Feed Me FASO

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a meeting hosted by Chico State’s Filipino American Student organization meeting (F.A.S.O). It was the first time I had attended a F.A.S.O meeting, but I  felt immediately welcomed as I was greeted by the friendly faces of the members at the door.

“What brings you to our meeting?”  Jessie asked. I had known Jessie through a mutual friend and was happy to see that he was member of the organization. I told him that I was to write a brief paper on my experience of the event, and that I was hungry and heard that there would be free authentic food. I then asked him why he had decided to join the club and how long he had been a member. “This is my first year” he replied, “It has allowed me to reconnect with old traditions, I’m learning a lot.”

If you visit the F.A.S.O website you are immediately greeted by text that briefly outlines the history and future goals of F.A.S.O. This year, the club wishes to reach a wider variety of people in effort to expand upon its current member base. Their website states:

“Our goals for the 2007-2008 year is to recruit a larger base of members, participate in multicultural night, fund raise school supplies to send to impoverished Filipino schools, sell lumpia to fund raise for FASO's general fund and participate in the Spring International Festival. We would also like to volunteer our time to other student projects like, Up til' Dawn, and Scour and Devour.”

I can say that the organization has certainly taken a positive direction forward in their attempts to recruit more members. As I looked around at the meeting there were over 50 people of different races, ethnicities and backgrounds brought together for a social night in celebrating the Filipino culture. The meeting kicked off with an introduction by the F.A.S.O President in which he described the history of the organization and gave us a quick run down of the Filipino culture. Followed by the introduction was a Folk Dance. The folk dance was interesting; it consisted of two people holding bamboo sticks at each end while two people danced over the sticks in the middle. According to one of the members this dance imitates the legendary fast and graceful movements of the tinikling bird as they would escape bamboo traps set by farmers.

After the dance we enjoyed Lumpia which was much like a meat and vegetable egg roll with rice and Chicken Adobo- very very tasty! I look forward to buying more of the food during the International Festival this month which it to be held in the downtown Chico area. I also hope that F.A.S.O is successful this year in accomplishing their goals. If you are interested in Joining their club, I strongly urge that you visit http://www.csuchico.edu/faso/index.html for more information. After all “You don’t have to be Filipino, American or a student to join!”