Sundays are quiet days in Oxford, and many students prefer to spend the waning hours of their weekend relaxing in their dorms or doing homework. However, in Residence Hall 1, a group of students has chosen to put this time towards organizing Sunday “family” dinners.
Emmey Stewart, a freshman studies major from Mobile, Ala., and Addisyn Smith, a freshman southern studies major from Savannah, Ga., are founding participants of the dinner group. Smith said that these gatherings sprang from missing home.
“I was like, ‘I want a home-cooked meal,’” Smith said. “So I went and got pancake mix. We ended up making way too many for just us. So we texted everyone, and were like, ‘Come downstairs, come get pancakes.’”
The dinners take place every week in the kitchen of the dormitory around 8 p.m. The gatherings are laid-back affairs, typically consisting of students sitting and chatting, doing homework, studying and watching football on television.
Sometimes the girls cook. They have prepared tacos, pasta, ramen, cookies, pancakes and cake. Other times they order pizza.
The girls usually begin by texting everyone in their family dinner group chat, which consists mostly of students on floor two of Residence Hall 1. Later on, they message the group chat for all of Residence Hall 1 to invite anyone who is hungry to come eat the extra food, which tends to attract some new faces.
“We’ll text, ‘Hey, we have pizza,’ or ‘There’s pasta tonight,” Stewart said. “And then everyone just comes down, including the frat boys.”
Approximately 20 to 30 people pop in and out over the course of the meal, with new faces appearing every time.
“It’s a great opportunity to meet new people,” Smith said. “When people come in and grab food, we’re like, ‘Hey, what’s your name? Come sit and hang out and talk.’”
Since weekends can be busy, the girls use the dinners to catch up before the school week begins.
Mary Claire Waters, a freshman business major from St. Simon’s Island, Ga., who regularly attends family dinners, described how the gathering is a good opportunity to reconnect and share stories from the weekend.
“Last week, everybody went home, and we didn’t get to see anybody during the weekend,” Waters said. “Sunday, that’s when everybody comes back.”
Sydney Schoen, a freshman general business major from Franklin Lakes, N.J., said the dinner has helped the girls grow closer than might be expected of those living in a dorm that does not have a reputation for being social, as Crosby Hall or Martin Hall do.
“Our dorm isn’t normally considered social,” Schoen said. “But our whole floor knows each other by name. We’re always in and out of each other’s dorm (rooms). So we all just come down here Sunday and hang about and talk about what we’re doing or help people study or do their homework.”
In the future, they hope to host a sushi night or even relocate to a Provisions On Demand (POD) market for a meal. Later on this semester, the girls hope to celebrate holiday meals together.
“The Sunday before, we’re going to have Thanksgiving here,” Smith said.
The girls plan to continue hosting the Sunday family dinners next year, even when they are no longer living in dorms. Luckily, they will all be living together next year, so the tradition will be an easy one to carry on.
Though the girls are only halfway through their first semester, the Sunday dinners have helped them feel as if they have been friends for much longer.
“We’ve only known each other for, what, two months?” Schoen said. “It feels like we’ve known each other our whole life.”
Smith echoed Schoen’s sentiments toward the dynamic of the family dinner group.
“We’re all away from home,” Smith said. “I’m not close to my home. So for me, it’s like a whole little family.”
