Last spring, during her first year studying at Community College of Vermont‘s Winooski campus, 20-year-old Priyaskila Gurung was excited to bring several trays of momos to the school’s International Food Festival. For the 22nd annual event this Thursday, April 10, the aspiring dental hygienist and her mother will cook another 150 to 200 Nepali-style, hand-pleated dumplings filled with seasoned pork, cabbage and cilantro.
“When I brought in momos last year, everyone liked them,” Gurung said proudly. “I love momos, especially my mom’s recipe: That’s the best.”
Gurung’s dumplings will be served for free at the festival to her fellow students, staff and members of the public, alongside roughly a dozen global cuisines prepared by CCV community members, including alumni. Most represent the heritage of the cooks.
At the 2024 event, Gurung sampled South American flan, African doughnuts and Korean sweet potato noodles. “You’re sharing food, and I also feel like you’re sharing culture,” she said. “Everyone was really happy and enjoying the food. I could see on their plates different varieties of food from different countries.”
Other dishes served last year included fried plantains from Burkina Faso, Colombian chicken with rice, beef-filled sambusa turnovers from Somalia and Chinese lo mein noodles, according to one of the festival’s self-described “founding mothers,” Marianne DiMascio, CCV’s senior director of engagement and academic centers.
DiMascio, 57, and her colleague Amy Stuart, 62, hatched the idea for the food-centered gathering in 2001 to celebrate and connect the college’s student body. Across 12 sites statewide, CCV’s 10,000 scholars hail from more than 85 countries.
“I love food and have always felt like it brought us together,” DiMascio said. “This event is a potluck where we share food, culture and conversation. Everybody’s welcome.”
CCV offers students reimbursement for ingredients up to $50. Organizers also invite a few local restaurants, including some with ties to CCV.
Ken Liu — the 27-year-old son of the owners of Morning Light Bakery, located across from CCV’s Winooski campus — took some courses there before going on to study computer science at the University of Vermont. For several years, the Hong Kong-style bakery has contributed pastries, such as pineapple and coconut buns and mango and strawberry mochi balls made with sticky rice flour.
Serkan Çetin earned an associate’s degree in business from CCV in 2021 and now co-owns Kismet, a Turkish restaurant, in Burlington. He stays in touch with his adviser and attended last spring’s festival. This year, he’s bringing falafel, phyllo cheese rolls, lentil soup, and probably chocolate or double pistachio baklava.
“I liked learning about different cultures and recipes,” Çetin, 27, said. “I want to show how my culture, my food is different.”
Other than a pandemic interruption, the festival has been held every year since its founding. It usually includes some music and children’s crafts. A friend of DiMascio’s originally from India offers traditional henna-paste skin designs called mehndi.
“Every once in a while, dancing erupts from the crowd,” DiMascio said. “It’s beautiful, and you get to know people.”
Gurung has nothing but good things to say about the people she has gotten to know at CCV. When her family arrived in Vermont in 2013 from a Nepali refugee camp, where Gurung was born, the culture shock was jarring.
“Everything was really difficult,” Gurung recalled. At CCV, she has met other young people with similar backgrounds from around the world. “I have learned a lot from them,” she said. “Everyone’s so nice and so close and welcoming.”
At this year’s festival, Gurung has resolved to taste more unfamiliar foods made by her friends. “I’m a really, really picky eater,” she admitted. “But, you know, I love food, so why not?”
The original print version of this article was headlined “Small World, Big Table | At Community College of Vermont’s International Food Festival, students share their global cuisines”
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2025.
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