Preparing for the event

I wanted to share a couple of links regarding global fest preparation.

On Friday August 31st, we meet up to cook for global fest at the kitchen of St. Aquinas Church. We will start gathering at the kitchen at 5pm, so I would request to volunteers to show up as early as possible.

Link: Shortened Menu and Shopping list:
Link: Detail ingredient list for each item:
For those who missed the meeting last friday, this was our agenda.
Here is a checklist and some information for volunteers: [LINK]

Link to currents expenses: [LINK]
If you have spent any money, please write it here and turn in your receipts to either Tapan bhai or me.

Finally, the expected turnout for global fest is unpredictable at this point because weather for Saturday is not likely to be good. We will know more on Friday night and can decide to make less food if necessary. By Friday afternoon, we will also get some updates from organizers if they decide to change anything.

Volunteer for Charity

Dear BDSA members,

We have an opportunity to organize a fundraiser by having a food booth at the 18th annual Global Fest at Morton Community Center on Saturday, Sept 1st. This is also an excellent avenue to highlight the presence of our vibrant Bangladeshi community at West Lafayette. This event is organized by the city of West Lafayette, with an estimated attendance of 5000-8000 people.

Two years ago we had a similar food booth at Global Fest, we raised approx $850 dollars. The money was given to “Hridoya Bangladesh” for two year scholarship of two students (Shahmim Hossain and  Shahria Bashar Meem), they both completed their HSC with GPA 5. Check this link for more info about the students: [LINK]

This year we are trying to be more organized and efficient, so that we can raise an even larger amount of money for education of underprivileged students. We need lots of volunteers for cooking on Friday, August 31st (5-11pm) and Saturday, Sept 1st. We also need a few volunteers to be present at the food booth on Sept 1st.  Please sign up here [LINK] before our meeting on Friday, August 24th.

We have reserved the kitchen at St. Thomas Aquinas Church (it's opposite stewart center) for cooking, as all food have to be cooked at a health department approved kitchen. If you are unable to come to the kitchen for cooking, then we might be able to make an exception for you, please contact me at reazur AT gmail dot com or cell: 609 240 9307. 

As for menu, we are planning to go with the following menu consisting of snack items based on our previous experience. http://fundraiserforbangladesh.blogspot.com/2012/08/menu-submitted-to-parks-recreation.html

We will schedule a meeting on Friday, August 24th, so that we can plan and organize ourselves for the event. This meeting is mandatory for all volunteers. I will send an email about his as soon as the room reservation is confirmed.

To summarize:

1. Please sign up to volunteer before 24th: [LINK]

2. If cannot come to the church for cooking, we might be able to make an exception for a few people to cook from home

3. Plan on attending the meeting on Friday August 24th, PVCC room 133 @ 7pm

I believe that charity is one of the best ways of celebrating the spirit of Ramadan, so the timing of the event could not be any better for our community. We are looking forward to your enthusiastic participation.

If you have any questions, please contact me at reazur@gmail.com or cell: 609-240-9307. All information from our effort in 2010 and our current effort for 2012 can be found at this blog: http://fundraiserforbangladesh.blogspot.com/

-Reazur Rahman

On behalf of BDSA

Update: the meeting is scheduled on Friday August 24th in PVCC room 133 @ 7pm.

Menu submitted to Parks & Recreation office

This is the menu we submitted for Global Fest 2012 [LINK]

Bangladesh Student Association – (100% of proceeds donated for education of underprivileged students)
Shingara/Samosa   $1.50
Bengali Potato Croquette   $1.50
Pakora (Cauliflower/Potatoes)   $1
Piaju (Lentil Nuggets)   $1
Chola (Curried Black Chickpeas)    $2
Chotpoti (Curried Chickpea Salad)   $2
Bangladeshi Assorted Sweets       $3
Mango Lassi/Mango Borhani (spicy)   $2
Spiced Chai/ Spiced Ice Tea   $1

Letter to the Pastor

Following is the letter that I sent to the pastor at St. Aquinas to request a fee wavier for use of their kitchen. I figured that this could be useful in future.

http://tinyurl.com/lettertopastor

Good Job Volunteers!

I am happy to report that our food stall "Project Bangladesh - Education for Underprivileged Students" at Global Fest was very successful. When we started this initiative, we had three goals:

1. Raise money for Education in Bangladesh: We raised $801.63, which will be donated to Hridoya Bangladesh shortly. Here is the link to the budget.

2. Represent Bangladesh to the local community: West Lafayette community got a "taste" of our vibrant Bangladeshi community, at least they will be able to recognize our flag and food :) We even got a special mention in the local press, because the reporter was impressed by the philanthropic idea behind our stall and our very own Tanzi made a good impression when she talked with the reporter. Here is the link for the article.

http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20109050351

3. Demonstrate that we can accomplish something big, when each of us decides to do something small

I think it is fair to say that we succeeded in all our goals. I am extremely proud of all the volunteers who worked hard to make this event a success. A special praise goes to all the undergrad volunteers for their enthusiasm and determination. I would also like to thank Brithy bhabi, Subrina bhabi and fellow graduate students for bringing crucial organizational skills into the mix. Lastly, I would like to thank the rest of the community for helping us in direct and indirect ways. It was definitely nice to see many of you help us spontaneously during the event.

here are I would like to end the email with some interesting tidbits about our food stall:

Total Sales + Donation: 1184

Profit: 801.63

Most popular items: Samosa, Chola. Aloo chop, Piaju, Mango Lassi

Most innovative item: Potato Chat/Spiced Potato prepared by using leftover from samosa preparation

At the end, I hope this initiative will be pursued for years to come, and our interaction with the West Lafayette community will grow even stronger. Since all the volunteers are experienced now, it will be easier to coordinate such activities in the future.

-Reazur on behalf of all volunteers

Important Announcements: Please Read Carefully

Cooking:

Church reserved on friday from 6-11pm and saturday 8-6pm. We need maximum amount of help on Friday evening, so everybody should plan on coming. Bulk of the frying will be done on saturday morning between 8:30-10:30, so we need atleast 5-6 people for that as well. After lunch on Saturday, we will need a few people have to cook a little bit to refill our trays.

Design and promotions group: Arman bhai, Ishita, Maliha, Tridib, Tamzid, and Rahat

Paper Menu (click here for updated info), Foam board menu, posters for Hridoya bangladesh using the promotional material they sent us), Posters about Bangladesh and anything else that you guys decide to do...

Set up of food booth

Talked to the organizers today, all the food booth will be under a big tent. We can use tape or rope to hang things. The tent should be up Friday morning, so if you go around lunch time you should be able to see the location exact location allocated for our food booth. Look for Pennie, if you have questions.

Shopping

Most of the dry material has been purchased from Chicago. We will get the rest from Walmart/Aldi/payless on Thursday. Zain and Shujon is helping me with this.

You will find the Shopping list HERE

List of things to take for Cooking and Food Booth:

Please list accessories that you will need for cooking and at the food booth [HERE]. The church kitchen has big pots, pans and other basic accessories. I recommend bringing our knife, peelers and cutting board as back up.

Potluck Iftar at the church on Friday evening: Tanzi has volunteered to set up a sign up sheet and will coordinate this activity, please sign up if you want to bring something. There is always the back up option of getting pizza. If you have other ideas please feel free to share... For iftar cooking we should bring our pots and pans, because some of us might be uncomfortable using the church's utensils.

Prayer Space: Find a place for prayer near Thomas Aquinas Church. Going to mosque will easily cost us 30mins, if we can reserve a nearby classroom, that would be ideal. Need volunteers for this...

Temperature Issues: I am assuming all the fried items will be served hot. Suji and Sweets will be served cold, right?

Finally, please be on time on Friday, especially since we will lose an hour for iftar + praying. BTW, is there any confusion regarding the location of the event and location of the kitchen?

Updates

1. After consulting with Rutba about a suitable name for the food booth, we decide on the following name "Project Bangladesh - Education for Underprivileged Students". This is a bit more formal than the last name I suggested... but I like the sound of "Project Bangladesh". We will definitely use more catchy phrases in the poster, so you will definitely get a chance to unleash your creativity!

Here are some of my ideas for poster:

A. Eat Bangladeshi Cuisine -> help underprivileged students in Bangladesh

B. Purdue students help underprivileged students in Bangladesh

*All proceed will be donated to Hridoya Bangladesh

2. There is a Health Department meeting on Wednesday, August 18th from 7pm-9pm. I need some volunteers to join me in this meeting, so that multiple people are on top of all the regualtions that needs to be followed.

3. Tentative Menu has been posted. Special thanks goes to Subrina bhabi for helping me with this.

Link >>

4. Thomas Aquinas Church Kitchen Reservation

Sept 3rd, Friday - 6pm-11pm
Sept 4th, Saturday – 8:00am-11:30am, 1pm-2:30pm, 4pm-6pm