The Associated Student Organization’s Thanksgiving Feast had all the fixings of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. There was sliced turkey layered over stuffing, vegetables everyone avoided but reluctantly said yes to, board and card games to play to kill the time before a second helping and lots of laughter between forkfuls of pumpkin pie.
But this wasn’t a Thanksgiving dinner shared at someone’s home surrounded by relatives, it was a dinner for those who couldn’t do that. The ASO’s Thanksgiving Feast was created last year by then Social Vice President Virginia Perez-Gonzalez, and this year the tradition was continued by the new Social V.P. Yasmeen Obeid.
Around 300 people attended the Thanksgiving Feast that featured food made by Southwestern College Food Services and was staffed with volunteers from the ASO, the Child Development Club (who also raffled pies with grocery store gift cards) and other Southwestern College students. Obeid initially invited people who may not be able to head home for the holiday, like student veterans or international students, or those who may not have a traditional Thanksgiving meal, like foster youth students or students facing food insecurity. After those invitations had been sent, she opened it to the rest of Southwestern College’s students.
