The first RDF Food Fair was a wonderful success for staff, students, and all the families involved. A variety of cuisines were made for sale at the event, and all were readily consumed as individuals came bustling into the large area set up with multiple booths. Everything from dumplings to cookies to American Mac’ and Cheese and Chinese stir-fried noodles were available to be purchased。

Each ticket exchanged for food was five yuan, and items varied in price. The normal donated amount was 100 yuan for a packet of coupons. For the vendors, the more tickets you could collect, the higher chance you could take home the Food Fair 2016 trophy. After over an hour of eating, exchanging dialogues in English and Chinese, and learning more about how food was made, the Student Union went around with the Extracurricular Programs Coordinator Nancy Hurley to do the official count for tickets. As the ticket amounts climbed, people became more and more excited to discover who had attracted the most customers.

Finally, after announcing that RDF had raised over 3600 yuan for the Shenzhen Lions Club as a donation, the winners were announced. Third Place went to Rebecca Jiang and her family, Second Place to Trista Zhao and Alice Liu, and First Place went to Sisi Wu and her family, who sold copious amounts of handmade cookies.

A big thank you goes out to every one of the staff, students, and families who made food for the event, as well as those who donated money. Also a thank you goes out to all who contributed to setting up, documenting, and cleaning up the event. The event will hopefully be an annual event that will continue to bring fun and joy to all involved!

Back row, left to right: Vincent Zhao (Head of Student Services) and Evan Zhou (Head of Community Affairs)

Front row, left to right: Rebecca Jiang (3rd), Trista Zhao and Alice Liu (2nd), Sisi Wu (1st), and Nancy Hurley (Extracurricular Programs Coordinator)