Lewis Hall’s organized its 21st House of Pancakes fundraiser Friday, raising more than $16,000 for the Food Bank of Northern Indiana.
The food bank distributes meals through a network of 119 partner agencies across six northern Indiana counties — including St. Joseph County.
The event, also known as LHOP, ran from 9 p.m. to midnight in Lewis. Guests purchased $5 wristbands for entry and could purchase T-shirts for $15. The fundraiser sold 1,010 wristbands to students and other guests.
“LHOP is one of Lewis’s staple events, but it really is so much more than just breakfast for dinner,” freshman Callie Jeffery, a volunteer in Lewis Hall, stated.
Each floor of Lewis Hall featured a different breakfast food, such as regular and gluten-free pancakes, juice, hash browns, cinnamon rolls and bacon.
Nicole Rafacz
For the 21st year of the event, Lewis Hall’s House of Pancakes has “streamlined” the process by doubling the size of the planning team.
According to hall senator sophomore Autumn Chiu, the event ran out of gluten-free pancakes at 10:04 p.m., cinnamon rolls at 10:49 p.m. and bacon at 10:53 p.m. Pancakes and hash browns were available until the end of the event, closing at midnight.
Approximately 100 Lewis residents volunteered for the signature event via a Google Sheet. Responsibilities varied throughout the evening, with some students helping to distribute food while others handled supplies or promoted the event. Chiu stated she wore the Lewis chicken mascot costume from 9 to 10 p.m. and later distributed utensils in the lobby.
Chiu stated it takes roughly a full year to plan and coordinate the event. The process was more efficient this year due to doubling the size of the planning team.
”There is a lot of preparation in the days leading up to the event, but we also start planning and thinking about the next year as soon as LHOP ends for that current year,” Chiu wrote. ”When the football schedule for next year comes out, we have a date, since we do LHOP on the Friday before the second home football game.”
She hopes the hall continues to improve the event each year and find ways to simplify the preparation and execution phases.
”Every single year, we aim to outdo what we did the year before. We want LHOP to be the best that it can be, and we do so by refining our processes,” she wrote.
This year, she stated the team replaced eggs with hashbrowns and baked items ahead of time to streamline the process of how quickly people can receive food.
Nicole Rafacz
Throughout the signature event, Lewis Hall staff can be seen dressed in chicken costumes promoting hall spirit and inviting students from various dorms to attend.
LHOP began in 2005 after Lewis Hall staff members decided to create a fundraiser centered around food. The event has supported the same charity since its creation and has provided all its revenue to the food bank each year.
“A lot of traditions at Lewis have been inherited,” Chiu wrote. “We choose to support the Food Bank of Northern Indiana because that is the cause we have always supported.”
The event raised about $14,000 last year, with this year’s fundraising total increasing by more than $2,000. Organizers set a new fundraising goal each year to be higher than the previous one, according to Chiu.
Lewis Hall students were not the only people who attended. LHOP was open to outside guests, allowing students from other residence halls and members of the Notre Dame community to purchase wristbands and participate in the event.
Freshman Kayleigh Costello shared that she enjoyed attending the event and eating the food there.
“I loved going to LHOP. Everyone was so nice and the pancakes were heaven,” Costello said.
Dining and Cooking