Each year, Rocky Mount Academy’s Upper School holds an International Lunch to let students learn about global cultures by trying tasty dishes from all over the world! This year’s International Lunch was held on Wednesday, January 14, in Proctor Hall, which was decorated with colorful flags and filled with international music.

This event has been a tradition at RMA for about 20 years now. We took a few years off between 2010 and 2015 and then again when Covid hit, but things started back up in 2021, exciting many students and teachers who were eager to participate either by preparing food (which is required for students currently taking a language course) or just enjoying it.

The International Lunch is organized by Upper School teachers Ms. O’Brien and Ms. Bolivar, who teach world languages: Ms. O’Brien is our French teacher, while Ms. Bolivar teaches Spanish to Upper and Middle School students. They say that they want to teach students to be open-minded and to see the similarities between cultures–realizing that everyone is not so different–and that food is a great place to start.

This year, a handful of Media Office staff members participated in the event by bringing authentic dishes from their homes. Since I am Mexican and take Spanish III, I brought ceviche, which is a popular dish from Peru and includes shrimp, tomato, red onion, cilantro, avocado, and cucumber cooked in lime juice. Another Media Office student participating in this event was junior Ethan Kim, who is also enrolled in Spanish III. Ethan, who is Korean-American, brought mandu, a traditional dish from Korea. This is a soft dough wrapped with meat, tofu, and vegetables, all steamed together. Mandu are often compared to dumplings, another popular and tasty dish, and were a huge hit last year and this year too! Finally, junior Tae Cowder, who has German roots, contributed by bringing kekse, which are German sugar cookies.

There were many other delicious dishes to try, some of the most popular entrees being junior Carter Smith’s pulled pork, freshman Marley O’Garro-Moore’s chicken curry, senior Becky Hunter’s meatballs made with her grandma’s recipe, and baked ziti, which was made by several students. As for desserts, I loved the Belgian waffles junior Berkeley Miller made, and the Puerto Rican guava cookies (made by Olivia Van Houten) and palmiers (baked by senior Radha Patel) were also exceptional.

Thanks to the hard work of dozens of Upper School students–and Ms. O’Brien and Ms. Bolivar, of course!–We enjoyed yet another successful international lunch and are already looking forward to next year’s event.