Suffolk University Dining teamed up with the Student Leadership and Involvement office and WSFR Suffolk Free Radio on Oct. 6 to put together a free event where students could engage in fall-themed activities all over campus.
Suffolk Dining was the main star of the event, giving students many different opportunities to take advantage of the free food, free merchandise and green screen photos.
For the first hour of the event, $1 pumpkin spice lattes were available for purchase, but the offerings didn’t stop there. The following three hours featured a farmstand outside Cafe 73 which had local fresh produce from Baldor Produce in Chelsea along with baked goods from La Marca Bakery in Malden.
At the same time, the third floor of the Sawyer Academic Building had plenty of fun opportunities for students.
Students could get free merchandise, take photos in front of a photo booth, play giant Jenga and enjoy hot apple cider with pumpkin cookies. Along with the activities, WSFR made sure to keep the entire floor lively by playing the perfect seasonal music to fit the aesthetic of a nice autumn afternoon.
The delicious conclusion to the day of fall festivities were the fall harvest dinners that were provided in all of the dining halls.
Casey Mulcare, director of SLI, said “The Fall Festi-ful was an opportunity to…collaborate with our dining service’s partners who I think are trying to be more active in our community, show a little bit more about what they can be doing as partners with us and we always like to support ways for our students to get involved.”
Working with SLI, the Suffolk University Dining partner, Chartwells made their presence known at the event.
Renee Bolduc, Chartwells’ unit marketing manager, runs the SU dining Instagram page along with much more on campus. She conveys all of the information, concerns and requests from students to the chefs.
After last year’s issues with dining, Bolduc is wanting to take the extra measures to make sure that students feel safe where they are eating. There is now an assortment of clearly labeled foods for students avoiding gluten or dairy at each of the dining halls, making them more inclusive and safe for these students.
“If there is an issue at any of the dining halls, we will be the first ones to own up to and fix our mistakes. We want students to let us know when there is something wrong so we can mend that as fast as we can,” said Bolduc.
There is now a number Suffolk students can text to have a direct line of communication with dining staff so if there is an issue or an outage of a certain type of food or condiment, attention will be brought to it as soon as possible.
Having different parts of the Suffolk community join together to reach out and connect makes the gap between staff and students that much smaller. Having different events like the fall festival creates connections between people.
“Lots of events our clubs are putting on so I definitely suggest students take a look at those bi-weekly emails that come out, follow us on social media at @SuffolkSLI is the best way to do it. We do a lot of reposting of events and programs like PC’s Halloween Bash down at The Royale, which is a great Suffolk event that happens on the 20th,” said Mulcare.
Events like the Festi-ful are going to be constant around Suffolk to keep students happy and connected with the dining. This event was a great introduction to the fall season and left students with a sweet taste in their mouth for Suffolk Dining.
The number for the textline is 1-857-763-5518.
Follow Keely on Twitter @MenyhartKeely.
