On Tuesday, February 6, United and Mutually Equal (U&ME) held their annual Caribbean Food Fest event. The event ran between 12:30 and 2 p.m. in the Campus Center Mall area as a celebration of Caribbean culture featuring food, music, and education of Caribbean origin.
“I believe Caribbean Food Fest 2024 was a success,” stated Kolu Sharpe, United and Mutually Equal’s club advisor. This year’s event saw around 190 to 200 attendees, a good amount of people for one of U&ME’s significant spring semester events. “Every year is a little different, but I think we had a good turnout.”
For the event, the club offered six raffle prizes for students to try to win. The prizes included a crab-shaped speaker, a Bob Marley vinyl and Bob Marley poster, a Rasta Hat, and an Afro-Latina shirt with accompanying earrings. But even if students couldn’t win a raffle, they could still go home with something in the end, as the event featured many giveaway items.
As for the food, U&ME gathered 13 different food offerings, plus a variety of drinks from Springfield’s Talk of the Town restaurant. Eventgoers could sample from plantains, beef, chicken, or veggie patties, oxtail, and more. “I don’t know if there were folks who just came to check the event out but did not eat,” Sharpe began, “but some of those attending even returned to the line for seconds!”
The event was headed by Naressa Kempadoo, the President of U&ME and a member of Western New England University’s class of 2025, and Ashton Rutkowski, U&ME’s Historian and a member of our University’s class of 2025. The club also collaborated with the School of Law Outreach and Diversity Committee for Caribbean Food Fest, headed by Dr. Bridgette Baldwin.
Discussion about the program began last semester, and everything was finalized over the past two weeks. U&ME keeps detailed records and folders of all of their past events so students heading events can refer to those records when planning and modify past ideas to improve the current year’s event. “As someone overseeing the event, I thought it went really well,” Rutkowski stated. “I think the turnout was amazing and that this success could roll over to future events in the semester.”
U&ME’s next event is Ebony Food Fest on Thursday, February 22, 2024, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Rivers. “Traditionally, the event features a gospel concert and dinner,” hinted Sharpe, “but we might change things up a little this year” by featuring a traveling museum as well.
