Marshall University’s Harless Dining Hall and Towers Dining Hall had a campus-wide Easter buffet Tuesday for students who do not get to go home for the holiday.
“As a student you’re here on campus all of the time and you may not have the opportunity to go home,” said Cheryl King, general manager of Sodexo. “So, we like to try to bring a little bit of home here to you. We all want to have that feeling of belonging, and to be home for the holidays especially, so I think it’s important.”
Cheyenne Glover, senior business management major, said she never gets to go home for Easter because home is too far away.
Usually, my friends and I go to church and then we go to Harless or Towers for Easter dinner,” Glover said. “We think of this as our own little Easter tradition and we feel like we’re close to home when we’re together and having Easter dinner as a family.”
The food at the Easter buffet played a major role in why the celebration felt like home to many students.
“Where I come from, it’s in Jamaica, and I mean it’s a lot different from here, but still we do have celebrations all over Jamaica as well for Easter,” said freshman Jayden Gillpin. “The food is a lot different from here in America like in Jamaica we have curry chicken, yam, rice and peas, ackee and salt fish and stuff like that, but here you have chicken, ham, turkey and you even have biscuits and gravy. I didn’t even know that existed until I came here.”
Gillpin said one American Easter dish really hit the spot for him.
“I really, really like the deviled eggs,” Gillpin said. “Like that’s the devil in me, I’ll eat those all day if you let me.”
Glover said she thinks the dining halls do a good job with celebrating the holiday.
“I think they celebrate it perfectly by having a simple dinner,” Glover said. “In addition, I think they should also try to celebrate other holidays as well as they did for Easter.”
Gillpin said he likes Easter because it brings happiness.
“Easter is all about happiness,” Gullpin said. “It’s just about being happy and enjoying friends, family and good vibes with others, no matter where you are.”
Nichole Henderson can be contacted at [email protected].