Dining-hall food, farm fresh

Fresh local food brought a crowd of Penn students to a Fall Harvest Dinner last night at King's Court/English House.

Wendy Born -- owner of the Metropolitan Bakery, which opened a location at 4013 Walnut St. in 2004 -- gave a short speech before the dinner.

Born emphasized that "food is political."

Within the last 10 years, a movement has developed in support of organically produced and pesticide-free food.

The idea is that eating food produced closer to home reduces fuel consumption, eliminates wasteful packaging and helps farmers get better prices. Increased freshness also makes for better-tasting food.

Born said that there is a need to "expose people to the different flavors of food. Tasting makes you understand."

She has used her business at the Metropolitan Bakery to market other fresh foods from local farmers.

The fresh-food movement was hampered at first by farmers' inability to transport food themselves. However, farmers have become increasingly able to transport the food, and businesses have even developed to support the practice. Born encouraged students to support the movement by visiting these places, which include Trader Joe's, Reading Terminal Market and the White Dog Cafe.

The dinner was sponsored by FarmEcology -- a student group that began last year to promote local foods on campus. College junior Rachel Meyer and College senior Emma Kirwan formed the group after an independent study they did as part of their course on the politics of food.

Thanks in part to FarmEcology, progress has also been made in getting local foods into Penn dining halls. Kirwan and Meyer worked with Aramark to open a small stand on April 4 in Houston Hall. The stand sells local, organic products. In addition, all the milk served in campus dining halls now comes from local producers.

"I am happy with the progress through Penn Dining and that more students are getting involved in the movement," Meyer said.

Born concluded by emphasizing that "we are the people that are going to turn the food industry back to what it was at the beginning of the century."

Other colleges, such as Yale University, have also launched projects to increase the visibility of local foods on campus.

Attendees seemed very pleased with FarmEcology's efforts.

"It's important to get organic and local food into Penn dining halls," College senior Catie Richards said.

This was the second annual dinner for FarmEcology and its turnout far exceeded that of last year's event -- though it is difficult to measure, because it is held in a regular campus dining hall.

"I wish the food could be this good in the dining hall every day," Nursing freshman Caitlin Healy said.

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