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The Undercurrent is a biweekly news feature show written and produced by students from Michigan State University. Each episode explores multiple stories surrounding one central theme.
Hello, and welcome to The Undercurrent on eighty eight point nine FM, The Impact. I am your host, Lily Williams, and I am so excited to talk to all of you about everything going on on campus and around East Lansing this year. Now, for those who don't know, The Undercurrent is a biweekly in-depth news show about what's going on around campus. And today, I'm going to talk about Gather on The Green. Gather on The Green is a new university event that Rebecca Salesky says was started by university president Kevin Guskowicz.
Speaker 1:Saleski is the vice president of culinary services at MSU and has been heavily involved in the planning of Gather on the Green. She joins us today to talk a little about the event and how it's going so far. Would you first like to tell us a little bit about what Gather on The Green is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Gather on The Green is a president initiative and he really brought IPF and culinary together so we could create a space for the community, for the community at MSU and the community East Lansing, Lansing to come together and really share our products that we have here on campus with the community and our students and just create that common ground. So we have, food there from culinary services. We have product from our student organic farm, which we're really excited about. She has different vegetables. She has a bloom bar there.
Speaker 2:And then we have bakery items as well as, so we have sweet treats and then we have t shirts and other things that our laundry, team does. And then there will be times when we have Burgess, so student made there as well, selling their products. So students make and develop products and then they'll be able to sell them there. They should be there. They won't be there every time, but they will be there every once in a while, as well as, you know, working with other collaborations with Impact Radio, you all.
Speaker 2:I think you're there actually this evening. We're looking at maybe potential for live music and just other opportunities just to create a really welcoming opening environment for our community.
Speaker 1:And what kind of food can people expect to see when they visit Gather on The Green?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for our culinary services, the first week we really focused on more bowls. We did different cultural bowls and then the second week, we kind of morphed that into different, handhelds. So we still had the bowls there, but we also did some handhelds. We also have hot dogs with different toppings so that you can do that. We have chips.
Speaker 2:And then the bakery is doing cookies, rice crispy treats with the Spartan logo on them, and then cupcakes as well. And we continue to look at our menu every week to kind of see what's working and what's not working. But the Latin bowl seems to be one of the favorites as well as the Latin handheld. And then we're doing some ba mi as well. That went over really well last week.
Speaker 2:There's a Korean one that seemed to be a big hit.
Speaker 1:And how much should people expect to pay for a meal when they visit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, you know, between, you could probably eat between $7 and $15 for a meal, depending on what you choose.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a good
Speaker 2:deal in my opinion. Yes, it is. Good deal and great food.
Speaker 1:And when and where is Gather on The Green being held?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's right next to, it's in between Human Ecology and the Union Building right next to Grand River. So you can see it as you're passing Grand River. Actually IPF hung some string lights up for us to again, to create just this really awesome ambience for people, but that's where it's located.
Speaker 1:And what are some of the things that you hope Gather on The Green brings to our community here on campus at MSU and to the community of East Lansing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's just that space to bring people together and also the space, food always brings everyone together, but just to bring the community together, both students and community, because we are all here together and really that's why we're all successful. And I just really hope that continues to build that bond between both community community being East Lansing Lansing and surrounding as well as the MSU community.
Speaker 1:And can you talk a little bit about what it means for this to be a pilot program?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just an exciting opportunity to really test things out. See again, see what's working, see what doesn't work. And I think just the opportunity to explore what options are out there. Is this something that everyone's excited about and what can we do to get people excited to be in that space? It's truly a beautiful space.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of traffic from the bus stop and people crossing over from Grand River and vice versa. So I think it's really just, exciting to be in that space and really to run a pilot program and find out again what 's exciting for everybody in the community and what would bring people there.
Speaker 1:And where do you hope or where do you foresee that Gather on The Green will go in the future? Are there any specific changes that you guys want to make or just anything that you're planning on at this point?
Speaker 2:I think everyone that's been involved, being Adam Lover from IPF, Janet Lilly from government relations, Bill Beakman, and then myself, I think we're excited for pilot program and what it is now and potentially what it could become. I think we're all hopeful that it's still around next year. Maybe we are doing more things in the summer that leads into then the school year. And then even what does it look like as the winter months start to get colder? You know, everyone's always looking for something to do, when the colder months set in.
Speaker 2:So what could that look like moving forward? Maybe is that a permanent structure or trailer? I think we hope and would love to see more vendors and just other things that we do here on campus just to be able to show the community what we can do and then bring the community in as well.
Speaker 1:And how has the turnout been over these first three weeks that you guys have been holding the program?
Speaker 2:Every week it's growing. And I think last week we were excited because we had a few returners, but our sales have increased week over week. No, this is week three, so we'll see how this week goes. And I know a lot of people are really drawn in by Darby and the Student Organic Farm because she has this beautiful bloom bar set up where you can put bouquets of flowers together. She has some pre made already.
Speaker 2:So that's been really nice, but each week we've seen growth. So we're hopeful that we continue to see growth as the awareness of the event gets out.
Speaker 1:And with this being a pilot program, I'm sure you guys are still kind of figuring things out. Are there any changes that you've had to make or any challenges that you guys have faced thus far?
Speaker 2:We have tweaked stuff each week. So week one to week two, we tweaked menu and added Spartan Cash. And then week two to week three, there's been a few menu tweaks as well as we actually added combo exchange. The students can use their dining program or dining, yeah, a part of the dining program. So we're actually really excited about that as well.
Speaker 2:And then faculty, staff, if they have swipes, could use it for the dining program. So we are really excited about that.
Speaker 1:Perfect. That was all that I had that I wanted to touch on. Is there anything else that you think is important to mention or just that you would like to add at all?
Speaker 2:No, I think just I would encourage people to come check it out. I think it's a great space and a great event, a great place to have a meeting or, you know, for our student groups to bring their student groups in or just families to come and enjoy a meal in the outdoors, as well as just, I think it's a great opportunity truly for our students and community to come together. And I think we're always looking for those spaces to do that.
Speaker 1:More information about Gather on The Green can be found on the Edith State social media pages. Impact eighty nine FM's news director, the wonderful Rebecca McEvoy, also attended Gather on The Green on September 9. There she spoke with Stacy Dawson, who's the associate director for support services for culinary services at Michigan State University. She said that the main ideas of Gather on The Green are showcasing the culinary skill that we have here and community.
Speaker 3:Well, I hope it brings the students to the space, but I also hope it brings the community so that the community and the students can gather together, in the same type of space. Part of my job here on campus, I oversee Spartan Linen Services and MSU Baker. We're selling some t shirts out here from Spartan Linen Services and some items from our bakery and just letting know because I think we get forgotten a lot but we do have retail storefronts at both of those locations so we're advertising what we do on campus here too so that there's other options just outside of this but we're really showcasing what we do in culinary services and all of that kind of stuff but it's for the community, involves the residents of East Lansing as well. So we hope they join us too.
Speaker 1:Dawson said they wanted to share these products because a lot of students and community members aren't really aware of all that goes on on MSU's campus and all of the products that are offered. She specifically told us more about Spartan Linen Services.
Speaker 3:So our on campus laundry, we provide all of the sheets and linens that are in the residence halls for students that use them. We also provide all of the bed sheets, bed linen for the hotel, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center, all of the linens, table linens, and napkins for their events. And we also do uniform services, so we embroider, we do a lot of embroidery at and we provide all of the uniforms for culinary services, for our division, which is resident education and housing. It's not that. It's residential and hospitality services, RHS.
Speaker 3:So we do uniform embroidery also for IPO. So all of the IPO uniforms we do there. And then we have a retail storefront where we sell items that we either embroider. We have t shirts for sale, though. We do, you know, some spring and spring spring as well.
Speaker 1:McEvoy also spoke with Janet Lilly on the ninth, who is the vice president for community relations at MSU. Lilly said her role is to bring in as many people as possible from the surrounding areas.
Speaker 4:Well, is an initiative that we wanted to pilot for September and October on Wednesdays from 04:30 to 07:30. So weather permitting, it will run for the next two months and really to have some fun engagement, public gathering opportunity for community and students to gather along Grand River on the MSU side and whether it's grab dinner, one of the Mediterranean, Latin,
Speaker 3:or Korean bowls that's available,
Speaker 4:we'll pick up some fresh flowers from the organic farms. Just an opportunity for the community and the and the students to come together. So in my role of working to build relationships between MSU and the local community, we're also, advertising this on social media and using some geo fencing to get it out to local residents and inviting them to campus, to see if they would like to try some of our culinary as well as mix and mingle
Speaker 3:with students.
Speaker 4:Like, I do the Tri County area. So what we're looking to do is just have some additional activation and engagement along campus side of Grand River and hopes to encourage more quick traffic back and forth between East Lansing and MSU. MSU is a welcoming campus, and we would love the residents of East Lansing and beyond to come here and enjoy it, whether it's walking through our beautiful campus or picking up some treats from the bakery store that we're selling right here.