KNOXVILLE — Where can you feast on Italian, Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine and also learn about a variety of volunteer opportunities?
At the Ready for the World Café, of course.
The student-run international buffet will feature a “Volunteer Week” theme Sept. 21-24.
The Ready for the World Café is open from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. each Monday through Thursday in the Hermitage Room on the third floor of the University Center. Students enrolled in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism (HRT) 445, the advanced food production and service management class, plan and operate the café. ARAMARK, UT’s provider of dining services, prepares the food.
Diners pay $11 for the all-you-can-eat buffet or $9 for a plate of food to carry out.
The week’s menu will include pasta Milano, lemon cod, grilled Indian pork, vegetable stew, roasted vegetables, roast garlic mashed potatoes and tabouli.
“Our theme is going to be volunteerism,” said Tyler Hudson, who planned the menu and will run the week’s operation with fellow student Johnny Baek. “We are going to have different charity fliers and brochures so students can learn how to get involved in the community.”
The “Volunteer Spirit” theme is especially appropriate since, this year, Ready for the World — UT’s international and intercultural initiative — has launched “Volunteers Rock the World!” to collect stories about how members of the UT community are lending a hand to make our world a better place through volunteer work or service learning projects. Students, faculty, staff and alumni can request a free “Volunteers Rock the World!” T-shirt to wear while they do their volunteer projects. In return, they are asked to share their experiences, along with videos and photos, on the Ready for the World Facebook page, http://www.utk.edu/readyfortheworld/facebook.
More information about Ready for the World and “Volunteers Rock the World!” will be available at this week’s café.
Baek, of Memphis, is a senior in HRT management. He works at Nama Sushi Bar in Bearden. “I began my apprenticeship five years ago at my father’s teppanyaki and sushi restaurant and have been learning sushi while attending school since then,” he said. “I one day hope to own my own Japanese restaurant serving traditional hot food as well as sushi.”
Hudson, of Nashville, is a junior in HRT management. He recently finished an internship with Macaroni Grill and has worked at Applebee’s and Pizza Hut. “Next summer, I am hopefully working with Marriot in Orlando, Fla., for an internship. After I graduate I would like to get hired by Marriot and eventually be the general manager of a hotel down in the islands,” he said.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely, (865-974-5034, ablakely@tennessee.edu)