Club expands to virtual platforms

Breakfast tutorials engage community

Peyton Falconer | YouTube screen capture

Junior Jake Falconer adds scrambled eggs to his morning burrito in the Breakfast Club’s May 8 video tutorial. The club started making weekly YouTube videos after campus closed in March.

By Will Burns, Reporter

Morning meals between friends and fundraisers featuring breakfast items have evolved into media posts with cooking during sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When quarantine began we realized we couldn’t continue to raise money,” Breakfast Club member Owen O’Dell said. “We decided to focus on the community by giving them new and delicious recipes to try with the whole family.”
Each of the club’s social media accounts has a specific purpose and upload schedule. The Instagram page is centered around smaller updates and photos of student-created breakfasts, while the YouTube channel has less frequent cooking tutorials ranging six to 15 minutes.
“The YouTube channel is the way that we get our recipes out to people,” O’Dell said. “Our Instagram shows how the community is staying creative and healthy during quarantine. Anyone can submit their breakfast photos and they’ll get a shoutout.”
Convent Operations Officer Caroline Thompson advised the club to stay engaged with the school community during the shelter-in-place order via online platforms, according to junior Jake Falconer.
“[Thompson] suggested that the breakfast club send out weekly recipes to the school,” Falconer said. “Inspired by her suggestion, I decided to take the idea one step further and create cooking videos on YouTube.”
Although the Breakfast Club moved to online platforms because of school closure, club leaders say they will continue their YouTube channel and Instagram page even after campus reopens.
“We are planning to carry this YouTube channel until we graduate, where we might pass it on to future club members,” junior Zach Rodriguez said. “Everyone working on this project is now a rising senior, so our fall schedule is going to be busy.”
Rodriguez says that although club members may be occupied with senior year work, they will find ways to consistently update their online platforms.
“We plan to film episodes during the summer so that we have some content to upload during the fall semester,” Rodriguez said. “The second semester, however, we should start uploading high-quality videos more frequently.”
The club plans to resume its bake sales and breakfast-making initiatives when possible, in addition to its current plans for creating online content.
“For the next two weeks we’ll be taking a small upload break,” Rodriguez said, “but we’ll be back soon with fresh edits and new dishes.”