Campus Samples a More Diverse Cuisine

On Wednesday afternoon, new food items were sampled by students and faculty in the dining hall, bringing a diverse cuisine to campus.
From noon to 1:30 p.m., various companies served their food products in Baldwin for the campus community to sample.
There were beverages, Asian and Mexican-style dishes, wing sauces and additional items served.
Among the companies present was Affinity Sales. The group offered authentic Mexican food for guests to try, along with the popular-found gouda mac and cheese bites.
Cristina Aparicio serves as Key Account Specialist with Affinity. Aparicio said she enjoys tying her culture and background into food as well as exploring new cultures through food.
“I feel like what you should be eating is what the world looks like,” Aparicio said. “We all can have this common ground of being together and hopefully sitting at the table.”
IWU’s catering service, Pioneer, sought to hear from students on what food items were their favorites.
Pioneer worker Debbie O’Conner was also able to taste the new food items. O’Conner said she is excited about the possibility to offer more diverse cuisine on campus.
“I think we offer a lot of variety, but diversity, sometimes I think we lack that,” O’Conner said. “I love trying all different kinds of foods, all different kinds of ethnic foods. I’d love to see a little bit more of that.”
Along with students, IWU faculty stopped by to participate in the food show.
The director of National and Global Technology Division, Clark Culley, said he was thrilled to see that the new food brought students together in the dining hall.
“I think having attractive food choices to bring people in (allows them) to take advantage of the chance to commune and get to know new classmates here at the start of the year,” Culley said.
Pioneer plans to reflect on the feedback received from this event and potentially purchase some of the food items to be served on campus in the future.