On any given day, the campus Listserv will include several emails advertising free food at various events. There are dinner discussions about international business with food from Thai Orchid and meetings about Senior Fellowships with Lou’s pies. Many of the clubs on campus offer free food to entice students to attend their events. Not only is spending money on food just to give it away to students both wasteful and expensive, but it rarely creates meaningful long-term interest in the club.
Clubs use food as an incentive to boost awareness and increase participation, but it often doesn’t achieve these goals — I have seen people who will grab a slice of pie, avoid the discussion and never go to another meeting. Even I have gone to events simply for the food without bothering to try to understand why they were offering it in the first place. I often end up full but completely clueless as to what the discussion included. Regardless of the group, offering free catered events risks dividing attendees into two factions — a solid core of people who contribute to the event and a sizeable group of passive listeners who stay out of the conversation. Unengaged attendees are a particular problem for clubs with discussions that need participants to keep the conversation going.
In these situations, the food at meetings likely won’t attract students who genuinely want to contribute to the club. If people are passionate about the meeting’s topic likely would have showed up regardless of whether or not Jewel of India was supplying a free dinner. Even if there is a boost in attendance, food doesn’t necessarily cause a proportional increase in participation. Of course, there is a possible scenario with a positive outcome — someone goes to a meeting because of the free food, ends up really liking the club and goes on to become an active member. The number of times that this may occur, however, does not warrant the cost of catering the event.
Indeed, the cost is another big issue with these events. One Lou’s mile-high apple pie costs roughly 19 dollars. Buying two of them — which may feed approximately 15 people — would set a club back at least 38 dollars. A dinner event can cost hundreds of dollars to host, and some clubs host these events on a fairly regular basis. In the past week, for example, the campus Listserv included at least five blitzes that advertised free food, with choices including free Panera Bread and Ramunto’s pizza — the announcement of free food often makes it way into the subject line of the blitz. Money currently spent on food could clearly go toward more useful purposes that would align with clubs’ missions, such as donating to philanthropic organizations or funding members to attend a conference related to the interests of the club.
This isn’t to say clubs shouldn’t give out food. Especially at the beginning of the year, when freshmen have just arrived and are unsure of which organizations they want to join, offering food as an incentive may bring new, curious people who may become active members in the future. Similarly, a free lunch at the start of a new term may convince upperclassmen to attend a meeting for the first time. Cultural events that offer dishes from a certain cuisine make sense too, since they expose people to a certain culture. By offering food constantly, however, clubs often make themselves the targets of students who will only go to meetings because of the promise of a free dinner.
In the future, I will probably continue going to events for advertised food. Rather than sitting on the sidelines, though, I will try to join in on the discussion — to learn about what they’re trying to tell me and listen to them. Conversely, clubs need to realize that using food as an incentive might not be as effective or economical as they think. It should be offered less frequently and given out more selectively, which will likely attract people who will be serious about participating in the club. Until clubs make that change, they will ultimately waste hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars of funding each term on people who will literally eat up their money.
