Penn and high schoolers partner to support community farm

Urban Nutrition Initiative partnered with the Penn Gastronomy Club to serve the community some food for thought the night of Sunday, February 27.

At “Cooking Collective,” PGC members and UNI members from High School of the Future served as chefs and waiters and offered a three-course meal to the Penn community.

About 15 people attended the dinner, held at the Penn Women’s Center. The entrance fee of $10 will go toward building a new community farm and food resource center at Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Gardens.

UNI is a program sponsored by the Netter Center for Community Partnerships that educates high school and college students about nutrition and other food issues.

“We wanted to bring people together around food. We’re hoping to use this as a model to really engage the community we work in,” College junior and UNI assistant cooking supervisor Nellie Catzen said. “I love being with a community around food and everyone should have the right to be able to do that.”

Shreyans Goenka, president and cofounder of PGC and a College senior, said, “Part of being a foodie comes with understanding the responsibility associated with that.”

“I think it’s cool how [the event was] able to bring a lot of different groups together,” College sophomore Michael Josephs said.

PGC was eager to partner with UNI, Goenka said. “They’re focusing on a completely different aspect of food. What UNI is doing is a really good initiative and it’s something we’d love to get more students attuned to and involved with.”

Dinner attendees came from a wide variety of student groups. One of the student chefs, Siani Woodall, a high school junior said, “The event is a great way to connect to the community and college students. It brings opposite people together.”

“Our goal is to provide healthier ways for our community to eat,” she said.

“Working with young people is so fun and so effective,” Catzen added.

The elegantly presented dishes consisted of carrot and orange salad, Asian stir fry, snickerdoodle cookies and peanut butter bars.

College sophomore Elliott Brooks, who attended the dinner, said, “It’s a challenge to make a three-course meal and get a profit out of it.” PGC also hosted a bake sale to raise additional funds for their cause.

PGC, which became recognized by the Student Activities Council last semester, plans to hold similar events in the future. “We’re hoping to make this into a series of popup events that happen throughout the semester … This is like a soft launch,” Goenka said.

Engineering junior Anshul Bhide, a PGC board member, said, “We thought it would be good to be involved in some community service on campus.” He added that the UNI is “very relevant to what we do: food.”

Catzen stressed the importance of their mission, reminding the community that social reform is often tied in some way to food. “The Greensboro Sit-ins, Gandhi’s salt march — how many of these changes started with food?”

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