<p>So, I was visiting Caltech this past April, and we (my family) were supposed to tour on the Wednesday. Fortunately, we arrived a little early at our hotel on Tuesday and we wanted to walk around the campus to see what it was like.</p>
<p>As were were driving by, (If anyone knows the campus well, we were by the admissions office) we saw a gathering of people (possibly students) in a grassy area right outside of the cafeteria. We were like, "Oh, I wonder what this is".</p>
<p>We walk in and feast our eyes on this roasted pig, really good-smelling buffet of food along with an equally extensive row of cakes and other goodies.</p>
<p>Anyway, we were really hungry, so we asked some student what was going on and he said "I dunno, it's some random luau". Thankfully, some administrator allowed us to eat. I mean, there was free food, and when you're a college student, free food doesn't come that often!</p>
<p>What's not to like about a school which hosts these seemingly spontaneous gatherings? My main purpose for posting this was to inquire about this event. Does this type of gathering happen often?</p>
<p>Stuff like that happens probably every couple weeks. Usually organized by Tom Mannion or Caltech Dining Services (Peter Daily).</p>
<p>The best event is Midnight Madness, during finals / midterms. It's breakfast in Chandler (Cafeteria) at Midnight with a lot of energy drinks available.</p>
<p>"Free food" is a bit of a stretch ;) Ultimately the money for such spontaneous food events comes from your dues and board money, or from endowed funds that could have financed other, more exciting activities. Not that I'm complaining. I probably would have bought that olive oil-flavored ice cream* and those frozen, chocolate-covered bananas on sticks anyway.</p>
<ul>
<li>The only Mannion dish that I have ever disliked - and that includes the improbably delicious "lobster martini."</li>
</ul>
<p>I don't think it was actually free food for the people who were off board.</p>
<p>Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I was off board last year and still managed to get a decent amount of free food from random events.</p>
<p>Most of the special CDS dinner events are free for those off-board (usually Tom Mannion pays for it.)</p>