In recent years, the Meat Club rose to become a central aspect of Deerfield weekend events by embodying a fundamental aspect of Deerfield life: community. Deerfield students and teachers alike enjoy unwinding at the Meat Club’s cookouts to catch up with old friends, play Spikeball, and eat the club’s delicious meaty meals. The Meat Club hosts events during fall and spring terms, grilling meat for sports games in addition to working with other clubs.
The club has become a pillar for socializing on Friday nights, as students anticipate huddling by the bonfire to make s’mores. “We used to do a lot of events in the MacField Quad and people would just come and go. But then we started to do ones in the Hess Quad,” stated Julia Tamul ’25, a current co-head of the Meat Club. “We brought other activities with the Meat Club and made it more of an event rather than a food truck. When we switched it to more of a function, people ended up coming and staying more.”
Tamul also credits the club’s rise in popularity to the club’s aim of bringing all of Deerfield together. “What’s unique about the Meat Club is that it pulls people from every corner of campus” Tamul stated. “Everyone loves food and everyone loves hanging out. It brings a lot of people together.”
The Meat Club began in the 1980s but was reinstated in 2022 by Wills Rome ’23. The reestablishment of the club was funded by Rome’s family and began on a smaller scale. Rome enjoyed providing meals for the community, and his family was supportive of newfound role in helping the Deerfield community.
While the set-up of the club may appear to be spontaneous and fun, it is quite the opposite. Each event involves thorough planning and a particular setup. Sawyer comments on how they must, “move the grills, clean them, and make sure all the meat is well-cooked” and “the setup and clean up takes longer than the actual events.” The unseen financial aspect, as well as planning events and all the practical components of the Meat Club, require hours of effort.
After Rome’s departure, Tamul and Meat Club co-head Sawyer Johnson ’25 stated their concerns about the club’s budget as one event would drain the entire fund. The solution to this financial problem was reaching out to the School Planning Committee for additional funding as well as the club’s new classification. The club is often treated in the same manner as a food truck, providing accessible and financially friendly means for the Academy.
The club currently sources its beef patties from the Big Y in Greenfield. However, while meat is a core component of the club, they are planning to introduce a vegetable grill for vegan or vegetarian students as well as having more environmentally friendly foods. Johnson stated that they are collaborating with and getting advice from the Eco-Reps, “we are thinking about doing a vegetable grill with meat on the side and we’ll work with them [Eco-Reps] to find locally sourced meat.” By increasing the club’s serving options, they hope to diversify and incorporate a broader student body.
Another future addition that Meat Club leaders anticipate including live music in the future and being more present at music events. Occasions such as the Koch Friday Night Concert, where they served meals last year, would be a starting point. Currently, plans to include more live music are still in discussion but encourage the student body to look forward to more updates.
Tamul and Johnson will be graduating this year, which means in the 2025-2026 school year, Deerfield will see a new set of co-Heads. Tamul states, “We are working with juniors so it gets passed down in the right way.”
“The club we founded in 2022 was spontaneous and only a family was funding it, and [it had] kind of small events. We kind of evolved it in a year to be more school-wide, with more funding and more people. I hope they [future Meat Club Heads] change it in a positive way,” Johnson stated.
No matter who the future Meat Club Heads are, the Deerfield community will continue to support its Weekend cookout traditions.