Washington University Hosts Bill and Chelsea Clinton
- by Guest
Not your average boxed lunch: Clinton Global Initiative University attendees enjoyed báhn mì sandwiches prepared by the Bon Appétit team
Submitted by April Powell, Director of Marketing and Communications
Since 2007, the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) has been touching down at college campuses to bring together students, youth organizations, and celebrities to discuss and develop innovative solutions to pressing global challenges. This year, the Bon Appétit team at Washington University in St. Louis had the opportunity to host CGI U.
Guests from around the world attended plenary sessions with former president Bill Clinton, worked together on a service project with his daughter, Chelsea Clinton, and competed to win grants for their projects, which focus on such global issues as poverty, human rights, education. The Bon Appétit team fed them all.
If numbers are any indication, it was one jam-packed weekend for the chefs and servers. Over three days, 1,200 guests came through, consuming 3,500 boxed lunches and 60 gallons of coffee (just for the Saturday morning sessions). The team successfully diverted 4,100 pounds of waste from landfill by making all items fully compostable. Then there were the uncounted thousands of steps the staff put on their pedometers!
Catering Director Rosemary Pastore and the catering team were proud to later receive a letter from Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton and President Clinton himself, thanking Bon Appétit Catering for an outstanding experience. It was an epic effort, but they’d be thrilled to do it again!
The first of thousands of báhn mì sandwiches