What Renters Want with Jessica Fiur: Celebrating Thanksgiving at Your Student Housing Communities

It’s that time of year. Time for turkey, stuffing, and young adults coming home to their parents’ house with a mountain of dirty laundry.

Around Thanksgiving, many students head home, which will probably leave your student housing community pretty empty in the coming week. Before everyone clears out for the holiday, here are some things you can do around the community to make the holiday easier.

Offer shuttles to the bus/train station. The week of Thanksgiving, since many of your student residents are probably going to be traveling, a great feature you could offer your residents is a free shuttle bus to the nearest bus or train station. Or, you could partner with a company such as Uber and offer residents a free ride up to a certain dollar amount. This will make things easier for those who need to travel, and a great talking point.

Have a food drive. Everyone is thinking of food now anyway. Let everyone know in advance, and then as the students leave for the holiday they can bring down some food to donate. (Charities are constantly looking for more Ramen and Easy Mac donations, right?)

Host a dinner or movie for those who stay. Not all of your student residents are going to leave, and for those remaining, it can sometimes be a little lonely at student housing communities around the holidays. So why not host a dinner (it doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving-y if you don’t want it to. Turkey takes forever to cook, but pizza can be at your door in 30 minutes or less, if commercials from the ’90s are true. And why would old commercials lie) for the remaining residents? Or have a movie screening. That way even if people can’t be with their families, they can be with their apartment families. Say it with me now, “Awww.” (Or, “Barf!”)

Have coffee and cookies out for parents picking up their kids. Sometimes parents are nice enough to pick up their kids for Thanksgiving instead of making them sit on a crowded bus that most definitely will break down in the middle of nowhere. In the cold. When it’s raining. (Not that I’m bitter.) How about showing the parents how much you appreciate them (after all, a lot of these parents are actually the ones paying the rent for your student residents) with a little snack before the long trek home?

Host a potluck party for when people get back. The best part about visiting your family for Thanksgiving? Leaving your family and coming back to see your friends. All your residents are going to be excited to get back to their apartments, and are sure to be taking back tons of left overs “in case they get hungry on the way back.” It’s everything you need for a great party.

What are some other things you can do for Thanksgiving at your student housing communities?

-Jessica Fiur, Senior Editor