Taylor Hall Dining Center and Stevo Tower Reservation Dining will be serving themed food at 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday for their “Halloween Party.”

Thomas Hall dining is not doing anything for the party except for decorating the dining hall to fit the overall Halloween theme. The staff will also be encouraged to dress up.

While the staff is encouraged to dress up, Jaime Huckstead, the unit director of Stevenson Dining, said she hopes to see people come dressed up.

Taylor Dining will be presenting a costume contest at 6 p.m., in which the staff will judge those customers who participate in the contest.

Sheila Poffinbarger, the unit director of Taylor Dining, said there will be prizes for the first, second and third place, which will be buckets of snacks from the C-store.

Taylor will be serving food not normally on the menu like hot apple cider, pumpkin cookies and candy. They will also be serving taco in a bag. The diners will be able to eat while listening to Halloween music.

There will also be a pumpkin decorating station in the corner of the dining hall.

The reservation dining will be having T-bone steak, hot wings and spaghetti. While most of the items are not new to RO, they will be called Halloween-themed names, like the steak being called wolf meat.

Some students, like Xavier Menzies, a sophomore English major, found the idea to be a waste.

Menzies said he believed the theme would not attract people to the hall but respected they were trying something new to spice it up.

“Working or being in the dining hall isn’t that fun of an experience,” he said. “At least the put forth the effort.”

Paxton Campbell, a mathematics major, said she believed it would encourage more people to come.

“I would be more likely to come if I knew something special was going on,” Campbell said.

Huckstead said the focus was on the staff who work in dining.

“Ultimately, it is just a fun experience for all our staff,” Huckstead said. “We try and get the customers involved as well.”

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or jsjarmon@eiu.edu.