More than 300 community members lined up at Salt Lake City’s Central City Recreation Center on November 25, 2025 for a free Thanksgiving meal prepared and served by students and faculty from Utah Valley University’s Culinary Arts Institute.
More than 300 community members lined up at Salt Lake City’s Central City Recreation Center on November 25, 2025 for a free Thanksgiving meal prepared and served by students and faculty from Utah Valley University’s Culinary Arts Institute. Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation has hosted this dinner for 30 years, and this year marks UVU’s 12th year preparing and serving the full holiday meal.
For attendees — including families, individuals experiencing homelessness, and others who need food assistance — the dinner offers a warm holiday celebration. For UVU Culinary Arts students, it’s an experience that takes their education outside the classroom and into real community service, allowing them to see how food directly impacts people’s lives.
“We have the ability — and lots of opportunities — to help people with what we do,” said Chef Troy Wilson, UVU Culinary Arts Institute director and department chair. “It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to serve people. If these folks don’t always get a good, hot meal, then we can at least give them one night a year where they do.”
Around 20 Culinary Arts faculty and students prepared 14 turkeys, 100 pounds of mashed potatoes, 100 pounds of yams, 47 pounds of green beans, seven gallons of gravy, cases of salad, and dozens of pies. As the night wound down, the team boxed up nearly 100 take-home meals so attendees could enjoy leftovers the next day.
The dinner is the kind of hands-on opportunity UVU emphasizes across its academic programs, and for Culinary Arts students, it brings their coursework to life.
“I love seeing the impact I have,” said UVU Culinary Arts student Dorian Yescas. “That’s one of the reasons I love cooking. I love making people happy, and I love seeing the smile on people’s faces after I cook.”
Students rotated through roles mirroring real industry work: portioning, plating, heating sides, managing timing, and keeping the serving line moving smoothly. Earlier in the semester, some students prepared pies and rolls that were frozen and saved for the meal, giving them experience with batch production and multi-step planning.
“It feels good,” said Culinary Arts student Christian Blanco. “Getting to see their smiles and bringing people together — that’s what I love.”
For Culinary Arts student Emily Vier, the event reinforced the human side of the industry.
“I got into food because it makes people happy,” she said. “People love food, and we all need it. It’s important that everyone should get the opportunity to stop at some point in the day and just enjoy food — it should be the norm to be able to eat with the people you love.”
The experience also emphasized humility and purpose, she said.
“It’s important to be humble as a chef. Tonight, we thawed frozen rolls and pies — but for the people eating this meal, it’s so major to them, and it’s a reminder of why we cook in the first place.”
In Salt Lake City’s Central City neighborhood, events like this create a welcoming space for the area’s diverse residents.
“This neighborhood has everything from a lot of unhoused individuals to children and families,” said Callista Pearson, communications and public relations manager for Salt Lake County Parks and Recreation. “This is an opportunity for them to all come together and be one, no matter what. Nothing is separating them from being together.”
Pearson said UVU’s partnership has made the event stronger and more sustainable.
“This is a huge lift,” she said. “[UVU Culinary Arts students] deep-clean the gymnasium, and they set up everything. Preparing the food, helping set up, serving the food — the skill sets are well-matched. It’s awesome to me that a university from Utah County comes up here and wants to serve the Salt Lake community. It’s just an awesome collaboration.”
What started as faculty volunteering has become a consistent educational experience for students — one that gives them a deeper understanding of the role food plays in community care.
“Ultimately, being a chef is wanting to feed people,” Pearson said. “This may not be a fancy restaurant, but this is truly what it is to be a chef.”
The Thanksgiving dinner reflects UVU’s commitment to engaged learning, immersing students in real environments where they can practice their skills, solve problems, and connect their education to real-world needs.
For Culinary Arts students, the event simulates the pace and pressure of large-scale food service while also emphasizing empathy and service.
Wilson said he hopes these experiences shape not just students’ résumés but also their outlooks on life.
“I hope that they keep this going from generation to generation for decades to come,” he said. “In life, sometimes things get better, and sometimes we lose things. One day, any of us could be on the receiving end.”
And the lesson sticks with Culinary Arts students.
“It helps you think more about the people you’re feeding,” Blanco said. “Not just the food, but the person who’s going to enjoy it.”
