For many years, Iowa State has held a food fair that celebrates cultures from all around the world, and this weekend the annual event will be held at the Memorial Union.

From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 20, 2013, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union, Iowa State’s International Student Council will host an array of international student associations that will cook for attendees.

“There are 16 countries that will be involved in the International Food Fair this year, and almost all of them are from different parts of the world,” said Michael Lyle, International Student Council’s Veishea International Food Fair coordinator.

Each country is represented by a student association that was contacted at the beginning of the semester.

“All of the associations had to sign a contract with International Student Council, and then we worked directly with ISU Dining and ISU Catering to help facilitate the organizations with their cooking,” Lyle said.

The International Student Council started contacting companies earlier in the year to ask for donations to run the event.

“A lot of our money comes from Government of the Student Body. We get about $4,000 from them, and then we contacted the Study Abroad Center and U.S. Bank to sponsor us as well. The rest of the funding comes from [the International Student Council] itself,” said Kanchana Hettiarachchi, president of the International Student Council.

The money that is generated from events put on by the International Student Council all goes back to Iowa State’s international students.

“[The International Student Council] is like an umbrella for all of the international student organizations on campus. We have certain activities that we do ourselves, as well as helping to facilitate any kind of activities that international student organizations have,” Lyle said. “Sixty-five percent of the profits will go to student organizations for the events and miscellaneous things that we do throughout the year, and 35 percent will go to international student scholarships.”

The International Food Fair is a way for these organizations to come together and show their culture by cooking dishes from their country.

All of the organizations worked with ISU Dining and Catering to discuss their recipes beforehand to make sure they were all up to standard.

“All meat has to be cooked at a certain temperature for a certain time, so that was one of the concerns that we had during the preparation process for the event, but other than that, there weren’t really any qualifications that the organizations needed in order to be a part of the event,” Lyle said.

The majority of the cooking will be done Sunday morning before the fair starts.

Entrance into the fair will be priced at $3 per person, and most food items will range from $1 to $4.