Reasons to be thankful on the UR campus
Campus Life
The lingering aroma of oven-roasted turkey and cheerful conversations are all part of the chaplaincy’s annual traditional Thanksgiving feast. The Office of the Chaplaincy has hosted the event with Dining Services since 2021, and this year the Student Development Division helped with coordination. With financial support from the Student Emergency Fund, those who remain on campus will have a place to celebrate the holiday.
“Students sit with their community of friends around a large table, similar to a family gathering, to share a Thanksgiving meal together,” said Jamie Lynn Haskins, chaplain for spiritual life and communications director. “It’s our hope that they’ll feel a little family warmth and connection even though they might be far away from home and those they love.”
Home away from home
Last year, 130 students attended the lunchtime meal, which included holiday favorites such as turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. This year’s lunch will take place at the Heilman Dining Center on Nov. 26, from 12 to 1:30 p.m.
This will be the third year that junior Kaylee Wyrick will be staying on campus and attending the event. Being from Fort Worth, Texas, she said traveling home for Thanksgiving is too expensive and inconvenient.
“With everything on campus shut down and many of my friends leaving, the lunch provides much-needed food and community interaction,” said Wyrick, a religious studies and anthropology double major. “I think that the lunch is an amazing idea because it reminds students who are stuck on campus during the break that they're not alone.”
Haskins’ young daughter was also at the meal last year. “It reminded me of being at Thanksgiving back home with younger cousins running around,” Wyrick said. “The meal was also amazing, and I am grateful that the event occurs every year.”
After lunch is over, volunteers distribute to-go breakfast bags for students to use on the days when the dining hall is closed.
More than turkey day leftovers
The Wednesday dinners provide a social outlet for the students. “But then Thursday to Saturday, when the dining hall was closed, presented an open window of need,” said Laura Thompson, assistant dean of undergraduate student services at Robins. “I give credit to Saif Mehkari for spearheading the non-Thanksgiving dinner — no turkey or stuffing — on the Saturday of break.”
Dean Mickey Quiñones and analytics & operations professor Aslan Lotfi also lend support to Thompson and economics professor Mehkari.
Thanksgiving Break Dinner @ Robins will take place near Lou’s in the business school on Nov. 29 from 5-7 p.m. Thompson said the Mediterranean meal will include food such as rice, chicken, falafel, salad, pita bread with global appeal for the many international students who attend and options for students who are vegan or vegetarian.
“The idea started out of a small socially distanced dinner that we did for 10 to 12 students during the winter break in 2020,” said Mehkari. “These were students who could not go home, and COVID was very isolating for them.”
About 100 students from across the University attend the event each year. The dinner is open to all in the campus community.
Saige Beatman, a senior from Berlin, Connecticut, has attended one D-Hall Thanksgiving lunch and a few business school dinners. “The dinners were especially meaningful to me during my first few semesters, as I was getting to know people,” said Beatman, a history and business administration double major. “I really appreciate the extent to which Dr. Mehkari looks out for his students beyond the classroom.”
Mehkari said that Thanksgiving Break Dinner @ Robins resembles a community picnic — a low-key event where faculty and staff set up and refresh the food as students make their way down food lines.
“We don’t get an outside caterer to arrange and set up” he said. “Our main aim is to ensure that students know we are a community and that we work together to take care of each other.”
In the early days
Before the Chaplaincy began its lunch program, Lisa Miles, former associate director with Common Ground (which is now known as the Hub for Student Inclusion and Community) and former Chaplaincy staff member and director of multifaith initiatives Emily Dunevant hosted Thanksgiving dinners on campus for at least six years.
For the first two years, the staff members prepared a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day for the students and served it at The Web, a multipurpose space located by Sorority Row. As the event grew, they moved it to the Cellar, and switched it to the day before Thanksgiving so that more faculty and staff could be involved.
Miles helped start the tradition after noticing that more international students and students from across the country were remaining on campus during the break. “We probably had 70 to 90 people each year,” said Miles, who retired last year. She and her family would have Thanksgiving dinner on campus with the students.
“Many of the international students had not heard of Thanksgiving, but they leaned into it,” she said. “And I think that seeing all the staff and faculty there, volunteering their time, demonstrated what the holiday really means.”