By Karla Fonseca
Staff Writer
The College hosted a Black History Month Lunch as part of the commemoration of Black History month on Feb. 24. The event featured various food options, centerpieces of Black historical figures, a Spin-the-Wheel, a photo area and songs by Black artists.
The Instructional Technology Services (ITS), a facility that offers services including developing instruction media and printing, was in charge of providing some of the materials needed for this event — such as menus and surveys. ITS played a large role in disseminating information about important Black figures.
According to junior history secondary education major Megan Gosiker, a student worker of ITS, Sodexo sent ITS various facts regarding Black history to include in the lunch.
“[We made] centerpieces, which featured 32 prominent Black historical figures,” she said. “From the top of my head, Oprah, Claudette Colvin, and a lot of other people. On the front was a picture of them and then facts on the other side so that when students were eating their lunch at Eick, they could learn about prominent historical figures.”
Students of the College seemed to be satisfied with the lunch.
“It’s really good,” said freshman political science major Jared Williams. “I'm really happy that they have the cultural days to get students to experience different foods and things of that nature because I’m sure there’s a lot of people who haven't even tried these foods.”
Black History Month Lunch menu (Karla Fonseca / The Signal).
Inclusion was highlighted not only by providing vegetarian and vegan food options, but also through serving food from numerous Black cultures from around the world.
“What is awesome [is] the fact that [it’s not just] Black History in terms of African American cultures, but also Afro-Latina culture, Caribbean culture, things like that. And I’m Carribean,” said junior political science major Dylan Chidick. “I feel included in the Black History Month celebration. So it’s great that they looked at the whole world when it comes to Black History rather than just the USA.”
“I've tasted everything and everything has a really good taste,” Kevin Samuels, the concierge of Eickhoff said. “I’ve been doing surveys with the students and the response we have been getting back from the students has been very favorable. That they really enjoyed the atmosphere and everybody’s being real nice, and that's really what it's all about.”
Sodexo was able to cater to students of the College through consideration of opinions of student organizations of the College.
“I’m happy that they didn’t just go in alone, they actually included student organizations, for example, BSU, PMP, NAACP might have also played a role, so [by] being able to include these organizations, they knew what the students would want to see,” Williams said.
“The purpose of the lunch was to express the different palettes of different cultures and not just the African American culture, but all of Black culture across the world,” Samuels said. “They did a really good job as far as to explain some of this stuff.”
