By Natalie Jones
Members of the University of Maryland’s Global Communities Living-Learning Program gathered for their annual international potluck in the basement of Elkton Hall on Nov. 12.
Global Communities is a two-year program within the College of Behavioral and Sciences that focuses on globalization and global issues. Students are invited to join the program upon reviewing their applications to the university.
The potluck, hosted by the Global Communities Student Association, is an annual opportunity for students of different backgrounds in the living-learning program to come together and bond over food.
Jazmin Pichardo, the program director for the Global Communities program, said she hoped the event would help with community building.
“We really just want to create opportunities for students to come together over the commonalities that we all share, which is delicious food,” Pichardo said. “To be able to share that with one another [generates] an opportunity to talk, and [gets] beyond those surface-level interactions.”
The potluck is an event that students take full control of, according to Pichardo. Committee chairs and subcommittees worked together to circulate sign-up sheets and organize the details of the event.
The potluck featured 14 dishes from 12 different countries and regions, and featured lunch, dinner and side dishes, as well as desserts. Areas represented included England, China, Russia, Germany, Vietnam, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, the middle east, Kosovo and Denmark.
Alex Pichler, a freshman in the living-learning program whose major is still undecided, decided to bring a taste of her Vietnamese background to the university to share with her fellow students. She brought pork wontons, which consists of chopped onions, celery, carrots, salt and pepper, sugar and ground pork.
“My grandma is from Vietnam and I have her recipe,” she said. “It’s very homey to me because my grandma made it and she doesn’t live here anymore.”
Pichler was unsure of the impact that her dish would have on other students, but only had one wish for the event.
“I just hope that they liked the food,” she said, adding that pork wontons were the easiest Vietnamese dish she knew how to make, and also the only dish she knew how to make.
William Ryba, a sophomore chemistry major and the cultural programming committee chair for Global Communities, also brought a taste of his home country of England to the potluck, teaming up with another English student to make it.
“I brought roast lamb, which is a very traditional English Sunday roast,” he said. “It’s kind of the big meal that everyone comes together and eats.”
Despite its traditional nature, Ryba didn’t get a chance to eat roast lamb as often as he wanted to when he was growing up.
“[Roast lamb] was a special occasion thing,” he said. “I have it on my birthday because it’s my favorite, and we have it on Christmas day or New Year’s.”
Ryba added that whenever he ate roast lamb growing up, his father would make it for him, but this time, he made it himself at his apartment in University View.
“I’m learning how to make the roast myself, without any parental help,” he said. “I had to call my parents and ask, ‘this is how you do it, right?’”
Ryba hoped that the potluck would give the members of Global Communities a more global perspective of food, as well as a place to discuss other cultures’ food freely.
“I think it’s a good way to start a conversation about an international community, and really expand your circle of friends,” he said.
The Global Communities Student Association hosts a variety of different events in addition to the international potluck, including embassy trips. In the spring semester they will hold Cultural Explosion, international talent show and their biggest event of the year.
