Swooning for Spaghetti? Pleading for Penne? Longing for Linguine? Revitalized by several members of the Center for Student Involvement (CSI), Pasta Eating Club has hopes to bring people together around a food just about everybody loves.
Originally the product of a frat’s fallout at Seattle University in March of 2020, Pasta Eating Club has been dormant for several years. One of the primary features of the club, which the new executive board hopes to revamp, is the raising of funds for Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Natalie Neumeier, a fourth-year political science and legal studies major, is both the president of RedhawkTHON and Pasta Eating Club’s vice president. Describing RedhawkTHON, Neumeier highlighted the dance marathon, which takes place at the end of the school year, as the organization’s major fundraising effort for Seattle Children’s. Still working on getting up and running, Pasta Eating Club only received official club recognition at the end of winter quarter, and will not be doing any direct fundraising quite yet.
Furthermore, most early members of Pasta Eating Club are in some way connected to CSI, but that does not mean it is limited or exclusive.
“We want everyone to feel welcomed to join,” Neumeier said.
Many of the larger clubs around Seattle U’s campus are predicated on cultural ties or shared hobbies, with Hui O Nani Hawai’i or Pickleball Club as good examples. Instead, Pasta Eating Club hopes to position itself as being open to anyone and easy to join.
Isabelle Fong, Pasta Eating Club’s treasurer and a second-year international studies major, joked that she and other members of the board view themselves as pasta enthusiasts more so than pasta connoisseurs.
“We will be trying to eventually raise money for Seattle Children’s, but we also know that sometimes people just want a fun and easy club to be a part of,” Fong said.
While other clubs may have larger barriers of entry, talking with members of pasta club’s leadership, it is clear that they are pasta fans and not pasta snobs.
“The good thing about pasta is that it only takes 10-13 minutes to make,” Neumeier added, “it also comes in so many shapes and sizes.”
When asked about their thoughts on mac and cheese falling under the umbrella term “pasta,” Fong felt that there are tiers to the beloved cheesy pasta dish that has to come into play.
“If you invited me over for a pasta night, and served me mac and cheese, I would certainly eat it, but also feel put off,” Fong said, who followed up with a distinction among big name brands. “There is a big difference between Annie’s and Kraft compared to something ‘nicer’ like Beechers, which uses penne.”
Nevertheless, if it comes down to it, the consensus among the Pasta Eating Club’s executives was that mac and cheese is delicious, maybe even deserving of a club of its own.
The club hopes to offer a range of activities for its members, “We want to both go out and explore the pasta scene in Seattle, as well as offer things like homemade pasta nights, since not everyone has the money to go out for pasta dinners,” Fong said.
So far, meetings for Pasta Eating Club have been low-key and among friends. Naomi Pettit, a third-year elementary education major and the club’s president, described their current status as hopeful, but not fully realized.
With only 10 members at the time this article is being published, meetings have not been on campus, instead they have primarily come in the form of “friends getting together on Sundays to eat pasta at someone’s house,” Pettit said.
Seattle U provides clubs with $200 for the school year, though this number does not scale with the size of clubs. If, in the future, Pasta Eating Club hopes to host larger events, they will likely have to coordinate with dining services and evaluate different forms of funding.
When asked where some of their favorite places to enjoy pasta were throughout the city, several options stood out, including Mamma Melina, Cortina and Due’ Cucina.
If you would like to see more food and restaurant reviews in The Spectator, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Food Review.” If you are interested in joining Pasta Eating Club, find their Connect SU and be added to their communications.
