penn appétit FALL
THE
ISSUE
2021
The Menu 5
Gumball Economics
7
I’m Lovin’ It
11
Planting Change For Food Insecurity
13
A Brief Disquisition of A Culinary Education
15
Zero Stars for Michelin
17
SNAP: Fast Facts About Food Stamps
19
Everything You Knead to Know About Pizza
21
Fridges and Family: Freshman Provides Fresh Food
23
Here’s a Tip
25
BeveRAGE: Modern Drinks and Escalating Prices
BY AYELET GROSS ILLUSTRATIONS BY MALIA KEALELUHI
G
umball machines are lovely pieces of nostalgia. For many, those bright-colored candies in a classic red carousel machine prompt wistful childhood memories of after-school treats or Sunday outings. But today, gumball machines remain just that: nostalgic. Once present at a variety of storefronts, doctors’ offices, and bowling alleys, gumball machines are now gradually disappearing from the public eye. Here’s a brief history to get the gumball rolling. Vending machines were first introduced by the Thomas Adams Gum Company in 1888 in New York City; machines were planted in subway stations in New York City and sold Tutti-Frutti sticks of gum. However, Adams Sons and Company outdid their predecessors in 1907 by revealing the first spherical gum (donned “gumball”) machines, complete with multicolored, candy-coated gumball selections. In 1934, Ford Gum brough the penultimate gumball machine to the market: the standard chrome carousel-style round-top gumball machine. Gumballs are stored in a large transparent sphere atop a coin slot, where the user would insert a coin and turn a wheel to reveal a rolling gumball. In the decades since, many different gumball machines came to the market including gas pump, single or double head, and spiral gumball machines. They could stand alone at a storefront, or sit on a tabletop by the checkout register. The cost of gumballs also rose over time. When the gumball was first introduced the price was one penny per gumball. Today, the United States standard price is one quarter for a single gumball. The low price to stock and operate a gumball machine previously made gumballs an appealing draw for storeowners. After all, the vending machine industry is valued at tens of billions of dollars per year, and gumball machines are a contributor. The national average net profit of a gumball machine is $1 per day. Some machines can make up to $350 a month, while others barely scrape a dollar. The most important factor to consider is the location of the machine. High-traffic locations are much more likely to generate significant profit. Most gumball owners own upwards
of ten single machines to make a notable yearly profit, especially since owning a gumball machine requires a vending license just like any other vending machine. So why are the gumball machines much more difficult to come by today? As large conglomerates buy smaller shops, and chains replace family-owned stores, gumball machines become more or less worthless. The small machines don’t bring in enough money to render them profitable when compared to million or billiondollar industries, and nostalgia simply doesn’t cut it. Furthermore, there is the matter of retailers making change. Gumballs are 25 cents, and this hasn’t changed since the twentieth century, but the United States doesn’t carry a common dollar coin. This forces store owners to make change for a dollar when change is inherently more frustrating to deal with. This annoyance alone disincentivizes the presence of the gumball machine. One more major drawback of the gumball machine is not actually fiscal; rather, it is the gumball itself. For starters, the average gumball is 75% sugar, making it one of the most caloriedense “snack” options. Considering the nation’s rising healthconsciousness, it’s no wonder gumballs aren’t selling the way they did one hundred years ago. And lastly, for the question on everyone’s minds: How old is the average gumball in a gumball machine? Gumballs have a shelflife of approximately one year. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the last time a store-owner swapped out the gumballs, or cleaned the machine for that matter. But the good news is that the International Chewing Gum Association says that it is safe to chew any-age gum, but the quality will just deteriorate. Indeed, there is much more to gumball machines than meets the eye. It is a fascinating, dying industry with an unexpected history and surprising economics. So if you have a quarter lying around and are feeling particularly nostalgic, take the opportunity to locate a gumball machine before they all disappear completely. Just one piece of advice: don’t think about how old the gumball may be.
penn appétit 5
BY ROGER GE PHOTOS BY KAELIN SUH My first day in Philadelphia began with the pressing urge for food, but also the overhanging dread of decision. It was a new city, a new place, and being alone, I was by no means in a position to explore with nonchalance. However, I had to eat. A quick search on Google Maps revealed my nearest restaurants. Despite the decent variety that was provided, I found myself leaning towards the familiar golden “M” of McDonald’s. There’s simply something ubiquitous and unchanging about it. As expected, it was fast and familiar. Fast food’s earliest records date back to antiquity. The Greco-roman thermopolium acted as a sort of precursor to both the modern-day restaurant and the notion of fast food, resembling road/streetside eateries. Each culture around the world has its own unique version of “fast-food”: food that revolves around the swiftness and convenience of its preparation and the accompanying association of inexpensiveness. Today, however, the mere mention of “fast food” immediately conjures up images of disease, unideal lifestyle choices, and malnutrition. This markedly strong stigmatisation begs the question: why has fast food come to be so negatively perceived? There are several factors that immediately come to mind, chief of which is the industrial nature of modern food production. The modernday food industry is characterised by its overabundance –– a surplus that is then wasted or over consumed. We can easily see the results in our daily lives, from trash produced to new varieties of ailments. Fast food, built on speed and convenience en masse, unavoidably needs to employ the opportunities and conveniences given by modern technologies, systems, and institutions. After all, overabundance isn’t necessarily against the goals of the fastfood industry when it intends to serve a large populace. The negative stigma associated with
fast food stems in part from its success. Fast food is cheap, decently delicious (most of the time), and quick. It fits a comfortable space in the modern world of quick progress and no time for rest. Not everyone can afford a Michelinstar meal on a daily basis, nor healthier options that tend to be more costly and less accessible than mass-produced food. Fast food does its job well and knows how to use the profit-oriented system of the world to thrive economically, orienting itself towards the fast-paced modern world by offering quick and often decently delicious meals. Therein lies the detriments with which we now beleaguer them. On the other side of the coin, “healthier” and “better” fast foods exist. On rare occasions, fast-food restaurants have earned the recognition of the revered Michelin Star. For instance, Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle, a traditional “fast-food” restaurant in Singapore, was awarded one star in 2016. This example shows the distinction to draw between “types” of fast foods: this restaurant is not linked to any large global corporation and remains a family business, being largely free from the chains of industrialised, mass-produced food. Some may argue that this is not “fast food.” But the concept of fast food is by no means recent. Without the interferences of the modern economy and industrialisation, the role of fast-food restaurants deviates little from its origins. The stigma against fast foods is overemphasised. It is a limited vision that discredits its historical and cultural associations and restricts the definition to only corporate institutions that thrive in a system of consumer exploitation and profit at the expense of health. Sure, McDonald’s is not healthy by any means. Avoid it if you must. But don’t forget that “fast food” is but two words with a whole host of foods under its large umbrella.
penn appétit 9
10 penn appétit
After all, the name concrete jungle was coined for a reason, as urbanization was quickly characterized by glittering skyscrapers and the inching away of local agriculture for picture-perfect, odorless supermarkets. However, the increased density of cities and concentration of wealth in certain neighborhoods have given rise to food deserts, defined by the Food Empowerment Project as “geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthy food options is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.” Premium grocery store chains such as Whole Foods are nowhere to be seen, and residents often rely on fast food restaurants or corner stores for affordable meals. Philadelphia is no exception to this phenomenon, where neighborhoods such as East Germantown have gone over 40 years without a grocery store in the past. Lack of food access is also directly related to higher rates of diet-related disease to the point where people who live in North Philly, when compared to those in Center City, have a decreased life expectancy of about 20 years. Community gardens and urban farming are two methods of urban agriculture that are fighting to solve the inequities within our modern food system. A community garden usually consists of land plots that are rented by individuals, families, or other groups to grow their own food. Not only do these gardens turn unused urban land into ways of obtaining affordable, healthy produce, but they also provide nutrition
When you picture a city, a farm might be the furthest thing you would think of including.
education to low-income residents that haven’t had exposure to constantly stocked supermarkets. These gardens also add a layer of importance for immigrant and refugee communities who can find connection to their homeland’s crops, amidst a new country that has otherwise made them feel alienated. Other urban farming techniques such as vertical farms and hydroponic greenhouses have also gained popularity to rethink what spaces truly exist for agriculture in cities. There are around 400 community gardens in Philadelphia, one being just a few blocks away from campus within the Woodlands Cemetery. Another close by is the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden, which services over 50 local families in Southwest Philadelphia and produces 15,000 pounds of food per year. Beyond fostering food sovereignty, they focus on forming a reconnection to the cultural history of its farmers, many whose ancestors came to Philadelphia from the Great Migration or have recently settled from West Africa. Through interplanting crops such as rice native to the Carolina’s next to pigeon peas, the Sankofa farm creates greater accessibility to foods central to Gullah-Geechee cuisine, quite literally rooting the ancestries of AfricanAmericans in Philadelphia. Urban agriculture is transforming how we define what food is edible, trustworthy, and accessible. It is an especially critical solution for low-income residents and communities that have been societally displaced to regain the Check out these resources ownership to get involved with the of food, a community gardens and fundamental need that we other food justice initiatives often take for in Philadelphia: granted. The Philadelphia Orchard Project The Food Trust The People’s Kitchen The Neighborhood Gardens Trust
A
s sleepy-eyed Penn s t u d e nt s shuffle into class, backpacks weighted with spiral-bound notebooks, mechanical pencils, and various Apple devices, students half a mile away at the Walnut Hill College are doing the same thing. Except their backpacks are filled with high quality carbon steel knives of varying shapes and sizes, thermometers, icing bags, kitchen scales, pastry combs, peelers, corers, ballers, and scrapers that are all a little reminiscent of miniature medieval torture devices. Starting at 7:30 A.M., the campus of a culinary institute crawls with students, knife cases in tow and toques bobbing. In teaching kitchens, the air is filled with the sounds of mixers whirring, knives tapping on cutting boards and the occasional roar of an instructor. Seeking an education beyond that of Joy of Cooking (the cookbook that seems to be on every suburban home kitchen shelf) and Youtube tutorials, students at pastry school will graduate with the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a career in the kitchen. At Walnut Hill, classes range from something that might be found on Penn InTouch—“Social Media and Technology” or “Sociology of Popular Culture”—to
traded for Dr. Scholl’s clogs (the footwear of choice for pastry students on their feet all day); homework consists of researching knife skills and internships serve as an opportunity to practice preparation of frozen desserts. In the education of American chefs, there are two main pedagogical approaches: French and American. In France, pastry students can expect to spend between two and eighteen months working towards their certification (of varying levels). One of the greatest strengths of a French pastry school like Le Cordon Bleu is its short program. Some students—especially career-changers—seek a quicker path to a degree, as well as the total immersion in Parisian food culture. The grand diplôme in cuisine and pastry can be earned in 12 months, including a 3-month restaurant internship. Students end that year with a thorough understanding of a cuisine
consistent with other forms of American higher education in that they have been subject to criticism of the cost. Entrylevel positions often pay meager wages
(think$10/hour)
and the long hours make it near impossible to take on multiple jobs. Pastry school instructors often tell their students that if you choose pastry as a profession, you do it for the love of baking, not for the paycheck. American pastry schools may bear the weight of considerable carping but they are also home to the emergent culinary culture of freedom and experimentation. Gone are the days of outsourcing the culinary education of America’s best chefs to schools abroad: of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs 2021, three didn’t receive any formal training and all of the others were taught in the United States. Diversity reigns supreme over the caricaturistically uptight French training as the next generation of the world’s most celebrated chefs hawk their wares: creative combinations of immigrantgrandmotherrecipes and exciting new collaboration between chefs of different backgrounds. Philadelphia’s own K’Far (at 19th & Sansom St.) combines Michael Solomonov’s Israeli upbringing and culinary empire with former Executive Pastry Chef Camille Cogswell’s formal training at the Culinary Institute of America and her North Carolina roots. The subsequent recipes are as beautiful as they are delicious. Tahina chocolate chip cookies and brown butter artichoke boreka serve as delightfully scrumptious creations, calling to mind Israeli, American, and French influences. While most Penn students are more likely to get their cinnamon rolls from Williams Café (or if they’re feeling particularly proactive, a can of Pillsbury Grands) than to set an alarm for a mise-en-place venture into the dormitory kitchen, you can begin your own culinary education through short programs in France or the six-week community education programs at Walnut Hill. If you’re more of a one-night-stand type, Hudson Table in Northern Liberties offers hands-on classes in a variety of disciplines.
A BRIEF DISQUISITION OF A CULINARY EDUCATION
“The Art of the Chocolatier 2”
impressively specific courses like
and “European Tortes and Gateaux.” Pastry students spend their days not slumped in calculus lectures but learning the intricacies of making the perfect meringue. Golden Goose sneakers (the puzzlingly expensive, pre-destroyed shoe of many fashion-forward Quakers) are
whose techniques form the foundation of Western cooking. Not only is the timeline a draw, but so is the historical and cultural position of these schools. Paris is a city like no other: what better place to learn the art of pâtisserie than in its home? Pastry schools in the United States, like the Culinary Institute of America and Walnut Hill College, follow in the footsteps of schools based in France but offer a uniquely American approach. Most follow the American framework of education: at Walnut Hill, potential students can receive an Associate’s degree (in two years) or a Bachelor’s degree (in four years). Graduates of either program can expect to find themselves working in front of a stove with relative ease. For pastry work, technical training is valuable but creativity and experience give you an edge. American pastry and culinary schools have programs that cost hopeful chefs years of experience. Just to add insult to injury, culinary and pastry schools are
Or, you know, you can always order takeout.
BY GRACE BUSSER PHOTO STYLING BY MALIA KEALALUHI
ZERO STARS FOR MICHELIN
14 penn appétit
BY ROGER GE ILLUSTRATION BY MALIA KEALALUHI
I
n every field fathomable, one can find some form of an award that demarks the top achievers from the rest. In film, we have the Oscars, Golden Globes; in music, the Grammy’s. When it comes to the culinary experience, the Michelin Guide takes the prize as the most coveted award for any aspiring restaurateur, and indeed for any aspiring gastronomist who wishes to stimulate their palates. However, the Michelin Guide – and the stars they so exclusively give out – is not free from its fair share of criticisms. It may come as somewhat of a surprise that the Michelin Guide is published by the tire company Michelin. The guide started out as a way to jump-start the automobile industry in France, whose success would consequently dictate the business of a tire company. The first editions of the guide were heavily influenced by its target demographic – motorists. Originally, it included the most relevant information such as maps, maintenance instructions, service stops and hotels throughout France. Of these many categories, the restaurant category eventually rose in popularity, coming to dominate the perception and focus of the guide up to the present day. Around the same time, the star system was developed: one stood for a noteworthy restaurant, up to three being a truly exquisite experience. Receiving a Michelin star
immediately changes a number of things for the lucky recipient: their reputation ascends spectacularly, and so does the expectation of their quality. The converse effect also exists: customers who have formed expectations of Michelin starred restaurants may then evaluate the restaurant in a different light. In other words, the Michelin star’s grip on the restaurant industry and its constituents is strong enough that its reward – as much of a blessing as it may seem – oftentimes comes with a curse. The recipient will have to work continuously at the same, if not higher, standard simply to maintain the star, which can be revoked. In the case of a removal, it is not hard to imagine the level of catastrophe that entails, with there being instances of chefs – Bernard Loiseau, Benoît Violier – who died from the removal of a precious star. Beyond the functional effects the Michelin Guide exerts with its stars, there are also inherent issues with its Euro-centric nature. France has long been associated with its excellence in gastronomy. However, this long association has led to a commonplace perception that France’s cuisine is the standard regardless of the culture or nation one might be in. France’s particular culinary characteristics are not necessarily applicable, nor even appreciated everywhere. This begs the question: can the standards
of the Michelin Guide be trusted even in countries and cultures whose conventions might be largely divergent from that of France? The 2021 guide awarded 93 3-starred restaurants to Western nations and only 41 in the East, with there being little to no mention on any other continent. France itself occupies 30 of the slots, and with the exception of Japan, no other nation comes close. Furthermore, one might wonder if the very chefs who earned a star in these “foreign” cultures might themselves be trained in the French style of cooking. Do they gain an edge in the evaluation? Fascinatingly, there have also been controversies surrounding Michelin and Japan, a country that has received an overwhelming number of stars in comparison to European nations in the 2007 issue of the Michelin Guide. Clearly, the Michelin guide is not without its faults. It is an aged European establishment that revolves around its European roots, despite the global nature of a world changing more in focus of diversity and multiculturalism. Hailed as the leader in culinary criticism, the guide still bears a great deal of sway despite being limited in scope and stemming from a limited and haughty background. In the end, do not forget that your own taste buds trump whatever food critic’s humble opinion.
penn appétit 15
Just past the tennis courts, under the South Street Bridge, lies an oasis of fresh food and flowering plants: The Penn Food and Wellness Orchard. Rows upon rows of newly tilled beds and, depending on the season, various vegetables, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, juneberries, figs; an herb garden that makes me want to hide my puny Whole Foods basil plant and hope that no one knows it once belonged to me. The Penn Food and Wellness Collaborative grows its own food at this haven of farming and gardening in Penn Park through a partnership with the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative (AUNI). Together, they have created the Good Food Bag program that provides affordable bags of produce to FGLI students and West Philadelphia residents, many of whom would As of the 2008 passage of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act, the federal program that helps low income families to supplement their grocery budgets was no longer the Federal Food Stamp Program but SNAP: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In an effort to fight stigma surrounding the language of the program, the Obama administration added a name change to the Farm Bill. The hope was that focus would shift toward ‘nutrition,’ as well. Part of the reason for the name change was also to reflect the program’s evolution. Paper stamps are no longer actually used, both to cut down on cost and to reduce stigma. Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards reduce the appearance that a user is any different from any other shopper.
Recently, the Thrifty Food Plan was updated for the first time since 2006. A detailed outline of recommended food purchases and dietary values, the Thrifty Food Plan is used to calculate cheap ways of eating healthily. Because SNAP can only be used on food (and plants to grow food), other necessities like household supplies and hygiene products must be purchased separately. Households with a gross monthly income (household income before any deductions) must be at or below 130% of the federal poverty line in order to qualify for SNAP benefits. While the Farm Bill did expand eligibility, there are still groups of people exempt from SNAP: individuals on strike, unauthorized immigrants, some students, and certain lawfully present immigrants. Across the United States, there are 9.5 million children and families using SNAP. West of the Schuylkill, University City is one of few neighborhoods in which the percentage of households receiving food stamps is lower than the national average of 11%. Nearby neighborhoods like Belmont and Bartram Village have populations among those of highest need in Philadelphia: 63.6% of Bartram Village and 53.7% of Belmont households receive food stamps. These neighborhoods are considered food deserts, places where options for healthy, nutritious food are hard to come by. Several public and nonprofit programs are working to bolster access to healthy food in Philadelphia, largely led by the Food Trust, which is supported by the American Heart Association. Founded in 1992, the Food Trust’s approach has served
as an example for cities across the country. They focus on affordability and accessibility: being able to shop and being able to afford. The Food Trust tackles affordability through its Philly Food Bucks program. The program provides SNAP users with $2 worth of fruits and vegetables each time they spend $5 in SNAP benefits at farmer’s markets throughout the city, including the nearby Clark Park Saturday Farmers Market. Because SNAP benefits are issued at the beginning of each month, users can struggle to make them last all month, either going hungry or relying on food banks toward the end of the month. By increasing SNAP’s value by 40 percent, Food Bucks support residents in need while encouraging healthy eating. Families and students can use programs like Food Bucks or the Good Food Bag to supplement their diets with fresh, nutritious food. Food deserts and nutritional deficiencies are a huge problem, especially in Philadelphia. As Penn students, we have the opportunity (and the obligation) to help ameliorate this problem and work with our community to provide aid. Students can volunteer with the Food and Wellness Collaborative, at various community kitchens and food banks. For more information about where to find free and discounted food in
Philadelphia,
visit phillyfoodfinder.org.
BY GRACE BUSSER PHOTO STYLING BY MALIA KEALALUHI
EVERYTHING
YOU KNEAD
TO KNOW ABOUT PIZZA By Josephine Buccini, Photos By Anna Feng It’s no secret that everybody loves pizza. From genuine Italian pizza to fast food American pizza, there is something in the pizza industry for everyone.You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t found yourself in a booth at Allegro’s after midnight. This staple dish varies widely, and so does the $146 billion industry it creates. Over the past few years, the demand for pizza has risen all over the world, especially in Latin America and China. You can find pizza in any country, at any time.
Of course, US pizza chains remain popular. Americans spend over 600K on our well loved and adopted cuisine. Delivery pizza is an easy and iconic attendee of movie nights and parties across the country. And lately, American pizza consumers have been gravitating towards small pizza businesses over large chains, like Papa John’s, Dominos, and Pizza hut, mimicking Italian culture. While of course Italian pizza is much more authentic than that of our beloved Domino’s in America, that doesn’t mean they don’t consume pizza with the intent of it being easy like Americans do. Though the ingredients may be fresher and authentic, pizza remains a personalized and easy meal overseas. The European frozen pizza market is expected to reach a value of 4.69 billion dollars by 2025, and Italians are some of the biggest frozen pizza buyers. Additionally, most Italians don’t even make pizza at home. Nowadays, apartment kitchens are often far too small and pizza is cheap and convenient. After all, pizza was always intended to be accessible. What we consider pizza today was developed in Naples in the late 18th century to be easily available. For ages, pizza variations were looked down upon by chefs and ignored by food writers as they were associated with poverty. The first ever cookbooks ignored pizza entirely, because it was unsuitable for the upper classes to read about it. Thankfully, Queen Margherita of Italy changed this after requesting local specialties that the common people ate while touring Italy. What we know as margherita pizza today was made originally for her. And so the underdog dish persevered. Centuries later, Italian immigrants reached the East Coast and the first ever American pizzeria, Lombardi’s, was opened in New York in 1905. The rest is, quite literally, history. Despite whatever technological, geographical, or ingredient changes the dish has undergone, it has remained a versatile staple worldwide. From Michelin star restaurants, to fast food, to Friday night delivery, pizza is found at every price point and crossroads of culture. From the food of peasants to the food of queens, no matter the improvements, it remains what it originally was intended to be: accessible, and for everyone. Its history and diversity is baked into each slice.
You can’t miss a community fridge. The bright paint, colorful art, and bold lettering — mostly in English, though sometimes in Spanish — draws your eye, inviting you to come take a closer look. Each fridge is unique, but the one decoration that Fridges and Family’s refrigerators all have in common is the motto and defining principle of the organization: “If you need food, you’re eligible.” Penn freshman Kenny Chiu started Fridges and Family in January, after having volunteered at other food-related mutual aid organizations since summer of 2020. Working on those projects turned out to be unsustainable since it cost a lot of money to run, relying heavily on donations that weren’t as consistent as they needed them to be. Community fridges — refrigerators placed in public spaces to share free food with the community — on the other hand, are more sustainable, with lower startup and running costs. Painting the fridges is yet another part of the community aspect — it’s a way to collaborate with friends and local artists, and the designs help to spread the word to residents, letting them know that
the fridges are available to them. For the first few fridges, Kenny asked some of his friends to help spray paint each fridge a new distinctive color and work on the signage and illustrations, and for Fridges and Family’s fourth fridge, located in Temple University’s 1940 Residence Hall, students came together to add their own mark, covering the appliance in handprints, names, initials, and small drawings. “We want [the fridges] to be welcoming, you know?” Kenny says. “Accepting free stuff is still something that’s stigmatized in our society, and making it colorful, drawing on it, painting on it, having these visuals, help people feel welcome and not ashamed at taking free food. I think we’re slowly moving toward a society where it’s okay to ask for things and to receive things because, you know, minimum wage isn’t going up but everything else is going up.” Since the pandemic began, there’s been a huge increase in community fridge locations across the country. “It’s people’s nature to help out communities,” Kenny notes, “but mutual aid really exploded during COVID because a lot more people
By Emily Truong Photos By Amy Liu
realized, ‘Yo, like if the government can’t take care of our basic needs, then we have to take care of our neighbors and our community’s basic needs.’” It took a few months for Kenny and Justin to find a fridge and host location to set up their first community fridge. They opened their first location in March with the help of the People’s Kitchen in South Philly, who supplied them with a fridge, location, and electricity. By October, Fridges and Family opened three more fridges: one with the help of a local nonprofit that wanted a fridge in their community, one in East Orange, New Jersey, where Fridges and Family’s co-founder Justin Battle is from, and one in a Temple dorm. Every day, with the help of a team of volunteers sourced through social media, the fridges are cleaned and restocked with fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods like bread and cake, dairy, and eggs. While everything is usually taken within 24 hours, the few times they’re able to stock milk or eggs, they’re gone in an hour. Fridges and Family accepts anything, though, except for raw meat. “The most common items we get are fresh produce
because we work with this organization that grows its own food, so we take a lot of their veggies and put them in our fridges,” Kenny explains. You won’t find canned goods in these fridges, though. Most of what’s stocked comes from local restaurants, bakeries, and supermarkets. “We really wanted to bridge the problems of food waste and food insecurity,” Kenny says. “So we take all of their leftover food that can’t be sold but is perfectly edible, and we put them inside the fridges.…It’s pretty great to be able to offer the community something that they can cook with and something they can feel good about.” His ultimate goal? “I don’t know if it’s possible, but to end hunger, of course.” More realistically, though, he hopes to open a community kitchen — an outdoor space equipped with appliances, utensils, and a community fridge that anyone can use to cook. Kenny never expected to have opened four locations or to have received such strong support from the community. Ideally, though, “I’d rather not do this stuff — I’d rather just have the govern-
ment take care of our basic needs,” he says. “Of course, I love it, but it’s a shame that I have to do this and that other organizations have to do this. I just hope that people see the power of mutual aid.” He brings up a phrase used by other mutual aid organizations: “‘It’s not charity, but solidarity.’ People are just volunteering their time and not looking for anything out of it. That’s what makes it truly different from other community projects. Everyone is going through something, and if we could provide one thing that makes your life easier [then we will]. We can’t solve people’s problems, but if we have enough mutual aid organizations, we can [address] some of people’s needs.”
how we’re $hortchanging our $erver$ ARTICLE BY: CLARA KE At the end of every restaurant meal, a curious mathematical ritual known as tipping takes place. The sight of that oh-so-small slip of paper is enough to trigger a mild panic. How much should I pay? Did I do my math right, and will I look like an idiot busting out my phone calculator at the dining table? The US tips more in large amounts than any other country, with an estimated $40 billion a year tipped to food service workers alone. Yet tipping is largely obsolete in other parts of the globe. So how did tipping come about in the first place, and why has it so stubbornly persisted in the US?
The concept of tipping was first introduced in Medieval Europe, where lords gave coins as a bonus for a job well done to their vassals and servants. Tipping grew immensely popular in Europe, while the US was slow to embrace it. All of this changed in the 1850s with the Golden Age. As more rich Americans travelled to Europe, many were eager to show their newfound sophistication through tipping. Around the same time, Emancipation left many African Americans in need of paid work. The Pullman Car Company, a luxury sleeper rail car company, saw an opportunity and pounced. Hiring Black men as servers and porters, they made their salaries entirely dependent on tips, effectively paying them a $0 wage. While a formal wage was later introduced, Pullman solidified tipping’s presence in the US. The subminimum wage for tipped workers in the US. wasn’t codified until 1966, and in 1996 was frozen at $2.13 thanks to the lobbying efforts of the National Restaurant Association (“the other NRA”). Despite its ties to slavery and racialized capitalism, supporters of tipping argue that tipping promotes good service. There is evidence that behavior does play a role in tip amounts: one study found that smiling or calling a customer by name could increase a tip by as much as
20-40%. Yet bill size was still found to be the biggest influence on tip amount, creating as much as a 70% difference between tips. Racist undertones play a role in tips as well. White servers often received tips 5% higher than Black servers, even when customers rated the service the same. Women, who make up 70% of the restaurant industry, suffer from similar biases. Waitresses’ appearances (i.e. slender figures, larger breasts) are often used as crude means for calculating tips. Nowadays with COVID-19, harassment has only increased, ranging from maskual harassment (“pull down your mask so we can see that pretty smile”) to violent non-compliance with COVID-19 protocol. Many servers are often reluctant to enforce safety rules out of fear of losing tips. Even with businesses encouraging patrons to tip more, tips actually decreased during the pandemic. Food service staff are now even more hard pressed choosing between payment and their personal safety. COVID-19 has forced many to reconsider the sustainability of tipping. Some have already attempted to buck the trend, adding automatic tips or incorporating service charges into menu prices. However, this is usually only sustainable at higher-end restaurants, where customers are less likely to be put off by higher prices and competition with less expensive restaurants isn’t a pressing issue. Policymakers have suggested their own solutions as well. The Raise the Wage Act proposes phasing out the tipped subminimum wage, raising the minimum wage for all workers to $15/hour by 2024. Yet despite these efforts, this minimum wage is still an unlivable wage. Poverty among restaurant workers is three times the national average—food service workers used food stamps twice as much as any other industry prior to COVID-19. Restaurant workers are tired of waiting. One May 2021 survey found that nearly half of restaurant workers in the US considered leaving their jobs, with concerns about low wages and tips surpassing
worries about COVID-19 health risks. Even as restaurants attempt to entice workers back with better wages and benefits, we have to question our unfounded love for tipping. When the people who bring food to our tables struggle to bring food to their own, is tipping really the best way we can say “thank you for your service”?
Modern Drinks and Escalating Prices ANO PATEL
Gone are the days when a hit of hydration through non-alcoholic drinks meant a selection of soft drinks. From enhanced functionality to experiential flavours and eco-conscious consumers, a new range of refreshments are changing the way we eat, and drink! From flavored wellness waters to fermented drinks for the gut, plantbased milks, and upcycled juices - novel beverages have helped us diversify our choices, but at a skyrocketing cost. So, is the hype (and the money) worth it?
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$60
$399
$80
$45
ADVENT OF FERMENT-ALISTS Now is the time to ditch those sodas! A new breed of people who wanted a sober buzz or their drinks gluten-free led to the major shift in the market of fizz. With fancy flavours and striking labels came a new wave of cider, kombucha, and other fermented drinks that changed the way we looked at drowning a bacterial blend down our throats. Sold as a premium health beverage with probiotic benefits, metabolism boost and sometimes labeled a ‘tea of immortality’, the price of these non-alcoholic, specially-crafted spirits can go up to $60 for a can. THE SHROOM BOOM Adaptogenic mushrooms caused an immediate flurry in the caffeine industry, thanks to their magical powers of boosting immunity, relieving stress, and improving focus! A market research report says that the mushroom market in North America could reach an estimated $3.5bn by 2027. It is now unthinkable to sip coffee or tea without stirring in a spoonful of chaga, lion’s mane, or reishi. But with prices going up to approx. $399 for a pack of 20 sachets, the fabulous fungi will certainly make you rethink your finances.
A GULP OF LEFTOVER PULP Fruits and vegetable leftovers account for the highest waste rate in the food industry. Thanks to more eco-conscious consumers, innovators are now biting into the business of these by-products and turning them into upcycled foods and drinks. Thanks to never-seen-before health benefits such as essential nutrients and bioactive compounds, these upcycled drinks have now gone upmarket, with a box of 20 serves of upcycled juice cleanses costing almost $80. MILKING ON GRAINS & NUTS As soon as people started noticing the adverse impact dairy milk had on the environment and livestock, the ‘moo’ became ‘moot’. The unstoppable rise of veganism only added to this demand for non-dairy products. And voila! Alternative plant-based milk industries emerged to fill the void. Any milk made from grains, nuts, or beans has proved to have lesser emissions of greenhouse gases than its dairy-based counterparts. While we’ve all had a taste of almond milk, coconut milk, oats milk, and rice milk, there’s been a steep rise in innovative varieties such as hemp milk, buckwheat milk, quinoa milk, and macadamia milk, to name a few. But be ready to pay big bucks for these vegan, lactose-free milks, with a 1 qt. carton of milk costing up to $45.
Homemade Kombucha By Randy Bach Yields: 8 cups Prep time: 30 minutes, 2 weeks inactive Cook time: 10 minutes Ingredients Kombucha • 1 piece of SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) • 1/2 cup of organic kombucha, original flavored • 8 cups of water • 6 tea bags, green or black • ¾ cup sugar • 2 cups of fruit purée Directions 1. Starting the Fermentation Process 2. Boil 4 cups of water and add tea bags into the pot. Allow to steep for about 5 minutes before removing tea bags. Allow tea to cool for another 10 minutes before adding in sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved. 3. Add in the remaining water to bring the appétit tea to room temperature. Trans25 penn
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fer tea to a large glass jar. Add in both the SCOBY and kombucha into the tea. Cover with a cheesecloth or coffee filter and secure with rubber bands; however, do not seal the jar completely! The SCOBY needs clean air and an acidic environment to do its cool science stuff.
First Fermentation 1. Place the jar in a dark location, such as a closet or cabinet, preferably with a constant temperature around 70-80 degrees. 2. Leave the jar undisturbed for 1 week and allow for the SCOBY to ferment the sweet tea. This sweet tea will become more of the unflavored/ original kombucha. Flavoring Process 1. After 1 week, the kombucha should be a golden brown color, with more “layers” appearing on the SCOBY. Remove the SCOBY and set aside for future use. 2. Purée or juice any fruit/additive of
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choice. Get creative with it!! Some ideas include mango, strawberries, raspberry, ginger, mint, basil, etc. Add purée to air-tight glass bottles or jars, keeping in mind a 1:4 ratio of purée to kombucha. Add in kombucha to each bottle, making sure to leave space at the top of each for carbonation. Seal the bottles completely this time.
Second Fermentation and Carbonation 1. Allow the bottles to undergo a second fermentation process, placing them in a dark location with a constant temperature of 70-80 degrees. 2. Leave bottles undisturbed for 2-3 days and allow for the kombucha to ferment and carbonate. 3. Refrigerate after fermentation and serve cold! This process can be repeated time and time again. Just prep more sweet tea and add in some leftover kombucha from the first fermentation and the good ol’ SCOBY. Infinite cheap kombucha $$ penn appétit 25