If your mouth is already watering for the VEISHEA cherry pies, no need to worry, only a few weeks stand between you and all the delicious food at VESHEA. There are enough food items this year for you to try a new one each day, whether its at the Campus Cookout, the food stands, or at Taste of VEISHEA. Whatever time of day that you have a hankering for some food, there is a VEISHEA solution anytime from lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack!

Campus Cookout is a full week of food for any student or faculty for only $5! Buy a button and you have lunch everyday for the whole week of VEISHEA. Monday will be Jimmy John’s sandwiches and chips with an Otis Spunkmeyer cookie. Tuesday is brats from the ISU Meat Laboratory, fruit and Blue Bunny Ice Cream. Wednesday will be Pork Burgers and Texas Roadhouse rolls with Cinnamon Butter. On Thursday, Hickory Park is bringing its famous Saucy Southerners to campus with chips and Coldstone Ice Cream. Friday’s meal is mac and cheese with the Hot Dogs and Designer Cupcakes. Campus Cookout will be open at the same time everyday, which is from 11a.m. until 2p.m. Buttons are usually sold in the MU, keep your eye out for announcements of when they will be available.

There is a lot a prep work that goes into the Campus Cookout, said Lizzy Gerdis, a VEISHEA food co-chair. Both campus cookout and taste of VEISHEA require two co-chairs. The Campus Cookout chairs are Krystal Sankey and Riley Harbaugh and they work to contact many different local businesses for in-kind donations or discounts; they also work with ISU dining for orders and storage. The not only find the food but also the plates and silverware, decide the set up and figuring out how to keep hot food hot and cold food cold. They also work with other VEISHEA committees to staff lunches, promote the events and sell buttons.

Also during the day during VEISHEA you will find food stands around campus. These are set up by various ISU student organizations. There will be six different student food stands selling more yummy food for all of us to eat! What each group does with the proceeds depends on the organization, most groups either use it as a fundraiser or philanthropy and others want to get their name out on campus. If you have a craving for something fresh off the grill, check out Alpha Gamma Rho, Block and Bridal, Farm Op or ASABE. If your sweet tooth kicks in after lunch stop by the Food Science club table for some fudge or Dance Marathon’s table for a cupcake. NAMA will have cheese curds for a midday snack and Ag Business club will have ham, donuts and walking tacos.

All the food stands are inspected by the FP&M annually, and also have a food inspector that will inspect the weekend they are selling. Also, all stands must purchase a Temporary Food Establishment license from the department of Inspection and Appeals so they can sell for two days, said Gerdis. All food must be safe certified and all stands must attend meetings so everything runs smoothly.

Once classes are over for the week and your weekend is beginning one fun thing to do at night is enjoy the Taste of VEISHEA. On both Friday and Saturday night there will be what looks like a carnival that rolled onto the street surrounding Lake Laverne. These food stands will have your traditional fair foods such as funnel cakes and many deep fried foods like snickers or Oreos. There will also be burritos, tacos and nachos if you want a Mexican food fix late at night. Some fan favorites that will be there also are fish ‘n chips, steak ‘n pita and turkey legs.

Taste of VEISHEA chairs, Erin Fleming and Megan Dickersbach do a lot of work with contracts and vendors to make sure each spot is filled around Lake Laverne. Some vendors even come from different states. All vendors must purchase a Temporary Food License as well. The co-chairs deal with payment, insurance, logistics and answering any questions vendors have.

“Both Taste of VEISEHA and the Campus Cookout that planning, planning, and more planning,” Gerdis said. “then it takes a lot of flexibility when it comes to the actual events!”

VEISHEA purchases a Temporary Food License for Cookout and all of their events. A food inspector also comes to each event as a protocol for selling food longer than one day. All individuals that sell food must be Food Safe certified, any vendor that is used for Cookout also must be on Iowa State’s Approved Caterer list, along with making sure all safe food practices are being followed, said Gerdis.

Since you will already be on campus or near campus celebrating VEISHEA with friends, you might as well go get some breakfast, at midnight. For a small price both Friday and Saturday night there will be a midnight pancake breakfast for those night owls lasting from midnight to 3a.m.

If you will be at the VEISHEA LIVE concerts, make sure to grab a slice of pizza or a drink outside the concert gates to keep you full while you dance and sing along to all the great music. Also if you are participating in VEISHEA service day then you also get to enjoy some free lunch!

The VEISHEA food chairs Lizzy Gerdis and Matt Kerns recommend all the campus food as a highlight of your VEISHEA activities. When asked about how they choose what food to have at VEISHEA, Gerdis said the chairs for the Central Campus Cookout will choose based on local places and variety along with staying in their budget, which is based off of the button sales. The student organizations tables are usually the same from year to year, only straying slightly of what food they decide to sell.