I've been a type 1 diabetic (insulin dependent) since I was 9, and usually, I just handle it by asking for water or just not eating what is there or eating just cheese.

During recruitment, I just sort of expected to not be able to eat at parties, so I ate before hand.

When I pledged my chapter, I became the default food buyer because I knew what I could and couldn't eat. And I always brought the Diet Coke ;-). But I don't know if I'd mention that in a first round party, unless it came up or unless I was going to pass out from hypoglycemia.

My chapter still does, just chocolate covered strawberries or little cheesecake squares..

^^ I revise my statements. I thought food was far less common than it is, although it seems like serving meals has gone more out of practice? I thought that no or low frills had cut back on a lot of the refreshments.

There are still a lot of campuses that haven't cut back on the frills, though I don't know of any that serve meals...I wonder how much that costs?:eek: Our campus has ridiculous rules on drinks etc. but at least food is pref only. Personally I feel like it's a waste...half the PNMs won't eat it because they're so nervous and we were always told not to scarf down our food if the PNM wasn't...but we ended up eating most of it after they all left. That was always my favorite part haha.

I always liked getting the cookie or whatever with my name written in icing.

I think there's at least one chapter here that still does that. You'll always hear the handful of PNMs that call it "creepy" (:rolleyes:...it's pref, be glad they remembered your name and let you get that far) but generally speaking that's always a big hit. I think they do cute little cakes.

I can. not. IMAGINE eating a full meal at pref. I'm hoping it wasn't the stuffed chicken breast that gets served at each and every formal (you have 8 semesters to choke down that shiz).

My chapter serves a decent amount of food for pref...of course we don't really expect all the girls to eat all of it unless it's their only pref. It's more that we have a plate with a variety of things on it so they'll at least have something they like.
I know some other sororities do dessert foods like cheesecake.
For UGA, the first round is waters, the next round is other beverages (coffee-type drinks, smoothies, lemonade) , and the third round can have a some food (I know we have done little desserts in the past). Then pref is more substantial food, or at least a larger amount of food.

Pref was always in the morning when I was active, so we always had platters of muffins, danish, etc. We had food during philanthropy round as well (trail mix and "dirt pudding" cups to go with Kappa Kidney Camp). I'm pretty sure this is still the case.

But ditto on not being able to imagine a full meal. And having more than one pref house....makes my stomach hurt to think about it.

I rushed a girl this year who had serious food allergies. I was actually her adviser for freshman orientation, so I already knew, (but totally forgot) about her dietary restrictions. Earlier in the party we had been having a really good conversation about KD's Confidence Coalition and how girls shouldn't stress so much about eating a cookie every now and again (I know, totally breaks the B rules, but sometimes you just gotta roll with those good conversations!). So when I offered her a cookie and mini milkshake (our refreshments for the party) and she laughingly said “I can’t,” I assumed that she was jokingly referring to our earlier conversation and cheerfully said something to the effect of “live a little!” and grabbed one for her anyway. She then had to remind me that she was deathly allergic to dairy and several other things and, even though she loved cookies, couldn’t eat one even if she wanted to. She was really nice about it, but I was SO embarrassed!

at U of the Pacific one of the girls was vegan. When she came to pref, we made sure she had a vegan dessert. (everyone else had cheesecake)
If a PNM has an allergy or dietary restriction we make sure we abide by it

Thanks for the answers all. Also thanks for the information that us NOT having food, particularly at pref was the exception when I'd thought it was more the norm now.

Where I am, house tours are the main event for food. Pref usually has little mocktails or sparkling juice/soda. I haven't seen food at any pref.

You're right, we had to plan it really carefully to make it a light meal. Even then, the girls said the PNMs wouldn't take more than a couple of bites, and they were right. The alums took home dinners for their husbands! I don't remember what we served..a small chicken breast with a little light sauce, French-cut green beans I think...the butter was in the shape of a rose.:D

Back in the 90s at UGA (same school as GeorgiaGreek, different timeline):

Round 1 - Water (and after some creative interpretation the rules were written to say "TAP Water").

Round 2 - Skits and snacks - This could be anything from ice cream to popcorn to cheesecake. Most houses (meaning of the ones I visited) had cokes in little glass bottles. Straws to match their colors. Cocktail napkins embossed with their letters. The real challenge was to find something that was easily eaten without a mess, didn't get stuck in your teeth and was generally appealing, oh - and if possible, it needed to be thematically appropriate. Kappa had cheese straws. Those were my favorite. The cheesecake was awesome, but a little heavy at 10:30 AM. To be fair, the snack preferences had nothing to do with my rankings.

Round 3 - House Tour - No food or drink.

Prefs - Of the two houses I hit- one had cheesecake, strawberries and grapes (red, buff and green - guess who?!) the other did petit fours with violets on them, mixed nuts, and a chocolate strawberry. Both had sparkling cider.

And that was pretty much the drill in the four years I was there.

One year, we decided to do pretty little tied bundles of jelly belly jelly beans for skits, and we had these poor girls leaving with tye-dyed tongues.

The highlight, both for sisters and rushees were those little Coca-Colas, though. We always ordered a few extra cases for once that round was over.