If there”s one thing college students love, it”s late-night food binging.
To accommodate this obsession, Campus Recreation has created Grocery Bingo, which gives students the chance to play Bingo to win groceries.
“What student doesn”t need groceries?” said Kristin Strong, coordinating and marketing specialist for Campus Recreation.
Ashtin Mitchell, peer health educator for Vandal Health and UI senior says the main theme of the event is getting food.
“I think people look forward to this event because, I mean, students need free food, and any opportunity to come across free food is really great” Mitchell said.
Strong said though the University of Idaho Recreation Center hosts several Late Night at the Rec events throughout the year, and the idea for Grocery Bingo came about when they realized all the other events revolved around sports.
“Once a semester we try to host something that”s not an athletic event – something that anyone can play,” she said.
She said after staff asked students what this special night should entail, there response overwhelmingly was one of desire for an event similar to the one students know as Grocery Bingo today.
“We tried it out, and the students loved it – it”s been getting bigger each year,” Strong said. “I think originally we started out only having forty bags of groceries, and now we”ll have about sixty bags.”
Strong said those who stay for the entirety of the event end up with the biggest stockpiles, with the most valuable bags of groceries saved for last.
“It ranges anywhere from five dollars to forty dollars. Our campus dietician actually puts the bags together, and creates kind of a theme for each bag,” Strong said. “Maybe at the beginning, it will be like, breakfast foods.”
She said sponsors such as Tri-State Outfitters and Kind allow them to make the event more substantial. Tri-State supplied Campus Recreation with many of the raffle prizes which will be given throughout the night, and Kind will supply some of the food in the bags, as well as snacks for during the event. The event is also sponsored by Campus Recreation, Vandal Health Education, Vandal Nutrition and the Department of Student Involvement.
“Just for coming, you can get your raffle ticket, put it in the bowl, and we”ll do a random drawing at the end of the night – you have to be present to win. We have seven different grand prizes,” she said. “Of everyone that stays “til the end, no one will leave empty handed.”
The event is based around a game to liven up the event, and the night is reputedly high energy and charged with competitive spirit she said.
“I think it”s important to do these events so that students know about (Student Recreation),” Mitchell said. “I think that”s why we do Late Night at the Rec – is to get students to get students to come and have fun, and really get comfortable in the Rec. It does have a lot of awesome perks to it.”
Will Meyer can be reached at [email protected]