Freshmen Kelly Seidler, Suzanne Sciarrino, Aimee Fatico and Kristen Huenerberg sit and enjoy lunch on the Drillfied during the Hokie Community Picnic.
A multitude of students and community members congregated on the Drillfield Friday afternoon for the community picnic.
Sponsored by the Student Government Association as part of the Day of Remembrance, the picnic features a free lunch for all attendees with food from Buffalo Wild Wings, Domino’s, Sub Station and Rita’s. Attendees were also provided with blankets to sit on and opportunities to play Frisbee, football, soccer and corn hole.
Those vendors provided thousands of dollars of donated food, which quickly ran out and needed to be replenished.
Buffalo Wild Wings alone initially provided 2,000 chicken wings for hungry students, which were given away in servings of five wings per person.
By 12:45 p.m., close to the official ending time of 1 p.m., the restaurant had supplied an additional 2,000 wings and was unsure if it would be supplying another batch.
Additionally, about 1,500 slices of Domino’s pizza had been eaten. More pizzas were being transported to the Drillfield near the end of the picnic.
Rita’s arrived to the site late because of fear that the frozen treat would melt, but still distributed about 1,000 servings of Italian ice.
Jeff Tate, vice president of operations for Buffalo Wild Wings, has lived in Blacksburg for about 10 years.
“It’s something we felt passionate about to be in this community,” Tate said. “I think it’s really awesome that (the SGA) did this and let us participate.”
Tate and about seven of his employees initially transported about 2,500 bottles of water and 2,000 wings along with about 2,000 Buffalo Wild Wings Koozies, a tent and other catering supplies the restaurant already owned to the Drillfield Friday morning.
He estimated that the restaurant donated about $6,000 of merchandise before the additional donations were supplied.
Neither Hayley Sink, who was in charge of coordinating the picnic, nor new SGA President Bo Hart, head of the April 16 planning committee, knew exactly how much had been donated to the event.
“It was several thousand,” Sink said. “We have so much food out here.”
After the picnic ran low on food, Sink said she considered it a great success.
“People got what they expected,” she said. “They’re all enjoying the atmosphere.”
Sink, head of the community initiatives committee of the SGA, said putting hosting the picnic was “something we really wanted to do.”
“If you’re comfortable being here on campus today, it’s great to spend time with fellow Hokies,” Sink said.
About 500 volunteers from multiple organizations, not just the SGA, worked with Sink to coordinate the logistics of the picnic.
Freshman Rachel Pinard was one such volunteer. Pinard also volunteered to assist runners during the 3.2 mile Run for Remembrance that finished on the Drillfield about an hour prior to the beginning of the picnic.
Pinard said she felt the picnic was important “just so the Tech and Blacksburg communities can mesh together and be together.”
Hart said that there had been a community picnic in 2008, but not last year in 2009.
Sink said last year, the picnic did not happen because of the economy.
“Vendors weren’t able to donate,” she said.
Sink said she was pleased to see the large number of students who attended the picnic. Lines to receive food formed almost immediately after the official starting time of 11 a.m. and continued to stretch across the Drillfield until the ending of the picnic.
“I definitely want to see it happen through the next two years,” she said.
Sink said that in planning for next year, she would like to make sure to let vendors know that they would need higher amounts of donated food.
“We’d like to get more next year, especially with it being on a Saturday, to make it bigger and better,” she said.
Hart, who, at this time in 2011, will be ending his term as SGA president, said he hoped the picnic would continue to be a featured event on April 16 for at least the next two years, when the day will fall on a Saturday and a Sunday, respectively.
“It’s great to have everyone together,” he said. “It’s a time for Hokies to be together.”
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With all due respect to the vendors who did donate, which was very generous of them, there was a problem:
Long lines of people waiting for food that has run out, with a 20 minute wait between when the pizza ran out and the next batch of wings arrived, is not my idea of “People got what they expected.â€Â
If you invite an entire community to a picnic, and do not have enough food to feed the later arrivals, that is a significant letdown for those who were not able to arrive early.
Some of the early arrivals went through the lines 5 and six times, getting a slice of pizza every time. That's hardly fair to those who arrived later.
If there is to be a limited supply of food, there needs to be some way of distributing more fairly. A no seconds policy and a hand stamp when you get a serving is a possibility. Seeking out additional donations or asking Dining Services to budget in some support for the event might also be a thought. Virginia Tech is capable of feeding large groups of people successfully. But that is not what happened this Friday.
What needs to happen now is to give some organized attention to quantity of food donations and developing a means of fairer distribution, for next time.
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I thought 5 pizzas and two chicken wings was enough....
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