Delta Zeta Serve Customers During a Fundraiser at Perfectly Frank

Delta Zeta Sorority hosted a philanthropy event at Perfectly Frank on the evening of Tuesday February 24 from 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.
My colleague and fellow group member Anastasia Greene decided to cover this event and stop by to see the happenings of the night. I arrived on location promptly at 8:30 P.M., as things were winding down, to get time to talk with the sisters of Delta Zeta about how things unfolded.
The first young lady that I interviewed was Sister Molly Plummer, who planned, organized, worked with public relations and staffed the event. It was her first time being in charge of this particular event and she seemed to exude positivity upon approach.
The only reason that I, personally knew of this event as a public journalist was thanks to the social networking site Facebook.com. I received a Facebook, event invitation as well as a group invitation. This led me to ask why Ms. Plummer used this site as a tool to advertise her sorority's event. She she said that Facebook is a powerful tool used for public relations because it has a broader reach than by just word of mouth. You can create an event or group and invite people, who will hopefully invite more people, and soon more people will know about an event faster than ever before.
The evening went well with the sorority raising (as a rough estimate) about $250, with it business being pretty hectic at first, then slowing down as the night went on.
When asked about collaborating with Perfectly Frank for this event, Molly explained that Delta Zeta had worked with them before. She smiled and gave a thumbs up, "Everything here is delicious!"

Sam Johnson, another sister of Delta Zeta, helped serve drinks and clean tables. She said that this was the third time Delta Zeta had hosted this event in their history and she has volunteered to participate all three times.
"It's just a fun way to raise money," Ms. Johnson explained. The event is great community service and a way to promote philanthropy.
Perfectly Frank is the perfect location to have this event because Sam loves the food there. Also, it's economical for a student, and it is conveniently placed on-campus in the village area.
"When I'm, going out with my sisters, one of the first choices of places to eat is 'Perfectly Franks!" Sam said.

A Slideshow of Greek Events

My First of Many Interviews: A Glimpse into the Mind of a Tabler

Every Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:30 P.M. members from predominately Caucasian Greek organizations (fraternities and sororities) gather in the North Cafeteria in the Webb Center of Old Dominion University. The North Cafeteria happens to be rows upon row of dining tables. This event of the Greeks gather has been cleverly deemed as "tables".

But why is the event of Tables held?

Why do people go to Tables?

And how is this all related to food?

That is where my investigation begins...

The Brave Brother Nelson Villamon was the first to be interviewed while Tables was going on.

Approaching the interview in an official tone, like that of business man, Mr. Villamon explained how he does not come to Tables to eat. "It's more of social thing," Nelson said as he scanned the cafeteria with his eyes thinking of the actual reason he attends during his free activity hour.

To Brother Villamon Tables is a right of passage for Greeks. Once a Greek or in some cases potential Greek begins to attend Tables, he or she is acclimated to the Greek social network and becomes an acting member of brotherhood and sisterhood. Nelson explained that it is obvious who is Greek and who is not when observing the interactions. Not wearing letters to Tables makes you an outsider. This isolates you.

"If I come in and see a kid eating a bucket of chicken," Villamon exclaimed, "I'm just like 'That's not right'." He wonders why anyone would come to Tables to eat. He would much rather observe and socialize with his peers.

According to Nelson, why spend eight dollars on a meal, when you can shop around and get three meals for eight dollars. Rather than eat at the Webb Center during Tables, Mr. Villamon either fixes a full, healthy breakfast in the morning off campus, or eats after tables off-campus at a place where the meals go for at least a few dollars less than eight.

Arsenio Evans takes a somewhat different approach on the issue.

"I came to tables because I finally got out of bed at 12:05 this morning," said Arsenio. The idea of coming to table sis reason enough for Brother Evans to attend Tables. Usually, he just wants to be here.

But when Arsenio comes to Tables, it is not to eat. He comes to see his brothers, to hang out, and to socialize. He especially likes to represent his fraternity while he is here, as do most of the students here.

The lively and free spirited Arsenio tells that he does not eat at Tables, because there is no set time that he eats on a daily basis.

"Most people eat when they're hungry," he says slyly with a smirk of descent. Brother Evans eats when he is hungry and consumes whatever he feels like.

When asked whether he would compromise a taste meal for a lower price he replies with a short concise answer. He prefers meals that are, "Cheap to free. Free beats taste."

Last to be interviewed was Brother Santana Avalos.

This lowley, red-headed Spaniard says with a hint but a hint of regret that he comes to Tables because his fraternity makes him. He then explains, however, that he does like to socialize and interact with his peers at the event. According to Santana, Tables is not typically a place to eat, although it is held during activity hour when students are allotted a free block of time to recover from morning classes or prepare for afternoon classes.

He does not mind eating at Tables and eats at Tables whenever he gets the chance to be swiped into Cafe 12:01 for free by an unsuspecting friend.

In his point of view, Santana says that being a "broke, barely educated college kid who can't cook" creates many obstacles in his life and that it's often hard to come by a quality meal. This creates a since of desperation on his part and makes him sacrifice a healthy meal for a cheap and filling one all too often.

Being a potential Junior at Old Dominion University, Brother Avalos only wants to know one thing when it comes to the food on campus.

"Is it true they put salt peter* in the food here?"

*(Salt Peter, also known as Potassium Nitrate, is a substance with an interesting, controversial history...)

Notes From First Interviews About Tables

My notes from the first set of interviews that I conducted on Tuesday February 17, 2009 at "Tables":

Nelson Villamon - Doesn't come to tables to eat. More of a social thing. Socialize. "A right of passage for Greeks"
Can look around and tell who's greek and who's not. not wearing letters at tables makes you
and outsider. isolates you from greeks.
"If I come in and see a kid eating a bucket of chicken, I'm just like thats not right.
Why come to tables to eat? Observe. socialize. don't spend eight dollars on a meal when I can
shop around and get 3 meals for $8. I don't eat at webb. either eat healthy full breakfast or
eat after tables. somewhere cheap prefer.

Arsenio Evans - "I finally got out of bed at 12:05." just to come. wants to be here. doesn't eat at tables often.
to see brothers. hang out. socialize. rep frat.
doesn't eat at set time. "eat when i'm hungry." eats what he feels like.
prefers "cheap to free." "free beats taste."

Santana Avalos - Frat makes him. eats when someone swipes him in at tables otherwise doesn't eat. economic
standards uneducated college student prevent from eating healthy. choose cheap unhealthy
filling. "is it true they put salter peter in the food here?"

WEB LOG - THEME II

All in all I have narrowed the theme of my blog a bit more precisely. I am coming up with a clearer picture of what I want to do with my blog, individually, and how it all relates to the group blog. With that being said, it is still not as refined as it should be for optimal performance.

As far as food on campus, one could talk about many things, however I want to focus on food on campus in relation to the students (as opposed to employees or administration or outsiders that reside and eat in the area).
Students can be considered much like an organism. They live. They breathe. They organize themselves. They need food and shelter, collectively and as well as individually. They consume and destroy.

The aspect that is especially intriguing to me is the idea of food in relation to student organizations. From fraternities and sororities, to academic clubs, to athletes, most students love to be a part of something. They love to be accepted, wanted and active. Food affects these organizations in one way or another, and I will attempt to cover the events hosted by these student organizations, the students who are a part of these organizations, those who attend these events, and how food plays a part or does not play a part in the event.

WEB LOG - THEME I

This can be considered a preliminary thesis statement on the intent and overall them of this blogging escapade.

As outlined in my first post, this will obviously be about food.

Food is such a broad topic that it may be hard to narrow down precisely where to go with this, both figuratively and literally. In discussion with my group on the ideas and theme for our group blog, many obstacle shave presented themselves impeding our progress. We have repeatedly tossed around questions about the prevailing reason for doing this and where can this be taken.

Preliminarily we have considered a few major things:

What is this blog about?
What theme should be developed thoroughly first: the
group blog or the individual blog?
Can the individual blog theme's help develop the group blog's theme and/or

vice-versa?

Inevitably the individual topics were hashed out first in an effort to make them connect to the group blog. Topics such as "where to find cheap food" and "where to find the best food" have been taken.

I plan on an extensive, painstaking thought provoking analysis with little progress. I will delve into the idea of food on campus and how/where this broad topic can ultimately be focused in a more narrow scope that can be consistently be reported on throughout the coming months....

Scavenger Hunt

In my Public Journalism class, I had to go on a scavenger hunt to find a certain spot on campus using clues provided by a fellow classmate. I read the clues and humbly began my search for the ever elusive area waiting for me after following each of the five clues. Using my unsurprisingly quick wits and even faster navigational skills, I carefully deduced that the location I was searching high and low, in every nook and cranny of the ODU campus was one of my least visited spots on campus: The Lion's Child Study Center lobby area.
I simply have not been around this area of campus much because I have produced no children of my own to be taken care of at the Lion's Center. Also, interestingly enough to you, I have minimal to no desire to study children in their learning and playing environments. As a trench coat wearing English bloke might put it, watching children simply is not "my cup of tea." Indeed. Despite the set-back of my unfamiliarity with the lobby area of the child study center, I took my photos in the most reasonable and intellectually arousing way that I could possible fathom and went about my business on this particular January night. I scampered back to my house and attempted to warm the chill from my bones.
Until next time, to all of my dedicated readers, tally-ho and god speed!

Dining for the environment

From "The Daily Orange" a post by Janae DeRusso goes as follows:

Trayless dining is one of the easiest ways the Syracuse University campus could
become more environmentally friendly. By removing trays, dining centers that
run on all-you-can-eat meal systems will significantly reduce the amount of food
that is wasted each day.

Since Old Dominion University converted to trayless dinning in the Fall 2008 semester, I believe that the amount of food wasted has been cut tremendously. I can not find exact statistics from ODU on the matter, but since employing this smarter way of eating in the on-campus cafeterias, students can no longer over indulge on the buffet of food provided by our school because they can only eat what can be carried in two hands. This usually equates to a plate of food in one hand and a drink in the other as opposed to a tray stacked with two, three, or even four plates of food, which more often than not is thrown away rather than completely consumed. I agree with Janae DeRusso's views on this matter. Trayless dining was one of the smarter, eco-friendly decisions ODU has made during my two and a half years here.