AYLA, Cooking for a Cause and Culinary Club members assembled 88 spam musubis in two and a half hours for a collaborative fundraiser. All the funds made from the fundraiser were split evenly and put towards club funds for AYLA and future donation to a charity on Cooking for a Cause Club’s behalf. 

Cooking for a Cause board members Elijah Lua, Rose Li, Adam Heaps and Heather De Jesus helped assemble the musubis alongside Culinary Club board members Samira Jackson, Sam Marques, Rhaymark Nazareno and club member Ian Reid. 

“It was a little bit stressful for me because we did get our ingredients mixed up a little at the end, but it was actually a lot of fun getting to see our club members bonding and organizing an event which everyone can help out at,” Cooking for a Cause Club President Li said. 

Both club presidents, Justin Kuo and Li organized the event, selling each spam musubi for $3. Representatives of AYLA put out a poll on social media to gauge interest and figure out the price based on how many people were interested in purchasing one.

“Collaborating with Cooking for a Cause was a great experience for both clubs aiming to fundraise. Cooking for a Cause was very helpful in being able to make the spam musubis, distributing them and overall were amazing to work with,” Juliana Chinzorig said. 

The fundraiser was majorly student led, allowing club adviser Chef Brian Cramer to relax and watch club members demonstrate their independence. 

“I gave a little advice here and there, tasting it, making sure that everything was seasoned properly and checking to make sure that the students felt supported or if they needed anything from me,” Cramer said. 

Students were able to pick up their orders during PAWS and lunch on Feb. 7 in the culinary classroom. Lauren Natalini found the fundraiser to be worthwhile and looks forward to more events in the future. 

“The spam musubi tasted amazing,” Natalini said. “I thought that this fundraiser was a clever way of raising money since spam musubi is a food that people really enjoy so it attracted a lot of people, like me, to get one.”

by JEZLYN SOTELO & KEIRA WONG