The Friendly Lunch Club is a new way to meet students on campus by simply sharing conversation over a meal.

Josh Aharonoff, president of the club and a graduate student in the accounting department, said that his group’s goal is to make it easier for students to meet peers whom they would not ordinarily meet.

“The lunches make a big campus of 15,000 students seem a bit smaller and more familiar,” Aharonoff said.

Aharonoff founded the club last spring alongside Paul Brick, a junior majoring in creative writing, Sydney Kaufman, a junior majoring in human development, and Esther Liberman, who is now an alumna.

The way the club works is simple. Those interested must send an email to the club, with their age, major, hobbies and availability for lunch on a Thursday.

Originally, club members tried to organize groups of people only based on hobbies and interests. However, the large number of responses they received each week made it difficult to sort the students by interest. Instead, lunches are scheduled around the times that students are available.

“Of course, if someone wants to be scheduled with a certain type of people who share similar interests, all they have to do is request it and we will accommodate them,” Aharonoff said.

David Zhou, a sophomore majoring in accounting, said he had a good experience participating in Friendly Lunch.

“I thought the lunch was great,” Zhou said. “I made new friends who I was able to see around campus every day after the meeting. I realized that I see these people around campus, but the lunch brought us together and I was able to finally approach these strangers.”

Rachel Greenberg, marketing director of the club and a junior majoring in environmental science, said that the first lunch she attended was a bit strange initially, but once a few people started to exchange basic information and make small talk, they found it enjoyable.

“I went to my first lunch with only one person I knew,” Greenberg said. “We were all mostly strangers, but then we started asking questions and figuring out things about each other. At the end of the lunch, we exchanged numbers. The next day, a few people from the group even got together for dinner.”

Aharonoff said that the club can be used for networking with other people on campus.

“Networking is one of the best things a person can do with their time here,” Aharonoff said. “This club makes it that much easier.”

Greenberg concurred.

“I didn’t know much about my major when I got here,” she said. “Then I met someone during a lunch that was the same major as me. We talked and I got advice that was very helpful because it was coming from a fellow student who knew exactly how it was to be studying in my field.”