The Cornell community welcomed new students with a communal outdoor meal Aug. 24 on the Arts Quad.

Picnic on the Quad, a new Welcome Weekend event this year, brought hundreds of students, faculty and staff together for lunch on the grass. Passing by tables under a large tent in the quad's southeastern corner, students used their meal plans (others paid $7) and loaded up their plates with a variety of submarine sandwiches, cookies, brownies, pretzels and other snacks, milk, juice and piles of fresh fruit.

"The honeydew's very good," said Hanna Smith '10, a materials science and engineering student. "My meal plan's a little big for me, so I'm glad I could use it."

Smith was sitting with Sharon Pan, a freshman in the College of Engineering, who brushed stray ants off her plate.

"The people here are all really friendly, but it's hard to meet someone when it's such a big group," Pan said. "The smaller events seem to be better for that."

Chef Bryan Roberts said Cornell Dining staff had food ready for 2,500 people and were prepared to serve up to 3,000 picnickers.

"We had a nice day for the event," Roberts said, noting that it had been raining when workers started setting up on the Arts Quad at 6 a.m.

The picnic was designed to allow faculty and staff to mingle with new students, since most Welcome Weekend events were held at night, said Lisa Zhang '08, vice president of events management for the Welcome Weekend Committee.

"Our mission says we're for the entire campus," she said.

Other Welcome Weekend events have grown, Zhang said, such as CU on the Slope, held Aug. 23 with bonfires and live music by student bands, and the Casino Night in Willard Straight Hall and the Street Fair on Ho Plaza, both held Aug. 26.