Tuesday marked the first of many hoped for multicultural days at the Defense Logistics Agency at Hill. DLA employees meandered around the building with "passports," going from culture to culture to nibble not only on bits of food, but also bits of knowledge.

The event held Oct. 4 kicked off just before 11 a.m. with Col. James Kinkade, the site commander for DLA Aviation in Ogden, cutting a carrot cake. Then, participants let their passports guide them as they wandered throughout the building, having their passports marked at every station.

The day was free of cost to participants and the Multicultural Day committee members manned each station with most of the food coming from family cookbooks. The members provided everything for the day, including the food, decorations and even the passports. The passports took their owners through Italy, Barbados, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Scotland and Holland, and through the Americas, including U.S., Native American and African American cultural food and artifacts.

Some of the more popular items at the event were the two varieties of chicken at the Barbados station, and the African American and American foods. For Barbados, the food was a sample of traditional jerked chicken and curried chicken over rice while at the African American table, collard and mustard greens and marinated chicken were given out.

Caron Chavez, the committee chairwoman, based the event off of one done at the DLA headquarters in Virginia. Chavez heard of the event while on temporary duty and formed a committee to get the ball rolling.

Lewis Powell, one of the committee members, said he hopes to add more dimensions than just food to the day. "We're looking to do it bigger next year," he said.

Chavez mirrored his sentiments, saying she hopes to hold Multicultural Day at Centennial Park next year.

Jeanie Christofferson, a DLA employee, said she enjoyed matching the food with the cultures. "I'm looking forward to it again."

This year, "Building a Stronger Workforce Through Diversity" was the theme and 100 people signed up for passports while 200 were printed in total. Toward the end of the event, Chavez said all the passports were handed out.

"I'm so glad it turned out well," Chavez beamed, saying she was happy to be a part of coordinating the event.

"We have such a diverse culture here within out DLA family," she said.

Fellow committee member Gloria Robinson said she was surprised at the turnout, "It was our first time, and it was a hit."