Mac and cheese is served at the Mac and Cheese Festival on Friday. Credit: Mariam Abaza | Lantern Reporter
From gourmet twists to classic comfort food, the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, also known as The James, put a creative spin on fundraising for its eighth annual Mac and Cheese Festival.
On Friday, over 2,000 people filled the streets of Easton Town Center to raise money for the adolescent and young adult program at The James, which offers specialized support and treatment for cancer patients ages 15-39.
“Cancer affects everybody, and everybody should be able to make a difference,” said Josh Barkan, the festival’s founder. “We feel that one $25 to $35 ticket at a time, people can make a difference. It doesn’t have to be big ticket priced expensive events.”
The idea began in 2016, when Barkan said he was exposed to his first cheesy festival in Colorado. He brought a plan back to Columbus, excited to engage the community and raise funds for an important cause, he said.
“It was something that I really wanted to do and, frankly, I love mac and cheese,” Barkan said.
The festival has since grown, quickly becoming an Easton tradition. Last year, over 1,800 people attended and raised over $80,000 for the adolescent and young adult program for the cancer center.
The Mac and Cheese Festival has generated over $490,000 since 2016, and organizers expect to cross the $500,000 milestone this year.
“We were at 80,000 last year, and we’re expecting to raise more than that this year, but the big part of it is we’re really excited about crossing that $500,000 lifetime gift line,” Barkan said.
Attendees are charged an admission fee, which contributes to the donation total, for unlimited access to mac and cheese samples from 15 different restaurant partners.
“The restaurants are just a huge part of our success and our ability to execute,” Barkan said. “They really rally behind it, and the rest of the community shows up.”
Though every booth distributes mac and cheese, each restaurant adds its own special twist to the classic dish.
The Mobile Education Kitchen, a program created by The James to promote cancer-preventative nutrition, is a long-time staple of the festival.
“The James’ Mobile Education Kitchen has been doing this for four years,” Cameron Stauffer, a senior culinary educator at the kitchen, said. “We’re a culinary food truck, so we get to show off our skills with our mac and cheese.”
Their booth served a unique take on traditional mac and cheese, highlighting butternut squash with a vegan, gluten free and dairy-free recipe.
“We preach a lot about a plant-based diet for cancer risk reduction, so this is a way to show people how to do that with mac and cheese,” Stauffer said.
The Mobile Education Kitchen gave out at least 2,000 samples to attendees, Stauffer said.
Other restaurant partners celebrated their first time at the festival this year, including Café Bistro Nordstrom.
“We thought it was really great to get out into the community and show who we are and what we do,” Cristin Stackhouse, the restaurant’s area manager, said.
Though it was their inaugural event, Stackhouse said preparation was seamless due to the organizers’ support.
“The organization takes care of so much of it that all we had to do was show up with mac and cheese,” Stackhouse said. “It’s a lot of mac and cheese––more quantities than I think I’ve ever done––but we just had a good plan in place to execute it over the last couple of days, so it would be easy to come over and do this today.”
The restaurant’s classic mac and cheese, which featured pimento cheese made from scratch with a mixture of cream cheese, white cheddar cheese, tabasco, homemade alfredo and an assortment of other cheeses, was an instant hit with attendees, running out before the night was over.
“We’re really excited to be here, and I know we’ll be here next year and hopefully for years to come,” Stackhouse said.
Amid the sea of people, volunteers in yellow shirts bounced between booths, ensuring the event flowed smoothly.
“We have a lot of young people that help plan, staff and really make the festival run,” Barkan said.
For Monica Evans, a festival volunteer and marketing consultant at the Wexner Medical Center, the most exciting part was seeing the initiative’s impact firsthand.
“I am on the marketing team and fully remote, so half the time I don’t get to see a lot of the people who are on the other side, the hospital side, of things,” Evans said. “I’m not patient care-facing, so it’s nice to get to actually hear real stories and feel like we’re making an impact.”
Catherine Patchmayer, a volunteer at the festival and marketing consultant at The James, also enjoyed seeing the people so engaged with the fundraiser.
“The overall turnout and seeing how many people are out here supporting The James, whether they know it or not, is actually really incredible,” Patchmayer said.
For some festival attendees, the cause is deeply personal.
“It’s the perfect time to go out and do something to put money back into a system that helps people like me,” Hayden Gattiff, a cancer patient currently undergoing chemotherapy, said.
“The best part of it is the difference we’re making in the cancer community for the young adults that have been diagnosed with cancer or are surviving their diagnosis,” Barkan said. “We’re really making a difference, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see people come out and support and care about the same things that all of us care about.”
Planning for the festival is an intensive process, and organizers are already looking ahead to next year.
“As soon as the event ends on Friday, we’ll wrap up and crunch numbers and be back at it. It’s a year-round thing between soliciting sponsors and restaurant partners, marketing and selling tickets, it really is a year-round thing,” Barkan said.
More information about the Mac and Cheese Festival and other events hosted by The James can be found on their website.
