Families Make Friends Over Fun And Food

Tasty treats, meats, pastries and delicacies from all over the world soon disappeared as parents, children and staff gathered, shared and crossed cultures. Ghapama from Armenia, samosas from India, ‘toad in the hole’ from the UK, raha from Syria… countless delicacies were laid on tables and swiftly devoured.

“It's a great opportunity for new families to come in and get to see the community and also for returning families to meet new families and make a connection,” explained Jessica Rodriguez, the school’s PR and events manager.

“It's an opportunity for the school community to get together and enjoy, and see how international we are. This year we have more than 30 countries participating. So we have each parent organise their own tables and bring food from their country and also to share a little bit about their culture, and their food with us.

“Hamelin is a bit like the United Nations! We have families here today from Spain, France, Germany, Moldova, Russia, Syria, Brazil, Argentina, China, Pakistan, South Africa, Peru, Chile, Venezuela. Everywhere, really. All over the world. We generally have around 54 nationalities in our school.”

And on hand to gently judge their global culinary wares was Hamelin-Laie pupil Candela Chará, well known for appearing on the Junior MastChef TV show where she showed off her Colombo-Catalan fusion of inter-continental cuisine.

A meat pastry from South Africa, sweet treats from India and Syria plus a pâté from Croatia all passed the Candela taste test. Bao from China, and sushi from Japan and - of course, her family being Colombian - a banana tart from her own table came out on top.

“I love this day, we have it at the start of every school year. People bring lovely food from their home country and everyone has a good time. I’m from Colombia and, for example, I brought some breads,” she said.

“I tried a lot of different foods and I found them, all of them, really good. Fascinating. Because each country has a very different gastronomy. And I really like them.”

New parents Lee and Olivia brought traditional foods such as dim sum and mooncake to give the school a taste of their native China. Their daughter, Aiko, has just joined the school’s nursery.

“We are new to the school,” said Lee. “And it’s great to meet new people, new families. New friends. To meet here and see different cultures mingle, it’s an amazing experience. We enjoyed it a lot. We feel supported by all the classmates, and all the professors. All the people here are really willing to help.”

A table covered in Asian cuisine was one of the first to be emptied. The Turkish, Indian, Chinese and Armenian tables didn’t last much longer.

“We had sushi that a mom who owns a restaurant here brought, but that went very, very quickly,” said parent Thavy. Thavy, originally from Cambodia via New York, has two children in the school, in year 8 and year 5.

“And then we have fried rice from Cambodia and skewers from Singapore. So, yeah. I think they're hungry! Everybody’s trying different things.”

Ella, a Year 4 student originally from Singapore, is definitely a fan of Asian cuisine. “I thought that the Chinese and Japanese stands were the best because I really like sushi and I also liked the crackers that were spicy and sweet.”

Oleg and his son Martin, originally from Ukraine, joined new friends from Armenia at a shared table. It’s only Martin’s first month at Hamelin, and so how is he enjoying it? “Good, really good,” he said.

“It’s awesome!” added Oleg.

Hamelin’s Parents Committee helped organise the event and are formulating plans for some other fun times for families. Committee member Christina from Moldova, whose son Michael is in Year 3, encouraged other parents to chip in and get involved by joining the committee too.

“It’s our third year here in this school, and we love it,” she said. “I was really stressed and really nervous about it but I'm so happy that parents came and they are having fun. Our main purpose was that the children enjoy it and I see that they are and I'm really happy.

“The main purpose of the pot luck is to bring all the families together through food and fun. Food has a wonderful power to bring people together.”