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Like a good host, Tiffany Keung greeted each diner with a friendly smile and handed him a Styrofoam plate, paper napkin and plastic fork.

Most of the diners accepted the dinnerware and greeting from Keung with a nod, a smile or a thank you.

She and nine other members of Consumption Junction, the cooking club at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, served dinner to about 200 homeless men at the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless Shelter, Homebuilders Care Assessment Center, in Rockville on Feb. 21.

"This is our second time cooking [for the shelter] and first time serving," said Keung, 15, of Potomac, a sophomore and the president and founder of the club. "We get to see how we directly help people."

The purpose of the cooking club, which started at the beginning of this school year, is to explore different cultures through sharing food and to combat hunger in the community, she said.

The group has a goal of providing 1,000 meals this year and will concentrate their efforts at the Homebuilders Care Assessment Center, a shelter for homeless men. The shelter relies on meals from community members to feed the hundreds of men who come each day searching for food, warmth, a place to spend the night and, in most cases, help in getting into permanent housing, said Julie Maltzman, deputy director of programs for Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless.

"We are not allowed to cook. We do not have a certified kitchen so we rely on volunteers," Maltzman said.

Because of limited space, only 10 volunteers were allowed to serve, but many more cooks contributed to the dinner, Keung said.

The dinner line was set up on folding tables at one end of a large room filled with rows and rows of bunk beds. Men passed through the line and the students piled their plates high with garden salad, mashed potatoes, steamed dumplings filled with pork and vegetables, pasta and lasagna, with and without meat.

Sophomore Elizabeth Chen, 15, of Potomac dished up large portions of pasta mixed with cheese, pepperoni and tomato sauce, a dish she made because it was easy to prepare for 50.

"I'm not really interested in cooking, but I can cook, so I use my abilities to help others," Chen said. "I am a member of the club because of the work they do."

Members of the club do not have a kitchen at school so they divide into teams of two to four members and cook in each other's homes. They come together biweekly for meetings at the school, where they plan upcoming volunteer events, swap recipes and, on occasion, sample new dishes, Keung said. Members use their own money to pay for the meals.

The club, which has between 40 and 50 members, was formed to fill what she felt was a gap in the school curriculum.

"I started the club because there are no home economics classes and nothing resembling a cooking club so this fits the need," Keung said. "I think they should start teaching home ec again."

The club includes students in grades nine through 12.

"We are the largest nonacademic club at the school," she said.

The students arrived at the shelter around 4:45 p.m. to set up and reheat dishes for the 6 p.m. dinner. Since there was no kitchen, they reheated food using microwaves and a toaster oven. The work and time they volunteered was well worth it to all involved.

"It's not as stressful as I thought it would be, it was fun to prepare the food and to give it out, not just make it for ourselves," said sophomore Sarah Adams, 15, of Potomac.

Anthony Ward, a resident of the shelter for the last month, praised the work the students did and said he thought all the men really enjoyed the dinner.

"You all did a good job," he said. "Whenever [the men] come back for seconds, they enjoy it."

Not only did some of the men come back for seconds, many also returned to the line to give the students a second thank you for the dinner.

The positive interaction with the shelter's residents was like icing on the cake for sophomore Jasdeen Bawa, 15, of Potomac.

"Here you get to see the people and talk to them, it's nice," Bawa said.

Members of the club will be back at the shelter at least one more time before the school year ends. The next time they hope to serve either breakfast or lunch just to change the cooking experience, Keung said.