HOWLAND — Students learned about cultural diversity throughout the past two weeks at Howland High School — largely through food.

This was the third consecutive year that student senate organized a cultural awareness week, which has now expanded to two weeks. The students work with food service Supervisor Justin Pancake so that students can try food from different cultures throughout the two weeks.

Student senate also features some fun facts about each country on the announcements each morning.

Pancake said he typically knows the counties or cultures that will be featured and he spends three to four months preparing a menu. He then brings it to student senate for feedback.

This year, Howland students had to opportunity to try chicken piccata with pasta and broccoli from Italy, beef empanadas with street corn from Mexico, gyros with cucumber salad from Greece, shepherd’s pie with soda bread from Ireland, bulgogi over white rice with kimchi from Korea, spring rolls with stir-fried baby bok choy from south Asia, El Cubanos with fried plantains from Cuba, Mediterranean falafel with ratatouille and poutine with a Montreal hot dog from Canada.

The school also serves its regular lunch menu, but encourages the students to try something new. Usually, the kids are game to try new things, and if they do, they get a ticket to be entered into a raffle for an Amazon gift card.

Pancake said he thinks food is such an important piece of culture.

“That’s what I feel culture is — sitting around the table, sharing food from your own country that your ancestors had,” Pancake said.

He said he works within his own boundaries to make the food as authentic as possible. He must comply with U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations and must work with what the school has and is able to get.

For example, on Tuesday, he served El Cubano sandwiches. He said these are typically made with panini presses, but the school does not have one. So, after the sandwich was put together, a cook laid out sandwiches on a large tray, put another tray on top and pressed down to flatten the sandwiches slightly. Then, they were baked in the oven with the second pan still on top so both sides were cooked.

Pancake said he has seen this event facilitate conversations among students about their own cultures. He said it gives students the chance to share their own cultural food with their friends who may never have had it.

“It’s not a thing I take lightly. I try to bring as much authenticity as possible,” Pancake said.

Pancake said he has learned more himself about foods from other areas of the world while preparing the menus each year. He said he was surprised to learn how similar the spice pallets are of different countries.

The event has been going so well that Pancake said he wants to look at expanding it to other buildings in the future.