Corridor Buzz - The Premier Source of Arts & Entertainment News and Information for the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Corridor

'World Lunch' set for Saturday at Marion Square Park

Marion's "World Lunch" series continues Saturday with multicultural food vendors, authentic international music and dance, and cooking and art-making demonstrations.

The free event, presented by the Marion Cultural and Entertainment District, is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Marion Square Park.

“Marion’s Cultural and Entertainment District is a new organization in Marion and one of our goals is to make Marion a more vibrant community, especially our uptown area. And we think that food is always a good draw for getting people together to have a fun time," says Karen Hoyt, the World Lunch program coordinator.

“We decided instead of doing something like an ordinary farmers market that we wanted to do something that was more international in flavor and offer ready-to-eat foods that would be accompanied by authentic music and dance.”

Hoyt says there is more diversity in Marion than it may appear, much of it due to sponsor Rockwell Collins hiring engineers from around the world.

“We’re used to thinking of ourselves as a pretty white community with not much diversity, but I was actually surprised to find out that we do have a lot of residents that belong to nonprofit organizations," she says. “In particular we have a Filipino American Association that will be selling food and well as providing entertainment. They have lots of families in the group.

“We really want our international friends and neighbors to feel valued. We just figured this would be a fun party to celebrate food, diversity and culture and hopefully bring all kinds of different people together.”

The World Lunch series continues on the second Saturday of each month through September.