While many people will share a festive meal with friends and family this Thanksgiving, some U of M students cannot travel home for the holiday weekend.
For those who will be on campus Thanksgiving Day, Residence Life is sponsoring a dinner at 7 p.m. Thursday in Robison Hall. Students are asked to bring a potluck dish.
Management of information systems major Danish Hashmat said he is not traveling home for the holiday because his family is from the Middle East.
"I am staying here on campus because I have to work," said Hashmat, who is a Resident Adviser in Richardson Tower South. "My family is not from America, so I will spend time with friends here in the dorm."
Academic counseling center employee Keesha Johnson said she was going home to celebrate the holiday.
"I go home to my parent's house and we eat in front of the television," Johnson said. "We watch football and eat dressing. It's very relaxed. We have more excitement during Christmas time - more people."
The Christian Student Center is also sponsoring a free holiday dinner at 6 p.m. Friday.
Sophomore chemistry major Jonathan Goff said his family spends the day eating and watching football.
"I'm going home to Crockett County (Tenn.)," Goff said. "My mom cooks, and it is a big dinner - ham, broccoli and cheese and other foods. My entire family comes, cousins and uncles. Then we sleep."
Junior business major Loretta Drew said she has family in Nashville, but she will stay here with her husband and daughter.
"I have several families," Drew said. "I want to spend the holiday with my mother and other relatives, but it is too expensive to travel right now. My husband and daughter and I will eat a meal here. I will call my mother."
Senior education major Sola Moore said she does not prepare a meal, but visits relatives instead.
"I'm going to two houses, my mother's and mother-in-law's," Moore said. "I'm not cooking a traditional meal and I'm not a traditional housewife. I like the food, but I don't want to prepare it."
One option for students not interested in the traditional turkey dinner is helping serve a meal to the underprivileged Mid-South residents.
Memphis Inter-Faith Association employee Fleece Brown said several Memphis-area churches are in need of help with feeding the homeless and other needy people.
"Students who are free that day may want to do community service work such as working at Lake Grove Baptist Church, 265 Leath Street," Brown said. "The church will be feeding the homeless Thanksgiving dinner Thursday afternoon." Lake Grove Baptist Church can be contacted at 527-4175.
Brown said other churches and centers offering meals include Emmanuel Baptist Church, at 245 Ayers St. and Calvary Rescue Mission, at 960 S. Third. Emmanuel Baptist Church can be contacted at 527-3243 and Calvary Rescue Mission at 775-2570.
Junior management of information systems major Charles Ashley said he returns home for Thanksgiving each year, but has been thinking about staying in Memphis with fellow classmates.
"I'm going home to Little Rock," Ashley said. "I was thinking about sticking around with my friends who are going to be here, but I can't. I feel sorry for them and the other students who can't go home."
Sophomore biology major Brooke Nations, like other students, said she enjoys returning home to friends and family.
"I spend the day with my family here in Memphis. We cook a lot of food and spend time together," Nations said. "I love to spend time with my family. We are very close."
