Food festivals, movies, and thought-provoking discussions. Lima beans and Celtic cartoons. These are just a few things students can expect when attending a meeting of Multicultural Club.

So, what is multicultural club anyway? No, it’s not just an excuse to eat delicious food. The club provides a platform for students to discuss culture, current issues, and how other cultures influence American society. Multicultural club meets Tuesdays at 7:45 am and is open to any student who wants to broaden their cultural knowledge or just wants to have a good time with a unique group of people.

“Some people come from Amarillo and some people are students that want to learn about if we have foreign exchange students on campus or if we have someone who moved here from another state,” said club sponsor and U.S. government teacher Aaron Faver. “The group itself is just a collection of students who want to share their ideas about culture and the relevance of what they do and why they do it and how they do it. “

Multicultural Club is relatively new with only a few regular members. Senior Fatimah Dixon initiated its creation.

“I knew the club needed a sponsor and the faculty got an email looking for teachers that would facilitate a student led organization on campus that catered to multiculturalism and I decided ‘I can do this,’” Faver said.

Multicultural Club hosts an annual food-festival where students bring foods prevalent in countries such as Japan, Spain, and Germany. This year, the festival will take place Sept. 27 during extended lunch.

“Last year we had somewhere around 30-40 people attend (the festival) so it was a pretty good sized little event,” Faver said. “We had 14 or 15 different dishes that all represented something different from fiesta chicken to the Japanese dish with seaweed in it. We try to steer clear of mainstream things that we see every day and stick with things that are interesting to try.”

Students also discuss current issues affecting the U.S. such as police brutality. Last year, a group from the New Organization for Afro-American Unity from West Texas A&M University came to Randall to discuss this issue with students.

“It was really neat because we were able to combine a couple of different clubs together in a conversation that was geared around something the students were really interested in hearing more about because it seems like it’s a topic that’s constantly in the news,” Faver said.

Faver said that understanding and appreciating other cultures as an American is crucial because we are a “nation of immigrants” and understanding one another is crucial to creating a culturally rich nation.

“The fact that we live in a nation of immigrants, and that we’re a pluralistic society makes it very important that we accept ideas that are new and constantly be learning about each other,” Faver said. “(We are) in a democracy where we have people representing ideas from a variety of different places. American culture is a mosaic, it’s not monolithic. It’s a collection of a lot of different ideas.”