To cap off the Thanksgiving holiday and kickoff the holiday season, seniors and juniors at our school hosted the third annual Unity Potluck. Students of all ages came together and enjoyed a plethora of different foods as they conversed and made new friends. The Potluck was held on December 4th right after school. Other than simply conversing and meeting new people, students also wrote letters to elders at local nursing homes in an effort to brighten their holidays.

The potluck was started three years ago in an effort to strengthen the school community after the controversial 2016 election.

“A group of students wanted to come together and unify the school so they came up with the idea of the unity potluck. Different clubs got involved and students brought different food from their cultures,”  Rocs committee chair and Health teacher Stephanie Meadows said.

For three years the potluck has served the community of our school by providing students with the opportunity to meet new people, however, Junior and Potluck organizer Olivia Klein believes the potluck embodies much more than that.

“The potluck represent a broad vision of what we want to accomplish here at Yorktown and we think that sitting down and sharing a meal together really represents what were all about,” Klein said.

The potluck started out with a simple icebreaker which involved choosing a skittle from a cup and then asking a question based on what color skittle you chose. Questions ranged from ordinary questions such as, What is your favorite ice cream flavor? To more complex ones like, if you were an emoji, what emoji would you be?

The icebreaker was followed by everyone’s favorite part: food! Students brought food from their respective cultures to join pizza and chicken wings supplied by the school. The food took up two lunch tables and there were plenty of leftovers.

After eating, students had options for what they wanted to do next. Students decorated cookies and wrote cards to a local nursing home. All of this relates back to the main vision of the potluck.

“Whatever we can do to unify our school to show that we support you no matter who you are, where you’re from or what your beliefs may be,” Meadows said.

The potluck undoubtedly accomplished this. One potluck attendee, Yared Belay, felt the potluck was the most unifying event he’d ever been to.

“Yorktown being 80% caucasian is tough, but when I look around here, it’s the most diverse thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I see African Americans, I see Mexicans, I see Puerto Ricans and caucasians,” Yared said.

The potluck was a huge success this year and will hopefully continue for years to come. As long as the main message of unity stays at heart, the potluck will always be one of the most open and caring events at our school.