Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, family-centric, and unfamiliar to international college students who are left on campus when all the American kids head home for the long weekend in November. That’s why Dean Stuart Greenbaum organized the first Thanksgiving potluck dinner in 1995.

“I came from the Kellogg School at Northwestern, and the campus Thanksgiving dinner there was a popular event,” Greenbaum said. “Students, faculty, alumni brought their families and it was a great community gathering for the business school.”

At the first Olin Thanksgiving, faculty and staff prepared the turkey and traditional meal for a few dozen guests. By the next year, with 161 RSVPs, reinforcements were called in from campus food services. The table, set up in Piper Hallway in Simon Hall, kept getting longer as the number of guests kept multiplying. In 1998, 170 people attended. There were more than 350 guests in 2002!

• 2008: A record-setting year with more than 600 professors, students, and families in attendance and they gobbled up more than 250 pounds of turkey.
• 2009: A few statistics from the chef: The kitchen prepared and served 260 pounds of turkey, 100 pounds of white potatoes and 120 pounds of sweet potatoes. They ran out of turkey legs, but no one left hungry. The dessert tables were brimming with pies, cookies and candy, and there was the always-popular soft-serve ice cream.
• 2011: More than 515 guests were served during the event, at which 28 Knight Center staff members arrived at 4 a.m. to help prepare.
• 2014: the chefs roasted 50 turkeys to serve more than 500 guests.

Many thanks to the Aramark staff who prepare and serve the Olin Thanksgiving feast every year before heading home to do the same for their families.

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