PITTSFIELD, Maine — High school students from more than a dozen countries shared the tastes of their homes on Sunday as the International Food Festival returned to the campus of Maine Central Institute in Pittsfield.
The event, which began in 2007, offered a chance for the school’s international students to cook the recipes they grew up with and try new dishes as well.
“I just wanted to share what I like about my culture with the rest of the community,” Mehmet Baran, a junior from the Turkish city of Sivas, said Sunday.
For many students, this exchange offered an invaluable chance for classmates to connect over something different than academics.
“We don’t really have chances to have their food or their culture really because we all speak in English. We don’t really talk about like more …. than school stuff,” Yarin Kim, an MCI student from South Korea, explained.
The education many received from this culinary exchange went beyond the student body. Karen Hawes, an Ellsworth resident, drove up to Pittsfield Sunday morning after seeing information about the event on the news. She was left with a profound takeaway.
“In a lot of ways people are all the same. They’re proud of their countries and proud of what they have to offer,” Hawes said.
While the international food festival was scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., many tables were sold out by noon.