RHSA progressive dinner appeals to students' stomachs, encourages community involvement

On Friday, ravenous UW residents ventured from Hansee Hall, trekked across campus to McCarty, Haggett, McMahon and Stevens Court to arrive at Terry-Lander Hall, all in the name of supper.

The Residence Hall Student Association (RHSA) organized and hosted the Progressive Dinner program last Friday, which served free food in all the residence halls during a three-hour period.

Students from all resident halls were invited to partake in a dinner that began in Hansee and progressed to McCarty, Haggett, McMahon and Stevens Court, before concluding at the 1101 Caf[HTML_REMOVED] in Terry-Lander.

"In the past, RHSA has not done as many programs involving all the residence halls," said Jada Isherwood, RHSA president. "We were all wanting to do more all-hall programs, so this is one of the events we were able to put on."

The Progressive Dinner in 2004 when RHSA began looking to create a program accessible to all residents across campus.

"Progressive Dinner started in the 2004-2005 school year but didn't happen last year," Isherwood said. "It's not a traditional program, but since it involves a lot of residents, I hope it can become a regular program because it's a lot of fun. By providing a free dinner, it was a way for us to give back to the residents, and as you can see, it was quite an extensive dinner."

As president of the RHSA, Isherwood said he didn't get to interact with residents as much as he liked to, so the event was a good opportunity to meet residents in person.

Although not all participants came with empty stomachs, some ambitious students traveled across campus for the event, which boasted food ranging from fruit trays to Spanish tacos and cookies for dessert.

"My favorite food item was the mozzarella sticks and jalapeno poppers at Haggett Hall," said UW senior Carolyn Lovano. "While we were waiting in line at Haggett, we sang the UW fight song, which was fun. The nice thing was if you were at the previous location, you would get priority for the next event. It was like a race to the finish line."

Lovano also said that overall, the event had a great turnout, and she enjoyed the aspect of going to all the dorms and meeting new people who lived at those dorms.

"I think it's a chance for residents to experience other residence halls, for south campus to go to north campus and vice versa," Isherwood said. "Both sides of campus are really different so it's always good to interact with one another."

Reach reporter Vicky Yan at news@thedaily.washington.edu.