This week, Lesley Davis, the food service director on campus, was tasked with the seemingly impossible: providing a Thanksgiving meal for the entire campus.

Requiring over 500 pounds of turkey, 30 gallons of gravy, 2,000 baked rolls and other extraordinary amounts of seasonal foods, the Thanksgiving meal was the 18th year Waynesburg University has held the event. Even though the Thanksgiving meal took half a week to prepare for and only seven chefs were in charge of the preparation, Davis said one of the most challenging parts was being able to provide the other meals at the same time.

“It’s not like I have extra help to bring in and say ‘hey you’re here to cook the dinner that day,’” Davis said. “We still have to feed the kid’s breakfast and lunch that day and it’s kind of hard to cook 25 turkeys and all that stuff at one time.”

Due to the volume of cooking that has to take place leading up to the meal, Davis said she has to get creative with where and when certain items are cooked.

“We learned that we cook all the corn at the Beehive because the steamers are being used to make the potatoes for the mashed potatoes,” Davis said. “Turkeys will start early…and from there we’ll slice and pan [them] up and get gravy made.”

Another challenge that Davis and her staff faced during the meal was having to flip the dining hall after lunch to prepare for over 800 estimated individuals in attendance for the meal.

“We put out all the tables possible, plus extra seating – nine chairs to a table – so, we’re maxing out [the dining hall] as much as we can as soon as lunch is over,” Davis said. “At two [o’clock] we have to flip this whole dining hall over and be ready set by four o’clock – we have two hours.”

Similar to years previous, the faculty and staff acted as servers for the students and waited on individual tables. Kelly Hardie, assistant dean of Student Services, helped coordinate finding the faculty to assist. Hardie said the staff always enjoys waiting on the students during the meal.

“Our faculty and staff really enjoy this event,” Hardie said. “They like serving our students and getting their photos with them. We have a wide variety of both faculty and staff [who] sign up.”

With the faculty serving the students during the meal, Hardie said it helps build the community within Waynesburg University.

“I think [the meal is] great fellowship as a community. It’s definitely become a tradition here at Waynesburg University,” Hardie said. “Our students look forward to it every single year and they really do appreciate the faculty and the staff being there and serving them.”

For Davis and the chefs that assist in cooking the meal, she said the added work is hardly a burden.

“Honestly, my cooks enjoy the students and love putting their best foot forward in everything they make,” Davis said. “We consider the university students our family. I feel like these are my kids and this is what we want to give them – it’s part of our special thanks to the university.”