Sodexo ‘transports’ students to heart of New York City

Lynchburg Daily Bread teamed up with Sodexo and Liberty University to host a New York City showcase benefit Thursday, Feb. 26 at the Reber-Thomas Dining Hall. The benefit featured a living Lady Liberty who greeted guests and various food stations that resembled New York City restaurants.

According to its website, Lynchburg Daily Bread is a charitable organization that works to feed the homeless and “has provided a hot meal in a Christian environment to the needy of the Lynchburg area for 31 years.” Every day of the year, Lynchburg Daily Bread serves a nutritious meal to those in need at no charge. These meals are open to anyone, and guests can have as many servings as they need. Local colleges, grocery stores and other food establishments contribute more than 98 percent of food donated.

“The New York City showcase benefit event is to raise money for the Lynchburg Daily Bread, which Sodexo already supports by donating canned food and ‘day of’ leftover food items that can be reused from Doc’s Diner and the (Reber-Thomas) Dining Hall,” Macey Lutz, a worker at the event, said.

According to Lutz, the whole purpose of New York Night was to make students aware of the donations Sodexo gives, and to give Liberty students a chance to get involved and make their own donations.

Students were able to contribute by depositing monetary donations in buckets shaped like upside-down top hats located next to each food station.

“The New York theme came from a national promotion called Campus Staycation hosted by Sodexo,” Case Guise, unit marketing coordinator for Liberty University Dining Services, said. “Students can enter to win a prize trip to either Orlando, Los Angeles or New York City.”

The New York night featured decorations and signs highlighting different aspects of New York culture, such as “Little Italy” and “The Apollo.” The event also included New York-style foods such as New York-style pizza and cannolis. A student band named Round Jericho and Liberty’s hip-hop dance team D-trex also performed at the event.

“It’s almost as magical as the actual New York,” junior Michael Kinney said.

Much like the traffic in Times Square, students and Reber-Thomas Dining Hall guests hurried around to the different food stations, swerving in and out of lines and around people to get to their destinations.

“I thought it was really cool how they did the New York theme,” freshman Dan Smith said. “It seems like a great night and it was well-organized. The sample station was my favorite part.”