MU Student Union Online

Play With Your Food began in 2005 as a few vegetarian cook ups. In 2006 Play With Your Food as you know and love it was invented as a weekly Monday night shindig. Over the past two years I’ve seen Play With Your Food grow into a Melbourne uni institution (in a good sense).

From my first attendance i knew that i had fallen in love. The friendly chats around preparation and cooking time, the encouragement shown to newcomers, the frequently eventful and anarchic cooking process and finally the sitting, eating and socialising. The very best thing about PWYF is the diverse mix of students who arrive and sit together to have in-depth discussions on anything from student politics to Corey Delaney.

My favourite PWYF story comes from early in 2007, when a PYWF coincided with a banquet of a very different nature, hosted by Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis to launch the Melbourne Model. With our guts full of lentils and malaise (not from the lentils) and accompanied by a VCA marching band, we marched off and successfully blockaded university house. Our party put a big damper on Glyn’s party.

To me this shows the strength of an event like PWYF. Although not always as explicitly politically active as that night, PWYF is always a space where people can come together to share stories, experiences and their sense of what a student community can be. As a Student Union run event it is open to anyone and is also a safe space to be queer, to be a woman, or to be different. So come along and cook, meet new friends and find the student community you’ve been looking for.

This year PWYF will include film nights, dumpster dive swaps and free stuff stalls. Come play with your food on Monday nights starting from March 3rd . We start cooking at 5.30 and appreciate all chopping and chatting help we can get.

video