For nearly six years, Todd McFadden and his sister Pam McFadden have been trying to get soul food on the menu at the Union's Heritage Cafe.
Last week, their dream to provide fried catfish and collard greens at the cafe became a reality.
In celebration of Black History Month, the Heritage Cafe served fried chicken and catfish, peach cobbler, collard greens and other soul food for two weeks. Thursday was the last day the meal was served.
Normally, the cafe serves sandwiches, salads, classic entrees such as roasted chicken and pasta dishes.
Todd McFadden said people have been driving in from Lansing and Okemos for the food.
He hasn't seen so many people in the cafe since he started working there six years ago, he said.
The McFaddens both work in the Union. Pam McFadden is a secretary at the Multicultural Center and Todd McFadden is a cook at the cafe.
The siblings wanted to bring back their childhood by providing the "hospitality and generosity" of soul food and sharing it with everyone.
Sakia Ward, a psychology senior, said having soul food is a big change for the cafe.
"I was raised on soul food — it was a big deal on Sundays after church," Ward said.
Tina Stokes, an administrative assistant in the Honors College, said she grew up in Alabama and does not see soul food in Michigan very often. She said it's "heaven-sent."
Soul food is a descendent of slave cooking and is distinct "in its use of green beans and the parts of the pig rejected at plantation houses," Pam McFadden wrote in an e-mail.
Many soul food dishes only require one pot because money for more pots was difficult to come by, she said. Tabasco sauce "is as prevalent as salt in soul kitchens." To many black families, soul food is "soothing comfort food that brings back warm memories of family dinners," she said.
Multicultural Center coordinator Maggie Chen Hernandez said the menu, a first-time endeavor at the cafeteria, has been "really successful."
"It's authentic, great soul food — the key thing of it is that it's authentic," Hernandez said. "There are so many people who've come out for it. Word's gotten around."
Pam McFadden said her mother taught she and Todd how to cook soul food, filling their hearts with love and their stomachs with southern-style dinners.
"We believe every ethnic group has a type of soul food, be it Mexican food, Thai food," Pam McFadden said. "I hope this opens the door to other cultures — that they'd be able to do the same that we did."
