Food for thought - and charity

For charitable - and hungry - Law students, the idea is simple: Round up as many friends as possible and go out to eat.

The more friends you bring and the more food you eat, the better.

These steps are the basic requirements for Dining for Change, a group launched earlier this month by two first-year Law students, Madhu Muthukumar and Dimitri Islam.

On March 1, under Muthukumar and Islam's leadership, about 40 graduate students went to Cafe Nola, a New Orleans-style restaurant at 2nd and Lombard streets.

The restaurant's manager, Mick Ventura, authorized a donation of 10 percent of the bill to the Student Hurricane Network, which helps communities affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Cafe Nola donated "a few extra dollars," Ventura said, making the total donation $125.

"We like to get involved in any event that's going to help someone else," he said.

And Muthukumar and Islam hope that Cafe Nola will be the first of many restaurants that will participate in Dining for Change, which started out as casual dining experiences among friends.

Whenever the pair would eat out last semester, Islam would e-mail dinner plans to their friends, who would often circulate the e-mail to others.

"I would call and make a reservation for 30 and then, in the middle of the week, I would call them back and say, 'Actually we're going to have 45 people,"' Islam said.

By the end of the semester, over 60 people were dining together, and Muthukumar and Islam decided to do something philanthropic with the high numbers.

They decided to start going to restaurants where the owners would agree to donate a portion of the bill - ideally 10 to 20 percent - to a preselected charity.

"We just started calling restaurants," Islam said, adding that many restaurants requested a fee to host the organization or would only donate a smaller amount of money.

But once they got the program off the ground, the potential became clear.

"It started off as a way to get to know people, and then it got so big they realized they could do a good thing," said first-year Law student Conor Lamb, who ate at earlier dinners with Muthukumar and Islam.

"I really give the founders a lot of credit," said first-year law student Shane Segarra. "I think it's a brilliant idea."

Muthukumar said he would like to hold at least three more dinners this semester, and he and Islam are trying to find a law firm that will match the donation from the individual restaurants.

"We can make a big impact," Muthukumar added.

And that impact doesn't have to stop at Penn, Islam said.

"Other colleges are welcome to join, . not only in Philadelphia," Muthukumar said.

For now, though, the students are focused on establishing themselves as a legitimate club, and they are still working out the logistics.

The pair still has to find other restaurants willing to donate at least 10 percent of the bill and plans to spread the word to Penn's other schools.

Another dinner is tentatively scheduled for the end of March.

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