Schwartz is one of about 10 East Lansing Community Relations Coalition, or CRC, student interns and came up with the idea for Sunday evening’s cultural potluck at the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, to get students and East Lansing’s permanent residents talking about culture in a relaxed environment.

“So many of our other events are about serious topics or about listening to a speaker,” Schwartz said. “We just want people to come and talk with each other.”

The CRC is a nonprofit organization based in East Lansing that brings students and permanent residents together in an effort to improve relationships and communication between the two groups.

“Students and residents have different perspectives of each other (based on) memories of the past, and they’re not all positive,” said Shabana Lakdawala, a sociology senior and CRC intern. “(CRC) tries to break down those type of barriers.”

In past years, CRC interns each were responsible for creating an event to bring together the students and permanent residents. This year, interns broke off into groups of three or four and are organizing events in their small groups so responsibilities can be shared, Lakdawala said.

Between Lakdawala, Schwartz and one other CRC intern, the potluck began to take form. Lakdawala said planning for the event began about the first week of classes. Surveys were sent out to more than 50 student and neighborhood organizations to see if there would be any interest in attending a cultural potluck, Schwartz said.

When Pat Enos, CRC member and assistant vice president of student affairs, heard about the cultural potluck, she said she thought it was a wonderful idea.

“People like to meet each other over food, and East Lansing has quite a rich mixture of people from various backgrounds,” Enos said. “The title of our Web site, www.WeAllLiveHere.org, really does say it all. We all live here and need to talk with each other.”