“I got the idea for an alternative Thanksgiving because last year at my high school, our animal rights club held a similar event that I attended,” said Rokakis. “I thought it would be interesting for people to come and check out other seasonal foods that aren't your traditional turkey and stuffing, but that still taste great and are vegetarian friendly.”
Along with EMU sophomore Rebecca Barton, Rokakis prepared such foods as “Tofurky” sandwiches, vegan squash risotto, vegan banana nut bread, whole berry cranberry sauce, soy milk and ice cream and sweet potato pie. All of the food had to be prepared in the lone oven and small kitchen space of Downing Hall, so Rokakis and Barton had their work cut out for them.
“It took about a month to organize,” said Rokakis. “We had to call EMU Dining Services and make sure we were allowed to have this event in our residence hall and then we had to allocate money at the Leadership Advisory Board meeting. The preparing of the food is what took the longest amount of time, though.”
With all the work that was put into planning and organizing this event, Rokakis said she would consider the alternative Thanksgiving dinner a success. “We had about 15 to 20 people show up, which I felt was a great number. Being a freshman, this was my first event that I had ever organized and I was hoping that the turnout would be good, so I was very pleased with the amount of people that showed up,” Rokakis said.
“Everyone tried the food, and many people were actually surprised by how much they liked some of the vegan and vegetarian foods. We all laughed, had a good time and enjoyed each other's company, and everyone said one thing that they were thankful, which I thought was a really nice idea. I would definitely do this event again.”
Alternative Thanksgiving host Jennie Rokakis
Residents of Downing Hall enjoying their Thanksgiving feast
This is my first story for my digital journalism class' 'news scoops' assignment
ReplyDelete