Local Foods Dinner a Success
On Thursday evening, Sharples overflowed with eager diners who had come to sample local foods at a dinner hosted by Swarthmore’s Good Food Project. Every item on the menu--from the salad greens to the ice cream--was grown or produced locally. Claudia Seixas ’10, soon to hold the title of “Student Sustainability Coordinator for Dining Services,” is a coordinator of the Good Food Project, along with Marshall Morales ’08 and Jamie Hansen-Lewis ’10. In organizing the dinner, “I basically worked with Janet Kassab [Dining Services Director of Purchasing] and Linda McDougall [Dining Services Director] and they were really helpful and great about everything,” she said. “It was really their initiative.” She added that “a lot of preparation went into [this meal].”
The ingredients for the dinner included tomatoes and herbs from the Good Foods Project garden. Many of the meal items came from a center that facilitates distribution of locally produced foods. Seixas said, “There’s this one farmer, Noah--I don’t know his last name. He apparently grew a whole field of kale just for us.”
At dinner, “the line [for food] was ridiculously long,” said Gerri Straughter ’09. The extensive menu included roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, mushroom and spinach lasagna, baked tofu, and apple crisp. The chicken emerged as a general favorite. Ada Okun ’11 said the meal was “delicious, and it’s really nice to have things taste fresh.” “It was a pretty good change,” said Rahul Garg ’11, noting that he had “never seen Sharples this full.”
“If we could have a dinner like this every night, that would be amazing,” said Seixas, voicing a common sentiment. “I’d like to emphasize that Sharples was really great about everything, really wonderful. They’re making a lot of progress towards incorporating local and sustainable foods.”
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