened it up to those who wanted to come and it was very successful. People had brought family recipes and they told us the history of their recipe and it was good to just socialize and get to know people who work in our school,” Sugahara said. The next meeting will be held on September 7th after school in the culinary arts dining room and will feature Bacon.