Students dine, donate to Haiti

Student volunteers manned the food tables a little before 5 p.m. as the Haiti Benefit Dinner was about to begin in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Grand Hall. They stood at the vegetarian table, the non-vegetarian table and the dessert table amid the pre-start panic.

“Where’s the bread?” someone yelled.

The students snuck peaks at the food, wondering what it was. They donned rubber gloves. Then, they took off the aluminum covers, crushed them into balls and revealed rices, potatoes and noodles.

The hungry diners shuffled in. Everyone got two entrees, rice and bread. In a few hours, many of the pans would be empty.

Tickets for the event were sold for $10 each to benefit Partners in Health, which is on the ground in Haiti after Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake last month. The event exceeded its goal of raising $5,000, said Philip Asamoah, a student in the Huttons Honors Council Association.

The council started planning for the event about three weeks ago, said junior Hannah Wert, who is on the council and helped organize.

“It’s fairly easy to get people to donate,” she said. Besides, she said, people will pay for good Bloomington food.

The foods were styles from all over the world. Twenty-three restaurants donated, from Cafe D’jango to Papa John’s to European Cooking School.

Sophomore Cara Escobedo got fried rice, a potato dish, a breadstick and a woman dished her up something else.

“Some kind of pie,” Escobedo said the woman told her. “She didn’t know.”

Escobedo tried something new, but, she said, she liked it.

Her friend, sophomore Lloyd Edwards ate stuffed grape leaves from Anatolia Turkish Restaurant. He said his food had a spice to it and he liked it, also.

About 40 minutes in, dance group Gumboot took stage. They performed traditional South African dances developed by oppressed black miners. After them came soul group 4Reign and then jazz, hip-hop fusion group Jip Jop.

A little after 7 p.m., the food was running low. The line, which kept some for half an hour, tapered off. Organizers bought more food from China Buffet to make sure the last people got something. 

Through some of the night, a YouTube video projected on a wall. It played over and over of Haitian children on stretchers and in hospital beds. One scene showed a man using a sledgehammer to break through a collapsed building.

“I think it’s important to have a reminder about why we’re here,” said freshman Fleetwood Young, who turned on the video.