Elon’s commitment to diversity manifests itself across campus — one of the most popular platforms being food.
In addition to Lakeside Dining Hall’s “country of the week” program, which features an international station that serves dishes form a designated area of the world every week, Elon Dining hopes to continue hosting “special events,” throughout the year. These events, which are scheduled to occur three times every school year, celebrate cuisine from a region of the world by enticing all senses: sight, sound, taste and touch.
Last week, Lakeside hosted “Bollywood Night,” an elaborate celebration of Indian food and movie culture. Students were greeted with a decorated entrance, adorned with colorful fabrics, lanterns and artifacts. Loud Bollywood music blasted throughout the hall as people ate under fabric tents and a cloth painting of Shah Rukh Khan, a famous Bollywood actor.
The dining hall offered six food stations to try from, each offering a themed aspect of Indian cuisine and ranging from beverages, deserts, street foods and main course meals.
Partnering with Sterling Events, a Raleigh-based special events decorating organization, the event was planned in early January. It took a total of three hours to bring the “portal to Bombay” to life.
To Pulkit Vigg, resident district manager of Elon Dining, the event — especially in the Elon context — is a necessary part of his job working at a university that places emphasis on global citizenship.
“It’s our duty as dining services leaders on campus to educate students so that when they leave campus and go around the world they can say, ‘I’ve had Indian food,’” he said. “Hopefully, they feel comfortable eating with other nationalities and other cultures.”
Vigg, who intentionally places himself next to the dishwasher during dining events, said the number of empty plates that returned at the end of the night reflected the event’s success.
“The best part of the day was seeing how clean plates were being returned,” he said. “Let’s just say there was very little composting going on that night.”
Sophomore Taylor Douglas, who was waiting in an ever-growing line to get a Henna tattoo, which are temporary and used commonly in South Asia, said the event represents Elon’s collective commitment to emphasizing the value of studying abroad, even while at Elon.
“I was initially overwhelmed. It’s a lot to take in,” she said. “But Elon does this a lot, in that they try to promote opportunities to engage with culture.”
To Vigg, food is at the focus of culture.
“All of us as humans, we eat food and in all cultures, food is the center of everything,” he said.
The event was also intentionally not heavily advertised.
“If you know something is coming, then you’ll be expecting something,” he said. “I think people still like being surprised in a good way.”
But still, there were criticisms.
Junior Allie Barteldt noted the existence of an upside down “om” sign, an important religious symbol for Hindus.
“It’s clearly the most sacred symbol in many Eastern religions and in a way, they defaced it by keeping it upside down,” she said. “I thought everything else about it was great except that one slip-up.”
Vigg said the upside down sign was an honest mistake.
“Obviously, we weren’t paying attention, that’s it,” he said. “The staff are highly trained about what food their serving and what cultural significance it holds.”
This was indicative in the staff’s heavy involvement in explaining the food being served. Francine Light, a server at the international station, made a point to stand in front of the beverage selection and explain the health benefits of each Indian drink to students, encouraging the students to try.
“Our main hope is to get people thinking about different cultural foods,” he said. “It takes time to adjust your taste buds to food from different cultures. The point we emphasize is that we get you to try.”