Los Altos High School’s Acterra Club is taking a delicious stand against climate change by promoting sustainable cooking practices among students. Through engaging hands-on activities, Acterra is teaching students how to cook without wasting food, contributing to a greener future.
During meetings, officers hold presentations that aim to educate students about how they can apply environmental cooking practices to their own day-to-day lives, such as reducing food waste by utilizing scraps, composting and eating food from sustainable sources.
“It is really fun and informative — it’s a fun place to come relax and learn about sustainability,” club member sophomore Claire Yu said.
LAHS Acterra emphasizes the importance of protecting the environment by applying eco-friendly cooking practices in daily life.
“One of the biggest challenges is that people don’t really know how to use this information and use it in their day to day life,” Acterra club leader sophomore Jenny Zhang said. “They think that climate change is too big and they won’t have a really big impact on the problem. That’s why people aren’t really motivated to take a step in.”
The club also hosts cooking events such as making spring rolls, creating tanghulu (a traditional Chinese snack) and decorating cookies.
“Getting to come here with my friends and trying different foods that the officers have brought is my favorite experience,” club member sophomore Olivia Kwok said. “They show that many different foods are sustainable.”
Acterra doesn’t stop at teaching its members how to cook — it also provides lessons on farming and food waste, such as vertical farming and composting.
“I wasn’t very cautious of [my carbon footprint] before these lessons,” Olivia said. We learned about the importance of sorting food scraps into correct bins. I learned how much of a negative impact it can cause.”
In the future, Acterra hopes to advertise itself to more students at LAHS and expand its impact through larger projects.
“We want to start a community garden that involves more people from not only the school, but the whole Los Altos community,” Jenny said.
For more on the Acterra club, visit their meetings every other Thursday in room 704. Additionally, check out their instagram at @lahs.acterraclub.
