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Vol. 142 Issue 146
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Urbana offers bike education classes in May BY SARI LESK STAFF WRITER
The city of Urbana will host its fi rst bike education course next Thursday. The course serves as an option to reduce the $100 fi ne normally given for biking offences. During the month of May, two classes will be offered and serve as a trial run for a potentially permanent option for bicyclists written tickets. The program was put together by Lt. Bob Fitzgerald of the Urbana Police Department. “We thought it would be better to educate the people rather than writing them $100 tickets,” he said. Fitzgerald said a recent increase in the number of people riding bicycles has led to an increase in complaints about bicyclists, mostly in the campus area — especially around Lincoln Avenue. In 2012, the city of Urbana decided to more heavily enforce the city ordinance against biking violations . Unlike traffic violations by drivers, the tickets for bikers do not go against their driving records and do not require an appearance in court. As of March 1 this year, ticketed bicyclists were offered the option to either pay the $100 fi ne or pay $30 and attend a bicycle education class. The city of Urbana decided to offer an option similar to driver’s education for motorists who receive tickets. “We thought if we could come up with a class where you can educate them and teach them how to be safe, we thought that would be better than just writing them a ticket and saying, ‘That’s it,” Fitzgerald said. “It would be a more productive and a better relationship between the police officer and the person.”
Two classes are scheduled to be held in May May 2 from 3 to 5 p.m. May 29 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Both classes will be held at the Urbana City Building, 400 S. Vine St. Most of the complaints have been about student bikers. Lt. Bob Fitzgerald of the Urbana Police Department, said he would like to offer classes in the fall when students return to the University campus.
About 20 people are currently signed up for the two May classes. The classes will be taught by Rebecca Bird, a city planner for Urbana. Bird is a certified instructor by the League of American Bicyclists. She said the class will teach about the major causes of crashes and teach people to be safer on the roads as bicyclists. “There are a lot of things that people don’t understand about riding a bicycle, and particularly with traffic,” she said. “We learn to ride bikes when we’re kids, and we don’t necessarily have a formal education in the safe way to ride a bicycle.” The option to take a bicycle education class represents one of three parts to a larger campaign about bicycle safety by the city of Urbana. Bird said the city is encouraging people to ride bikes more frequently because they represent a more sustainable mode of transportation. With that comes enforcement, Bird said,
BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLINI
Volunteers serve traditional Indian food for free to bring awareness of the Sikh faith at an event hosted by the Sikh Student Association.
Free lunch raises religion’s awareness Sikh Student Association luncheon brings hundreds to Engineering Quad BY AMIRAH ZAVERI CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Sikh Student Association gave out free vegetarian Indian meals to over 1,500 students on the Engineering Quad Wednesday. The event aimed at raising awareness of the Sikh religion and to promote interfaith acceptance. The SSA is a registered student organization whose main goal is to encourage this acceptance and was recently reestablished on campus three years ago, according to Irwinpreet Bagri , president of SSA and senior in Business . A Langar or “Free Kitchen,”a central aspect of Sikhism, is a traditional gathering where
See BIKING, Page 3A
Piato’s Organic Food Nanny serves community
USDA reports show increase in organic food production, consumption From 2000 to 2005, the USDA has seen significant increases in organic production due to consumer demand. The graph below shows the rise in organic chicken production from 2000 to 2005. 15,000,000
Local food delivery program increases customer list, prepares homemade meals BY CORINNE RUFF STAFF WRITER
Instead of a greasy, cheesy pizza, 60 Champaign-Urbana residents Tuesday ordered in a healthy meal of all-organic chicken and rice soup, challah bread, mixed greens and apple pies. Over the last two years, the program that supplies this food, Piato’s Organic Food Nanny, has increased its customer list by 50 percent. This weekly food delivery program is run by Piato’s Cafe, 300 S Broadway Ave. The program prepares homemade meals using allorganic and locally grown produce for families, professors and retirees. Vicki Mahaffey, professor at the University, has been a customer of the program for four years. “It’s wonderful, it’s always a surprise, always different, always good and it’s just fun,” she said. “It’s cheaper than going out to eat and more fun. You never know what you will get.” Correlative to a U. S. Department of Agriculture economic research study, the production of organic food is on the rise, and demand for the program is also increasing. While the organic food trend
INSIDE
12,000,000
BY ARIELL CARTER
9,000,000
6,000,000
3,000,000
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
AUSTIN BAIRD THE DAILY ILLINI
Source: USDA economic research service
“It’s an economic circular loop,” Quigley said. “We support Common Ground. They in turn are more economically sound. If we can keep them strong, they are a resource for us and our clients.” PrairiErth Farm as well as Blue Moon Farm also participate in Urbana’s Market at the Square, which will begin its 34th season May 4. Natalie Kenny Marquez, Market at the Square director, said staff has been busy preparing for the estimated 5,000 people who will attend the market each Saturday of the summer and early fall.
“They come because the food is local,” she said. “You can’t fi nd that amount of local food anywhere else in our region. That means its only produced in the state of Illinois.” Marquez believes the local community is more concerned about where their food comes from. “The area is so close to access to local food in the lush midwestern area,” she said. “I think the people generally care about supporting our local farmers.”
Corinne can be reached at cruff2@ dailyillini.com.
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similar to the Langar, Sandhu said. “There have been small scale hate crimes in Boston against Muslim women,” she said. “Even though we’re different religions, there’s a solidarity between us because we face the same discrimination. (There’s a) huge problem in the media; we are misrepresented and seen as terrorists just because we are different.” A m r ut h a P r a s ad , an attendant of the event and freshman in L AS , shared similar views. “The discrimination Sikhs face has definitely gone up since 9/11,” she said. “Also, this Langar increased awareness and let the community know who Sikhs are.”
Amirah can be reached at azaveri2@dailyillini.com.
Eastern Illinois Foodbank competes for Wal-Mart grant CONTRIBUTING WRITER
has been catching on for a while, there has recently been a push to eat local food. While Meaghan Quigley, office manager of Piato’s, said she believes the increase is due to better education of the benefits organic eating has on the body, she believes it’s more important to the members of the community that the food is local. “When we can support a local farm, that makes our entire local and state economy stronger. People recognize that,” she said. We b s i t e s such as EatL ocalChallenge.com, a blogging website that focuses on the importance of locally and sustainably grown food, have spread awareness across the Internet that buying locally can have benefits for a local economy. Quigley said through the program, Piato’s is able to help support six Champaign-Urbana farms and local companies, including USDA- certified PrairiErth Farm, Blue Moon Farm and Common Ground Food Co-op. Because all of the produce used in the program comes from farms within a 50-mile radius of Urbana, the program has helped support a piece of the local economy.
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people come together to share in a communal meal. “The main purpose of the Langar is to show who we are, not who we are perceived to be, and to spread awareness of discrimination and foster equality and acceptance,” she said. This is the first University Langar held on a campus in the Midwest region. Student volunteers as well as members from the Chicago Sikh and Danville community helped in creating this Langar. “All of the food was made by volunteers, and without their time and effort this would not be possible,” said Amrita Bamrah , vice president of SSA
and junior in LAS. The event began at 10 a.m., but by 5:30 p.m. the volunteers ran out of food. Board members expected 500 to 800 people to attend the event, but by the end of the day this prediction was almost tripled, and the tent stayed open an additional half an hour to serve the overflow of people. Simran Sandhu , treasurer of SSA and junior in LAS , said that as a result of this success, more students on campus are aware of the true nature of the Sikh religion. Since 9/11, Sandhu said many in the Sikh community face discrimination and fall victim to hate crimes. In wake of the Boston bombings, the SSA is aiming to prevent the same discrimination by raising awareness and hosting events
The Eastern Illinois Foodbank, which serves Champaign County, is currently in the running to win a $45,000 grant from Wal-Mart and its partners. “We know hunger is a big issue and as the nation’s largest grocer, we have a responsibility to help change this reality,” said Scott Pope, senior manager of National Media Relations for Wal-Mart, in an email. Wal-Mart is holding its third Fighting Hunger Together competition for nonprofit org a n i z at io n s through Facebook. Users can visit the application, My Local Walmart, on Facebook and vote for any organization of their choosing. “Fighting Hunger Together brings together local and national non-profits, community leaders, customers, Wal-Mart associates and some of the most recognizable food companies in America in a joint effort to battle hunger,” Pope said. EIF serves a total of 14 counties with the mission to alleviate hunger in Eastern Illinois, said Julie Melton, director of marketing and development at EIF. The food bank distributes to food pantries and soup kitchens in those counties, which then serve the public. One program the food bank has implemented is the Healthy Futures Initiative, which
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Melton said is an approach to distributing healthy food to children. Through this initiative, the food bank hosts the Backpack Program, where food banks send students home from school on Fridays with a backpack of food. Melton said that with 918 kids being served every Friday, the program costs about $225,000, and the money from the grant will help sustain it. “We serve about 100,000 individuals each year and about one third of those individuals are actually children,” Melton said. “This $45,000 grant is specifically for child hunger.” Restoration Urban Ministries in Champaign runs a food pantry that buys food from EIF. Lisa Cramer, office manager and volunteer coordinator for the ministry, said she hopes the food bank wins the grant. “The more grants that they get the more food they can afford to give us,” Cramer said. “If they get a grant, then they reduce the price that we pay, and we can feed more people.” There are 123 other food banks in the competition. The 40 organizations with the most votes will receive $45,000 grants and the following 60 with the most votes will receive $20,000 grants, according to the Wal-Mart app. Users can cast votes until April 30.
Ariell can be reached at carterc2@ dailyillini.com.
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