2011 Recap, Part 5: September & October

Part 1 - January/February  |  Part 2 - March/April  |  Part 3 - May/June  |  Part 4 - July/August

- - SEPTEMBER 2011 - -


When the calendar turns to September, it can mean only one thing: it's time to welcome students back to campus! After the students finished moving in over Labor Day weekend, the university's "Welcome Week" helped to ease the transition back to school. Included in "Welcome Week" was Dining Services' "Taste of Boston" event where we welcome transfer students from outside the area to dine on some classic Massachusetts dishes such as clam chowder, Boston cream pie, and cannolis from the North End.

September also featured the grand openings of two new dining locations on campus, Argo Tea in Snell Library and Subway in Ryder Hall. The Grand FestiviTEA outside of Snell Library included iced tea samples, a raffle for a private tea party, and trivia questions to win Argo Tea giveaways. Subway's grand opening featured a "buy one, get one" promotion on regular six-inch sandwiches and Subman made an appearance giving out Subway merchandise to students in Centennial Common as well as customers in line.

Finally, our annual Fall Food Fest took place on September 21 outside of Stetson East. This popular (and free) event gives students the opportunity to directly interact with the companies that provide us with the food we serve them everyday. We also put our brand new food truck on display right in the middle of the action.

- - OCTOBER 2011 - -


With the students settled into their schedules of classes, activities, and homework, October is all about trying to break up that monotony. Dining Services offered many programs during the month and some of our favorite events helped to make it a great month on campus.

One of our favorite Fall legacy events is the Pumpkin Carving Contest. Now in it's eleventh year, this annual contest pitted twenty-five teams of two students against each other to carve, scrape, and decorate a pumpkin worthy of the Northeastern community's votes and cash prizes of $100, $75, and $50. This year's contest featured many creative designs including a pumpkin hamburger, a map of Boston's MBTA system, and even an Apple logo in memory of Steve Jobs. However, it was Mandy Woo and Jessica Chan's intricately carved Northeastern Huskies logo that took home the title.

October was also the beginning of our Xhibition Kitchen cooking demo and cookbook signing events. The month featured two unique and entertaining cooking demonstrations. Jake Walker and Robert S. Cox made a delicious traditional clam chowder from their book A History of Chowder while Sue Schochet from Healthy Habits Kitchen in Wellesley, MA presented her company's meal kits, including a tasty pumpkin turkey chili, and how they can help you create a meal in under 30 minutes.