Hamilton “Ham” Center was filled with New College Student Alliance (NCSA) student representatives and employees dressed in plaid hurriedly transforming the cafeteria with the help of sunflower centerpieces, tablecloths, red napkins and candles. Finishing just in time, the NCSA successfully entertained and fed around 200 people with a Southern, down-home cooking menu partially catered by Shell BBQ, at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 3.
The “We Serve You” dinner is an event that has been held annually over the past few years by the NCSA with the intent of making students more familiar with their representatives, who make up the wait staff at the event.
“It’s sort of a mingling thing,” thesis student, and chief of staff, Hannah Gilbert said. “You have people with the name tags and what their positions are. I specifically assigned the wait staff to tables of people that they don’t know so that they are talking to people that they may not know that well.”
The event, which was RSVP only, was incredibly successful with nearly every table full. Along with students, a few select administrators and professors were also present. The general consensus of attendees seemed to be positive.
“I’m very impressed with all the decorations and the adherence to the theme,” thesis student Hilary Ramirez said.
“It was really great. I enjoyed the meal a lot. I’m really glad that they were able to support Shell BBQ,” first-year Eugenia Quintanilla said.
The entire event cost around $1,200. This was the first year that the dinner was partially catered by an outside vendor, yet even with the help of having some of the food catered, cooking for the event started the day before.
“We made a bunch of food yesterday – all the cornbread, the pudding, the soup. We shredded five pounds of cheese for the macaroni and cheese,” Gilbert said.
The macaroni and cheese with broccoli was made earlier in the day before the event.
“It takes at least a month and a half to plan the whole thing,” Gilbert said. RSVPs had to be sent out weeks in advance in order to get everyone’s orders and make a budget to take to the Student Allocations Committee (SAC). Flowers for the handmade arrangements also had to be ordered in advance.
Referring to the task management system that the NCSA cabinet uses to organize projects and delegate, Gilbert said, “I’ve completed over 60 tasks related to We Serve You.”
“It was really cool that people came out and dressed up with the theme,” Gilbert said happy with the success of the event.