Thanksgiving Day is drawing near, and soon students will break for home with visions of oven-roasted turkey, fluffy mashed potatoes, buttered corn-on-the cob and old fashioned pumpkin pie on their minds.
Although thousands of students get to share this holiday with family, a few won’t get to go home at all.
The 11th annual Thanksgiving Day Dinner will take place from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday at the Hale Black Cultural Center to provide food and fellowship for students remaining on campus.
“The Thanksgiving Dinner is an attempt to share in the ‘first-hand experience’ of what the concept of an extended family meal entails with all communities, including American and international denominations,” said Larry Williamson, director of the Hale Black Cultural Center.
After beginning as a small gathering of 25 people in 1991, the dinner has turned into a university tradition that employs the help of faculty, staff and student volunteers.
Williamson said he expects more than 500 people, but this year’s event could draw as many as 700.
The largest concentration is international students who make up about 70 percent of the crowd, Williamson said.
Patty Cunningham, a graduate student who has volunteered for the last two years, said the time she has spent helping has been worth it.
“You definitely get more out of Thanksgiving by doing service to others,” she said. “It’s more than just turkey and pumpkin pie.”
Yi-Jiang, a first year graduate student and international student from China, said the dinner is a good way to meet people.
“It’s hard to meet people here,” Jiang said. “In my country we do not celebrate this holiday, but I’m going because I want to meet other international students.”
Williamson said they call it a Thanksgiving Dinner and not a Thanksgiving Celebration to be sensitive to the beliefs of all cultures.
“Not all communities celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving, and we try to be respectful of those communities,” he said.
The meal will be served in two shifts — at 1 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. A third shift has also been added at 5 p.m. in honor of the Islamic month of Ramadan, a Muslim holiday where those who honor it must fast from dawn until dusk.
“None of our Muslim students could participate in the meal, because they could not eat until after sundown, so the addition of the third shift opened the door for them to partake in the Thanksgiving meal as well,” said John Griesberger, director of the Office of International Education.
The meal is free for everyone but students must have a ticket to eat. Tickets are available at Hale Hall, the Office of International Education and the Multicultural Center on the fourth floor of the Ohio Union.
