together, they liked each other so much.” “It was a huge hit,” agreed Huffman. “We couldn’t get the people out of Pat and Dave’s house! Now we’ve been doing it for four years. It’s fun.”
CREATING CONNECTIONS Huffman also helps TCC forge new connections in the community. He’s part of the small group of employees who launched and sustained the Tacoma Community College Diversity Film Festival in conjunction with TCC’s President’s Council on Equity and Diversity. Sponsored by many local businesses, the two-week event is a partnership with Tacoma’s Grand Cinema. Huffman makes sure the festival benefits his students, taking his spring quarter Cinema classes to films that are seldom available in mainstream theaters.
IN THE CLASSROOM, IN THE KITCHEN The opportunity to experiment is one thing that keeps Huffman at The Spar; he and his cooking partner invent their own menus. But the opportunity to connect with community is another factor. agreed and went all out to do an exceptional meal.” Huffman cooked with friend and fellow chef Chuck Johnson. He enlisted the TCC Women’s Basketball coaching staff – Heidi Collier and Laura Koval, at the time -- to serve dinner. “Our guests were blown away,” said Shuman. “As I recall, the dinner was in late June and the guests and the cooking crew ended up spending the 4th of July
“In the restaurant business, you have after hours eating – you eat when everything is cleaned up. That’s one of the things I truly love: getting off work and talking shop and eating with the people I work with.” And community is what drew Huffman back to TCC, where he has history that reaches back almost to the college’s beginning. His father taught history and accounting at the college from 1968 to 1995. “I grew up in Gig Harbor, and there were no sidewalks in Gig Harbor back then,” said Huffman. “I learned to ride my bike on campus when there was an airport across the street… It felt like home.” Huffman spent many post-college years alternating chef stints with overseas travel. He never imagined himself teaching at the same college where his father spent three decades. But now he uses his experiences with food and travel to connect with students and spark conversation and insight about diversity and personal identity. “It can be political, but it doesn’t need to be,” said Huffman. “Every student has experience with food.”
Tacoma Community College
4
th Annual
at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma
April 13-27, 2014 FALL 2013 I TCCMagazine
3