Free food. If food does not already spark interest, perhaps the free aspect will. The Wellness Center has begun providing students with free lunch on Fridays.
“Last year we did one lunch every month,” Wellness Center counselor Tracy Brown said.
Although the free food is what attracts the students to come by the Wellness Center, the goal is not just to satisfy their hunger cravings.
“We like to emphasize free lunches as secondary,” Wellness Center Director Ting Hsu-Engleman said. “The main goal is to provide a supportive and fun space at the Wellness Center so students can enjoy each other’s company.”
The Wellness Center does not provide the same food as the Piper Café. Instead, the Wellness Center staff congregates and decides on a food choice for the week.
“We had Mulberry’s sandwiches the first lunch this year,” Hsu-Engleman said. “In our latest lunch, we had pizza.”
The Wellness Center is planning to have free lunch Fridays every Friday until May, as the turnout was higher than expected.
They began having free lunch Fridays last year during March and have received positive feedback from the students.
“I went last year when I heard about it,” a sophomore said. “You can stay and socialize or you can just grab and go. I went early, and from what I heard from my friends, they ran out of food quickly.”
The idea behind free lunches is to give students a place where they can meet new people and get to know the Wellness Center, Hsu-Engleman said.
“We want students to feel welcome and break their bubble,” Brown said. “We try to have a fun environment where students can meet new people.”
The Wellness Center faculty decided that in order to satisfy the student population as a whole, they needed something all students could enjoy. Each week they will have free lunches for ten students.
“I came up with the idea because, well, who doesn’t like free food,” Brown said. “We also want students to know the Wellness Center is not only here for big issues, but also to serve as a place where you can enjoy yourself.”
