Duke Student Government hosted the Duke-Durham Festival Sunday afternoon, bringing local Durham businesses and organizations to campus.
Among the organizations were the Durham Farmers’ Market, Durham Central Park, the Community Empowerment Fund and the Pauli Murray Center for Justice. Three restaurant businesses made an appearance and offered free food to registered students. The festival also featured two food trucks, Sister Liu’s Kitchen and Poblano’s Tacos, along with a table from Dame’s Chicken & Waffles.
DSG senator Alex Hong, a sophomore, hoped the event would help Duke students engage more deeply with Durham organizations.
“The Duke-Durham Festival is a festival aimed at promoting local arts, food and small businesses and nonprofits.” Hong said. “As Duke students, we can oftentimes be very shielded from general Durham. The goal is really to help students break out of the Duke bubble.”
Cat Rudolph, a dietitian at the Duke Cancer Institute, and Devang Thakkar, a fourth year graduate student in computational biology and bioinformatics, spoke to students from a designated table for Durham Farmer’s Market volunteers inside Penn Pavilion.
“We’re happy to let Duke students know more about how they can get involved in their local food system and support it,” Rudolph said.
“We want students to shop local, shop small and get fresh food,” Thakkar added.
Teresa Ingram, general manager at Dame’s Chicken & Waffles in Durham, was grateful for community support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Durham businesses are definitely struggling, specifically downtown businesses. If we don’t get support from anyone else, we definitely get support from Duke students,” she said.
First-year Chloe Decker was excited to try out food from restaurants that she normally would not be able to. “I don’t have my car on campus, and so I don’t really get to often try different restaurants and places to eat out in Durham,” she said.
The DSG Durham and Community Affairs Committee played a key role in organizing this event. DSG senator Joshua Suh, a sophomore, described the event as a “pilot” that he hopes will continue and expand in future years.
“Students will play a key role in defining how the festival moves on to the future,” he said.
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Vishal Jammulapati is a Trinity sophomore and an associate news editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.