At DREAM, our Scratch Food program provides freshly prepared breakfast, lunch, and snacks to our students daily. This year, we took it a step further with the creation of our Culinary Club, where students can learn to cook, explore new foods, and build teamwork skills in the kitchen.

Meet two of our founding club members, Hanji and Jaslyn. When Hanji joined DREAM’s new Culinary Club, he was pretty confident in his cooking skills – after all, he was already the family chef for his brothers at home. “I thought I was doing it the best way,” he laughs, remembering his first lesson in knife skills, “but then I learned how to actually cut.” Meanwhile, Jaslyn signed up thinking about college prep. Growing up in a Hispanic household where cooking was central to family life, she wanted to be ready for life on campus.

Together, they’ve found something unexpected in the afternoon cooking sessions with Chef Dan Giusti, former Head Chef of Noma and Founder and CEO of Brigaid. Whether they’re prepping fruit salads for pre-gym fuel or cautiously tasting Chef Dan’s midnight spaghetti with anchovies (“We didn’t want to try it at first, but I really liked it!” Hanji admits), the Culinary Club has become about more than just cooking. For these students, it’s about teamwork, communication, and discovering new passions. Jaslyn, who plans to study pre-law, has learned that “closed mouths don’t get fed” – both in the kitchen and in life. And Hanji? He’s still set on becoming a basketball player, but now he’s planning to keep cooking on the side. “DREAM really cares for students,” he says. “I didn’t have opportunities like this before DREAM.”