Cooking club uncovers ingredients for success

With the start of the holiday season come the events of one of West Essex’s newest clubs, Cooking 4 a Cause, created by sophomore Gillian Wolf and supervised by Culinary Arts teacher Caren Maw. The club started with only 10 people in January of 2016 and has quickly grown to over 70 members by mid-November.

Mainly, Cooking 4 a Cause focuses on community service events, creating different types of delicious food for bake sales, food drives, turkey drives and teacher appreciation events.

Members say their main objective is to combine the joy of cooking with the charity of community service in a fun way any West Essex student would enjoy.

“Cooking 4 a Cause holds interactive activities between students and the community,” said Wolf, who is also the club’s

president. “It’s a fun and exciting club that combines two ideas: helping out the community and events involving food.”

All West Essex students interested in cooking or community service can find a place ready for them in Cooking 4 a Cause.

Wolf created the club last spring along with vice president Andie Steinberg, treasurer Julia Rubenstein and secretary Josie Berger. Club representatives also include co-freshman representatives Julia Conforti and Madison Trewhella.

The high number of underclassmen involved in Cooking 4 a Cause demonstrates the drive of West Essex’s two newest grades of students to get involved in helping their community.

“I love that Cooking 4 a Cause is an interactive group that has fun while giving back to the community,” freshman Julia Conforti said. “We use food to help people.”

This year, the club participated in the Key West Drive for those affected by Hurricane Irma and the collection of turkeys and canned food for multiple food drives around the Thanksgiving holiday. Last year, they were even able to donate a large sum to the American Cancer Society with only a few startup activities and low membership.

“We collected close to 50 turkeys this month, November, for local food drives,” Ms. Maw said. Ms. Maw was approached by Wolf, who was a student in her Culinary I class, and asked her to take the position of advisor over the club.

Wolf saw the passion Ms. Maw had for cooking as her student and wanted that to be a part of the club. Ms. Maw was happy to take on the club and play her part in helping others.

“I would say that Cooking 4 a Cause is comprised of students who are concerned for other people and want to use any aspect of food to help others, whatever they can do,” Ms. Maw said.

The club plans to continue helping others with their community service activities and food drives. Their doors are open to students of any age with a love for cooking and helping others.

“Cooking 4 a Cause made me realize how fun community service can be,” sophomore Andie Steinberg said.