Senior Biochemistry major Matt Ryan talks about planning A Taste of Global Health, a Timmy Global Health event that brought international cuisine to the Carmichael dining hall:

The event started as the brainchild of our Timmy Global Health chapter president Alejandra Garcia-Pletsch. The concept was simple: a themed night in the dining halls to celebrate the host countries of a handful of the global health groups on campus.

So I first reached out to Tufts Dining back in September to see how we could put our idea into action. Soon afterward, I met with Carmichael Dining Center manager Peter Kourafalos. From the get-go he was enthusiastic and was instrumental in getting this event off the ground. As he explained it, student-sponsored events like these are always a welcome addition to the normal dining menu.

The only difficulty comes with scheduling: themed nights are planned well in advance, usually before the school year even starts. However, with Peter’s support and excitement, we tossed around a number of ideas to creatively incorporate cuisine, decorations and conversations on global health into the event.

A Taste of Global Health

The next month I sat down with the Tufts Dining dietician Julie Lampie, the head chef Toby, and Peter. With extensive experience in dining management, Julie’s input really transformed the event from a set of ideas into a tangible goal. From there we began to tackle the logistics: recipes, decorations, music, advertisements and finalizing the date.

With the event now confirmed, I reached out to BUILD: India and GlobeMed, two groups on campus that, like Timmy Global Health, also participate in annual service trips to their host countries of India and Nepal, respectively. Each of our groups was tasked with compiling menus for the event: 2 entreés, 2 starches, 2 vegetables, 1 appetizer and 1 dessert. As fall semester came to a close, I looked forward to our January medical service trip to Xela, Guatemala, to draw inspiration.

On returning from break, it was a little difficult to regain momentum. Since I was the middleman between the student groups and dining management, the next few weeks were filled with various email threads, meetings and menu revisions.

Early in February I again sat down with the Carmichael team to run through the menu. For the first time I took the backseat as I listened to the three of them run through each item, discussing portions, available recipes, ordering, serving options, tweaking and re-tweaking the recipes….It really was incredible to witness the amount of planning that goes into each dinner service.

Students at A Taste of Global Health

Finally on the day of the event, I stopped by in the morning to set up 75 trifold table tents, with each panel dedicated to a student group. Later that afternoon, I met with students from GlobeMed and BUILD: India to start set up at 3:30 PM. With Peter’s help, we set up tables with posters, banners, pictures and information about our groups. We hung papel picado to decorate the choco-banana stand.

We also handed over three CD’s worth of music inspired by chart toppers in Guatemala, Nepal and India. My group set up a table outside to sell Guatemalan scarves, necklaces, earrings and bracelets that we had purchased on our trip two months prior.

Timmy E-Board at A Taste of Global Health

Timmy E-Board

Overall, the event was an absolute success. Between tabling shifts for Timmy Global Health, I eagerly buzzed around Carmichael proud to see many months’ work come to life. I myself was blown away by the dinner, and many friends came up to me saying that the food was the best they’d ever had in Carmichael.

Most importantly though, it was a success because of the conversations we had with interested students eager to learn more about our work and ways to get involved. My hope is that the event helped students appreciate the rich cultural diversity of our host countries and the impact of our work. Looking forward, I hope we can continue to collaborate with Tufts Dining to make great food for a great cause. ¡Buen provecho!

Photos via Kristie Le ’17/Tufts Dining Facebook page