BC Community Invited to International Food Festival
Bluefield College students will host the Second Annual International Food Festival on Friday, October 19 at 7 p.m. in Harman Chapel to celebrate diversity on campus brought by international students attending the college.
The International Food Festival is a student-organized event for students, faculty and staff. The event consists of learning new cultures, sharing food, and promoting a feeling of tolerance on a small, but extremely diverse campus. In addition, there is another motive behind all the cultural festivities.
“I have realized that a lot of international students leave the school,” said Brazilian student Nathalia E. de Lima Elias, one of the planners of the festival, about retention of international students. “They either transfer or go back home, because they didn’t adapt to the culture, they couldn’t stay here without their family, or they just didn’t feel like home.”
Adapting to a completely different culture is never easy. Not knowing anyone might also be intimidating. The purpose of the event is providing a place for international students to feel more welcome and a second home away from their loved ones.
Despite receiving a limited budget of $300, the group of student organizers accumulated a total of $1,000 through fundraising and sponsorships to organize the International Food Festival. For example, a group of international students organized a fundraiser with Chick-fil-A in the Mercer Mall on September 27, receiving a percentage of the purchases ordered that day through the Chick-fil-A app. In addition, Highlands Fellowship and Bland Street United Methodist Church agreed to serve as sponsors of the event.
Students from the countries of Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, Spain, the Philippines, and Ukraine will present traditional dishes from their cultures during the Food Festival. Nicole Benedito will cook Brazilian steak, fried banana, and brigadeiro. Gabriel Blackman and Gema Mendoza will serve seco de pollo. Dagoberto Acevedo will bring tacos de pollo and carne molida with arroz amarillo and pico de gallo. Alex Duron will serve ceviche. Grecia Almandoz will present lomo saltado. Paloma Sanchez will cook tortilla de patatas. Mark Batoon will prepare spring roll with plantains, and Yaroslav Hnatusko will bring buckwheat.
“Last semester we did everything rushed in two weeks” said de Lima Elias, “but this semester we took initiative and prepared two months in advance to make it bigger and better.”
De Lima Elias encourages students, faculty and staff to learn outside of their comfort zone. Being culturally aware and mindful of other cultures different than yours, she said, is significant due to living in such a globalized society.
“For the people who were born and raised here that never got the chance to experience other cultures, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said de Lima Elias, “to see people from different countries in person speaking to you about their culture.”