Last Wednesday, Laurier’s Chinese Student Association (CSA) hosted “Chopsticks Sensation” at King Tin Restaurant. The dinner, which started at 7 p.m., consisted of an eight-course meal of authentic Chinese food. Approximately 40 people were in attendance, with members paying $8 and non-members paying $10.
The CSA typically hosts two off-campus dinners annually, one of which celebrates Chinese New Year. Because the dinners are such a success, the CSA decided to add “Chopsticks Sensation” for the fall term.
“It’s been really successful and a lot of people actually really like this idea, the idea of getting together, eating together and just getting to know each other,” said CSA’s co-president Wendy Ting. “Plus, it’s cheap food and it’s a lot of variety.”
The CSA is one of the campus clubs that have been affected by the recently implemented no-cooked food rule in the Concourse. The CSA previously depended on selling cooked food as a main source of revenue.
To accommodate the CSA, director of student services Dan Dawson suggested a collaboration with food services. Ting worked closely with dining hall executives, even accompanying them to the grocery store to pick out ingredients to create a menu of items featuring Chinese recipes. The CSA hosted their event in the dining hall on Nov. 4 and Ting said it was a great success.
“It went well,” said Ting. “We were still able to earn a fair amount of revenue that would be equal to us doing a food fair at the Concourse.”
The Chinese food event resulted in 515 items being sold that day, and Dawson said they will be making a donation to the CSA from food services. He also noted that they are making preliminary plans to hold he event again next semester.
“There’s a real opportunity to work with other clubs to do other themed or cultural type days in the dining hall as a unique opportunity, not just for fundraising, but for variety and awareness,” said Dawson.
Student Services has been successful in finding alternatives for several fall fundraisers that involve food. Some events such as the annual Boar’s Head Chicken Eating Contest were able to go ahead because Wilf’s prepared the cooked chicken. Others, such as the United Way’s Annual Chili Cook-Off, had to alter the event so that the dining hall prepare the chili, while participants only added spices to the sauce.
“We’re just looking for groups to be a little bit open-minded with the events they’ve traditionally held before and we’re committed to working with them to try to make sure we figure out a way to make them successful,” said Dawson.
Despite the success of the CSA’s food fair at the dining hall, Ting expressed that not being able to sell cooked food in the Concourse has somewhat depleted the morale of the CSA.
“[The dining hall food fair] was a good alternative, but I still really wish that we would get the concourse back because it’s just something fun. It’s a tradition that we’ve always done, and I just really wish we could continue this tradition.”
