After a long and tiresome day, the one thing on most people’s minds is getting out and getting home as soon as possible. But after classes are dismissed and students are free to exit, you’ll find many students staying behind to become further involved in the community through the various activities provided by Fort Hamilton High School’s extensive range of clubs. The school offers almost every club one can think of, ranging from cultural to educational to recreational. The Potato Club, one of Fort Hamilton’s newest clubs, is grabbing the attention and whetting the curiosity of everyone who hears about it.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: a club dedicated to the history, culture, and consumption of potatoes. Run by junior Amina Mahmoud, the Potato Club meets every Thursday and pushes the boundaries of what a club about such a peculiar topic could be.
“The club is mainly about just taking something as big as potatoes and making some fun out of it,” Mahmoud said, briefly referencing the various activities in which the club engages, such as painting, planting, and cooking.
Potato Club prioritizes creativity above all else in the work they’ve done, with dedicated members enthusiastically involving themselves in the club’s various activities each week. The club recently collaborated with Fort’s Russian Language Club to learn how to cook Russian-style potato dishes. Whether creating these culinary dishes, developing art projects based on their namesake, or indulging themselves in the history of the potatoes, the club tries its best to educate its members and arm them with useful information that can be applied to their lives outside of the club meetings.
The club’s main goal is to continue growing by collaborating with other clubs and organizations at Fort and bringing their love of potatoes to other students as they work together on projects. And because spring has finally arrived, the club hopes to be able to grow potatoes of their own. It would be a full circle moment for a group whose conception was from their individual joy of devouring the titular food item to growing it themselves within a community of their own.
Despite the progress they’ve made in under a year, the e-board has heard people think the club was a joke, or that they didn’t actually do anything. This is not the case. The Potato Club comprises a dedicated and creative group of students who pride themselves on creating a comfortable and welcoming environment for anyone who wants to join a small community that has mutual respect for the vegetable. The club may not get the recognition or respect that other clubs at Fort Hamilton may get, but a small club like them still has mounds of potential planted in the ground, yet to spring out of the soil.
