Here at Hampshire College we continue to make progress on our food systems work. Earlier this fall our Food Systems team conducted a survey of first year students in the dining hall, and discovered that few of them had a good grasp on what exactly the Hampshire College food system was or how it worked.
To remedy this, we worked in conjunction with the Bon Appetit Fellow, Shira Kaufmann, and came up with both a Food Systems Panel to answer student questions and a cooking class to teach students how to use Hampshire Farm products found in their fall CSA shares.
The panel consisted of representatives from the Hampshire College Farm, Bon Appetit, the Kern Kafe, and the Mixed Nuts Co-op. (A representative of the HampStore unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute.) The Food Systems Intern read a number of questions that had been asked by students in the survey, and members of the panel explained how the food flows from the farm (and other locations) to various entities on campus, the purchasing policies regarding local and non-local food purchases, and ideas for next steps in improving the local food system (including studying how to increase winter vegetable production at the farm).
The Hampshire College Food Systems Panel answers questions from the audience
The day after the panel, Bon Appetit Executive Chef Jamil Asad taught an initial cooking class to Hampshire College students. He shared several tips and tricks, including the judicious use of salt in ground meat, and then taught several recipes, which included sweet potato and leek soup, butternut puree, crisped kale, and seared lamb.
Executive Chef Jamil Asad teaches a cooking class to Hampshire students.
The food was delicious and the class was extremely well received; we look forward to continuing these classes next semester. In the meantime, the Hampshire College Farm wishes you all a happy holidays and a wonderful new year!
