Holiday dinner planned

By Lagena McBride, Herald Staff

Arkansas State University organizations have joined forces to bring the holiday spirit to those who may not be able to go home for Thanksgiving, said Baljit Rehal, the International Student Association President.

The International Student Association, International Student Service, Student Activities Board and Black Student Association are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at 6 p.m.Tuesday. It will be held at the ASU Pavilion. This will be the second consecutive year the dinner has been held.

According to Rehal, who is a senior communications disorder major of Bombay, India, the dinner will consist of many types of food. The SAB and BSA are contributing traditional American Thanksgiving food, while the ISA is offering international foods. The international foods will consist of Chinese, Mexican, Pakistani and Thai.

"We wanted to have a food festival more than one time this year, and we thought this was a good opportunity to combine the Thanksgiving dinner and the food festival," Rehal said. "We use these holidays to come up with ideas for getting together."

While these three organizations offer food, the ISS is offering its expertise in publicizing the dinner. Also, all four organizations will work together at the dinner to ensure everything runs smoothly.

According to Rehal, no one person came up with the idea of the Thanksgiving dinner. It was just something that all the students in the organizations realized needed to be done.

"This is a good activity to do because a lot of international students do not get to go home," Rehal said. "[The dinner] makes them feel at home. It is a time we get pretty depressed."

Although many of the ISA members do not get to go home for the break, the dinner will still be held the day before Thanksgiving break starts.

"We know that international students won't be going home," Rehal said, "but they might visit other places during the break, so we are having the dinner the night before people leave. Basically, we want more people to attend."

According to Rehal, the organizations are anticipating 200-250 people will attend the dinner, and they are making sure they have enough food for at least that many.

They deduced that number from the amount of people who have attended past food festivals and the Thanksgiving dinner from last year.

Anyone who wishes may attend the dinner at no cost. "I want everybody to come, as many people as possible, since it is open to everybody," Rehal said.