The smell of fried food and Cajun spices floated down Welch Avenue from a house near the end of the block. For some students, this meant another welcomed return of Soul Food Sundays at 517 Welch Ave.

About 30 people filled the Black Cultural Center on Sunday evening to eat food and socialize. Members of both the Black Student Alliance and the African Students Association were present.

“We have traditional African-American dishes from the South,” said Dionne Trumbo, senior in psychology. “We get together and just kick it, hang out together, talk.”

Sunday’s menu featured items including barbecue chicken, catfish, greens, baked beans and corn bread to represent the South. There were also more exotic original African dishes, such as jollof rice, coconut rice and moin moin.

“Soul food is just good food,” said Shameka Manning, BSA member and senior in kinesiology and health.”That’s everyone’s definition of it. It’s comfort food. You know, every culture has its own version of soul food. It’s not just for African-Americans – it’s for every ethnicity. We just kind of commercialize it more.”

Getting together for soul food meals has long been a part of the experience of BSA.

“There’s almost always a Soul Food Sunday, maybe twice a year, or sometimes we do welcome-back barbecues and that includes a lot of soul food,” Trumbo said. “I would say it’s definitely a tradition here with the Black Student Alliance at Iowa State.”

This was the first Soul Food Sunday that brought together members of the BSA and the ASA. Babatunde Agbaje, president of the African Students Association and senior in family finance, housing and policy, said the collaboration between the two groups started in the fall, as the groups started hosting discussions on campus.

In addition to Black History Month, February also marks the first-year anniversary of the rededication of the Black Cultural Center. The building was closed prior to February 2007 because of structural damage. Now, the finished house has four floors filled with artwork, but only gets used twice a week for meetings.

“That’s our goal this year, is to get more people through here during the week,” Trumbo said.