It was ten ‘til noon on April 4, and a lone, hungry student wandered up to our check-in tent. Surprised, we raised our eyebrows at each other. Maybe the rain wouldn’t keep people away after all.
Photo by Jocelyn Hsu
We didn’t even hear the Campanile chime when noon did roll around; after the first student successfully cleared the check-in tent, hordes of other hungry students lined up at an impressive speed, chattering and bouncing with excitement. We prompted them to enter their names and email addresses into our laptops, so they could subscribe to Spoon; then, we handed them a couple tickets and ushered them toward the other tents.
Photo by Jocelyn Hsu
“An email address for free food? That’s awesome!” several said. And it was.
As the 350 guests milled around the grassy area, Spoon staff members scooped and ladled and poured. The smiles grew and so did the sunshine.
Photo by Jocelyn Hsu
Anthony Lubbers, a senior, said afterwards, “I never knew Cup Story existed, let alone how good kimchi fried rice could be!”
Anjile An, a freshman, said, “It was fun! I got to try food from restaurants that I always wanted to try, and for a brief moment, the sun came out, so we got to picnic on the Glade! My favorite station was Thai Noodle.”
Chris Wieland, also a senior, said, “I was really impressed that you managed to get such a respectable number of actual restaurants to provide free food for you and how close-knit you all seemed and how friendly.”
A big thanks to the restaurants that graciously donated food and drink for our launch party:
CREAM
Cup Story
D’Yar
Dojo Dog
Pacific Cookie Company
Seniore’s Pizza
Thai Noodle
Tivoli Caffe
Also, a big shoutout to Popchips for making people smile the moment they stepped up to the check-in desk, when we placed a bag of the healthy snacks into their outstretched hands.