Dining goes local for a day

Though the food served at Penn's dining halls is often produced up to 1,800 miles away from campus, yesterday Dining Services served 100-percent locally produced food.

Bon Appetit's Eat Local Challenge took place at 1920 Commons, Hill College House Dining, Kings Court English College House Dining and Houston Market, and featured a lunch whose ingredients were entirely grown and procured within a 150-mile radius of the University, with the exception of salt.

"It is such an interesting idea that most of our food is produced from 1,500 to 1,800 miles away," said Marie Witt, the vice president of Penn's Business Services Division, which runs Penn Dining. "To make a meal produced within 150 miles of our campus really takes dedication."

She added that the event illustrated Bon Appetit's dedication to the Climate Action Plan, the University's long-range plan to achieve carbon neutrality.

The Eat Local Challenge also took place in 400 other Bon Appetit cafes across the United States.

Within each Penn dining hall, there was one designated local station which offered a lunch option that came from 100-percent local sources. Every station provided information about the meal and the participating farmers who produced it.

"The produce was really good because it was local and you could tell it was fresh," said Engineering senior Boyan Makarenko, who ate lunch in 1920 Commons. However, he added that the difference was less noticeable in the cooked food, "which was a good thing since it was less processed, more organic and healthier."

In college houses' dining halls, there was a 26-percent increase in meals served from last year, according to Business Services spokeswoman Barbara Lea-Kruger, and the Eat Local Challenge increased the number of meals by 8 percent from last Tuesday. Houston Market also saw a 10-percent increase from last week in purchases at the Wall, which offered only locally produced food in honor of the event.

The Marshak Dairy at the School of Veterinary Medicine's New Bolton Center produced the milk used to make the ice cream served at the dining halls.

According to Bon Appetit and information from Lea-Kruger, local foods are more flavorful, fuel the local community and require less carbon consumption to transport, and the challenge strove to highlight this.

"Bon Appetit is focused on being sustainable, [as well as] buying local, which is a necessary step in making our campus more sustainable," Lea-Kruger said.

"I had some mushroom pasta and thought it tasted really fresh," said Wharton junior Alexandra Snow, who also ate at 1920 Commons.

But she added, "I don't think eating locally should be a challenge - it should be something we strive to do everyday."

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