The Hassayampa Dining Center will be serving a Thanksgiving meal from noon to 2 p.m. on Thursday for students who are staying on campus for the short break. (Photo by Jessie Wardarski)Organizations are coming together to offer dining options for students who cannot go home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Off-Campus Student Services on the Tempe campus is partnering with the ASU Parents Association and The Domain at Tempe to sponsor its annual Thanksgiving dinner Thursday.
Parents and volunteers will serve dinner at the Off-Campus Student Services building on South Rural Road from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The meal is free, but attendees are encouraged to bring a can of food to donate to the City of Tempe Food Bank.
Students who want to attend should RSVP online.
Parents Association program coordinator Jackie Foster said 250 students attended the event last year and the organization expects a similar turnout this year.
“It’s a really cool option for international students or students who are from out-of-state who don’t want to spend the money to go home,” she said.
Foster said the dinner is a good place for students who are far from home to meet.
“It’s also our way of helping parents stay connected with the students on campus,” she said. “We want to give the students the support they need.”
Tempe campus dining halls will be closed on Thanksgiving except for a Thanksgiving meal in Hassayampa Dining Center from noon to 2 p.m.
The Polytechnic, Downtown and West campuses’ dining halls had their “holiday feasts” with traditional Thanksgiving food on Nov. 15.
English literature junior Molly Olague is staying in Tempe for Thanksgiving this year.
Olague is from the area, but her parents moved to Washington last year.
She said she is disappointed that she will not have dinner with them Thursday.
“It’s just so expensive to fly up there now, and I can’t take off work,” she said.
However, Ologue said she will fly to see her parents over Christmas break.
“It’s really right around the corner,” she said.
Olague is going to a friend’s house to have dinner instead of staying on campus.
“I could understand why younger kids would appreciate having somewhere to go have dinner, though,” she said.
Journalism senior Brynn Mende said she had Thanksgiving dinner at the Taylor Place dining hall her freshman year.
She was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the dinner served.
“I didn’t always like the dining hall food, but the year I stayed for Thanksgiving, Taylor Place’s meal was actually decent,” she said.
Reach the reporter at hblawren@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @hannah_lawr
