MIRROR 2.26.20
MIRROR ASKS 2
BATTLING FOOD WASTE 3
TTLG: WHY I COOK 7 GRACE QU/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
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Editors’ Note
Q&A
DIVYA KOPALLE/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
One in six Americans report running out of food at least once a year. In college, where we have meal plans and dining halls, it is easy for some to ignore this problem. But at the collegiate level, food insecurity is still an incredibly pressing issue. A 2019 survey released by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice indicated that 45 percent of student respondents from over 100 institutions said they had experienced food insecurity in the past 30 days. At Dartmouth, students on financial aid who have stayed on campus over interim periods have reported struggling with financing meals. When we think about food, some of us might imagine our favorite snacks and restaurants. But the relationships between food and power — economic and social — can have big impacts on many others. This week, the Mirror explores this dynamic by looking at how Dartmouth Dining Services deals with food waste and how the dining app Snackpass affects local business owners. We hear from the Mirror staff about their experiences with food and from a student who spends much of her time cooking on campus. When there is enough of it to go around, food brings people together through shared experiences and cultures, and that is worth celebrating.
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2.26.20 VOL. CLXXVI NO. 144 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DEBORA HYEMIN HAN PUBLISHER AIDAN SHEINBERG MIRROR EDITORS KYLEE SIBILIA NOVI ZHUKOVSKY COPY EDITOR JULIAN NATHAN ISSUE LAYOUT GRANT PINKSTON
By The Mirror Staff
Do you cook for yourself ? Caris White ’23: When I’m at home I cook for myself fairly often, but at Dartmouth, I don’t have a kitchen, so no. Charlie Ciporin ’23: No. Even though I live in the Fayes basement and have a kitchen about 30 feet down the hall from me, I still never do it. Anne Johnakin ’23: At home I cook a lot, but not so much here. Christina Baris ’22: Not at college. Unless you count making ramen at 2 a.m. cooking. Kate Yuan ’23: If instant oatmeal counts, then yes. Have you ever run out of DBA or meal swipes? CW: Nope. CC: I went about $50 negative on the Ivy Unlimited plan all ’23s were forced onto last term, but I’m doing great on the 80 this term. AJ: Not yet. CB: Tragically, I will most likely be out of DBA by the end of this week. KY: No. How have you experienced food insecurity? CW: I’ve been fortunate to have never experienced food insecurity. CC: I think I’ve been privileged enough to not experience food insecurity. However I’ve seen it in my community at home, despite it being relatively affluent. It showed me it really can happen anywhere. AJ: I can’t say I have experienced food insecurity. I’m privileged to have consistent, reliable access to food. CB: I have not experienced it firsthand, but I am aware that it is unfortunately a prevalent issue. KY: No. How does food represent your culture?
CW: To be honest, the idea of ~American~ food is pretty much just a conglomeration of dishes taken from around the world. I wouldn’t say food is very representative of my culture (that of a Caucasian American). CC: As someone who is Jewish, I can say latkes and kugel define a large part of how I interact with that culture. Although I’ve also seen Rosh Hashana parties with bacon-wrapped shrimp, so make of that what you will. AJ: I don’t know about my culture as a whole, but there are a lot of family recipes that we’ve passed down. Those are great way to help keep me connected to my family.
CB: I love recreating my grandma’s recipes. It makes me feel more connected to the generations before me. KY: Food means everything in Chinese culture. It’s a demonstration of love, family, fortune and more. What is your favorite cuisine? CW: Vietnamese food! CC: As basic of an answer as this is, I have to say Italian. I do love a good Turkish kebab, though. AJ: Thai. CB: Italian. If I could live solely off of pizza and pasta, I would. KY: Latin American.
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Battling Food Waste at Dartmouth STORY
By Angelina Scarlotta
As a freshman, the majority of my meals take place in the traditional dining hall setting that is the Class of 1953 Commons, more familiarly known as Foco. I go in, try to find a free booth on light side, brave the lines for sushi or Ma Thayer’s, eat and catch up with friends, get rid of my plate and cup, and leave. It is a routine, one without thought — the food seemingly appears at the stations and the dishes apparently disappear at the dish drop. But though my napkins and food scraps are spun out of sight and out of mind, they do not simply vanish. Foco staff sort this waste into garbage, recycling and compost bins; the dishes are washed, dried and stacked; and all of the food and napkins are processed using a machine called a somat, according to Dartmouth Dining Services associate director Don Reed. Reed wrote in an email statement that the somat grinds everything up into a pulp-like compost product. This pulp is then disposed of at a landfill in Lebanon, where it is used as a biodegradable top-coat for reducing odors, according to Reed. DDS director Jon Plodzik said that while the somat machine is certainly an improvement over previous food disposal systems, DDS is still looking to further reduce food waste. “Our preference would be to have no food waste, no pulp, but that is what it is now,” Plodzik said. In the 2019 fiscal year, the College produced 398 tons of food waste in the form of compost — 16 tons more than in 2018 and 18 tons more than in 2017. Sustainability Corps program manager Marcus Welker said that DDS does try to lessen its food waste by producing nutritional information, advertising different ways of eating and monitoring the ways in which students are eating. However, he noted that DDS is ultimately limited by the wants of its customers, pointing to a combined effort of both parties as a way to decrease food waste. “There is this real balance that exists to managing for sustainability, which in
LORRAINE LIU/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
a dining facility I think includes things like food choices and other types of things, and sort of education, free will, kind of customer-driven, bottom-up approaches,” Welker said. To try to eliminate a portion of the food waste, DDS created the “Take Less, Waste Less” program. “Take Less, Waste Less” is intended to encourage students to take only the food that they know they will finish and then go back for seconds, rather than taking too much food to begin with. “It’s, ‘This looks good. I’m going to take two spoonfuls of it,’ versus ‘This looks good. I’m going to take one spoonful and maybe I’ll come back for more,’” Reed wrote. Welker also commented on how DDS can help students make more sustainable decisions. “It’s going to involve trying to create these invisible signals to users of the system about how to behave,” Welker said.
Welker gave suggestions about what some possible “invisible signals” could be, such as reducing the size of the plates in dining areas, making trays less available, changing the number of waste bins and what materials are meant to go into them, and altering the way the food is served. According to Welker, there is a lot of waste generated by customers, and anyone just has to watch the dish drop to see it. However, changing this is difficult because there is no explicit incentive or consequence to warrant better behavior. “The individual behaviors around waste — whether its food waste or recycling or other things on campus — are challenging to manage, because we — you, me and everybody else — do not pay for it directly in any way,” Welker said. Food waste has significant ramifications for Earth’s changing climate. According to the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, roughly onethird, or 1.3 billion tons, of food is wasted globally every year. This food waste contributes to 8 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. However, in the context of busy, everyday Dartmouth life, the effects can slip people’s minds. However, there are also studentled initiatives in effect which seek to lessen food waste. Dartmouth Feeding Neighbors donates leftover food from campus dining areas to the Upper Valley Haven, a non-profit organization located in Hartford, VT which supports members of the community struggling with poverty. Full pans of food are donated before they expire, but pans that are half-eaten are ineligible for donation and disposed of. According to Welker, the Sustainability Office’s first-year ecorepresentatives did a demonstration
during the 2018-19 school year to show students just how much food was being wasted. They collected the scraps that were left on the Foco dish drop and placed them into bins so that when students got rid of their dishes, they could not avoid seeing it. Welker said that while continued education is certainly helpful for decreasing the amount of food waste produced across campus, greater student involvement — that is, making DDS and the administration recognize the importance of the issue — is integral to creating lasting change in this issue. “Simply doing that goes a long way to communicating to somebody in the leadership of different organizations on campus that students care about it, and right now I don’t think that there is a group of students telling [DDS] in a particularly strong way that they are concerned about it and that something needs to be done about it,” Welker said.
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STORY
By Anne Johnakin
SAMANTHA BURACK/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
At the height of my Snackpass clout, I had 30 discounted entrees, 20 of them entirely free. When Snackpass launched on Dartmouth’s campus, I encouraged all my friends to use my referral code so we could both get discounts. And with the benefit of free food, it wasn’t too hard to convince most people. But some of my friends had their hesitations. “Yeah, I mean the app sounds good, but who’s losing money here? Someone’s got to be losing money,” they’d say. It was a valid concern — one I, too, shared. When they give out over $9,000 of free pad thai in one day, it’s hard not to ask yourself where the money is coming from. And with Hanover already being an uber-competitive place for restaurants, I worried that this
may, in some way, be taking advantage of our local businesses. However, it appears that Snackpass can be beneficial for both businesses and consumers. Snackpass is a food-ordering app that allows people to place takeout orders at local restaurants, with some restaurants offering delivery. The company was founded in 2017 and has expanded to 16 college campuses. It touts a 75 percent penetration rate among students in six months and has recently received $21 million in funding to continue its expansion, according to Tech Crunch. Snackpass’s goal is to reach 100 campuses within the next two years. It launched at Dartmouth in April 2019, and since then has used
a combination of merchandise, flash promotions, student ambassadors and even Snackpass-branded parties to gain a cult following on campus. One thing that sets Snackpass apart from its competitors is its social functions. The app allows users to accumulate rewards points that can be redeemed for discounts and gifted to friends. Users can also create a profile and interact with friends on the platform. How the app works on the consumer end is plain to see, but what many students don’t know is how it works on the restaurant side. On its website for potential partners, Snackpass boasts that it can “[analyze] your business and target demographics” to “take the guesswork out of growth
with custom campaigns that fit the university’s culture.” It also says it can help restaurants “expand [their] brand” and that partners can take advantage of Snackpass’ campus takeovers, spotlight placement, and college ambassadors to reach new customers. In Hanover, 12 restaurants have partnered with Snackpass so far. According to Chris Gale, coowner of Noodle Station, he and his wife originally had some reservations about joining Snackpass because it was such a new business. But after a few conversations with Jonathan Cameron, co-founder of Snackpass, they were convinced. “We started to gain some interest because there were other restaurants
in town that were doing it, so we knew if it was working for them, it should work for us,” Gale said. “That kind of helped minimize our hesitations. So then we decided to go for it, and Jonathan made it pretty easy for us to get on board. We didn’t feel like we were taking a chance, we were just getting into something new. We thought of it as the wave of the future.” Other factors that minimized their concerns were Snackpass’ performance on other college campuses and the lack of contracts cementing their relationship, Gale said. There wasn’t a lot of risk involved, and if it wasn’t working out, they could quit at any time, he said. “If there was a contract we would’ve had to sign, that may have altered our
decision,” Gale said. “Contracts can sales, Snackpass also helps some partner be a little scary for people and I think restaurants run more efficiently. Gale Jonathan probably understands that. said he can handle more orders in Usually, if something is good and it less time because he can cut human works, people will stick with it. I think interaction out of the process. Jonathan always seemed quite confident Tuk Tuk Thai owner Pannipa Pace with his program, so I think a contract agrees that the platform is ultimately probably wouldn’t positive, but said be required to "Hanover has an array that there have keep people using also been quite of restaurants, and his service.” a few hiccups. J e n n i f e r [Snackpass] certainly She said she Packard, function has experienced adds a component to manager of issues in the app Molly’s, said she a lot of the restaurants both with take-out was encouraged that haven’t orders and the new by the positive delivery service. reviews o f capitalized on take-out Fo r i n s t a n c e, others who had in the past." sometimes the experience with system won’t send Snackpass, but she the order to the wanted to take -JENNIFER PACKARD, correct printer, time to integrate FUNCTION MANAGER AT and customers it to fit with the have to wait a long systems Molly’s MOLLY'S time to receive already had in their food. place. P a c e M o l l y ’s re l at i o n s h i p w i t h said she is waiting to see if the issues Snackpass is slightly different, as it is get resolved. While she is hesitant to a more traditional sit-down restaurant continue with the delivery service compared to some of the fast-casual because of the higher prices for places that Snackpass typically attracts. customers, she said she is still working For example, Packard said if there with Snackpass to try and resolve the is a long line for dine-in customers, issues. Snackpass customers may have to wait “They’re trying to improve, but a few minutes to recieve their order. let’s see,” Pace said. “If they get the “Hanover has an array of restaurants, program 100 percent, we’re happy to and [Snackpass] certainly adds a use them.” component to a lot of the restaurants Recently, Noodle Station started that haven’t capitalized on take-out in using Snackpass promotions, such the past,” Packard as a recent $1 said. “I think this "It’s nice to know boba campaign, is a good vehicle that, at any time, which Gale called and opportunity “quite successful.” for them to do we could start up Moving forward, so. It can be hard a promotion and Gale said he is when you are excited to keep known to be more generate some new wo rk i n g w i t h of a restaurant- business and create Snackpass to style, sit-down create a monthly some excitement and restaurant than promotion and a very fast-paced energy." explore the in-and-out kind possibility of of place. It can delivery service. be a challenge if -CHRIS GALE, CO-OWNER “It’s you don’t have the OF NOODLE STATION nice to know that, methods in place at any time, we to do that.” could start up a Overall, Packard said that the promotion and generate some new positives of Snackpass far outweigh the business and create some excitement negatives, and that it has helped Molly's and energy,” Gale said. “When we did increase the amount of takeout sales. $1 boba, you could almost just feel the In addition to increasing takeout energy.”
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IONA GIRARDIN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
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TTLG: Why I Cook TTLG
By Hanover Vale
Professional k i t c h e n one needs four things that are environments heighten many not- already hard to come by here: so-sought experiences and make a ingredients, equipment, space and whole lot of mess, but nonetheless time. While cooking is an essential tur n orchestrated chaos into part of how I demonstrate care to something beautiful that nourishes my communities and myself, I know you and those you care about. Before that to cook at Dartmouth represents and during my time at Dartmouth, a convergence of privileges. If I cut my teeth it weren’t for (and my fingers) my decision to in professional “While cooking is an live off campus k i t c h e n s i n essential part of how s t a r t i n g f ro m L o n d o n , sophomore I demonstrate care Portland, ME s u m m e r, m y and Wellesley, to my communities ability to drive, MA. I was 17 and myself, I know access a vehicle when I worked and exercise my first shifts as a that to cook at confidence in the line cook. When Dartmouth represents kitchen, my time I reminisce on at Dartmouth a convergence of my time in these would’ve looked spaces, my heart privileges.” a lot less like rate quickens, a homestead and I grow tense magazine. That as if to brace myself standing in being said, while cooking here is the path of a cresting wave. In the not easy, people still do it, and do throngs of the professional kitchen it so well. Weekly house dinners environments where I worked, I with LLCs, feeds, chili cook-offs, could not help but feel small. I O-Farm Pizza dinners, clubs — you could not help but feel a bit out name it, people do it. Even with the of place. And I could not survive odds stacked against campus cooks, unless I believed in myself, asked for we still do it because cooking at assistance when I needed it, learned Dartmouth is care at Dartmouth. from my failures and celebrated my Coming to Dartmouth, one of successes. my goals was to learn as much as I Dartmouth can be a lot like could about food and food systems. a professional A l s o, c o m i n g k i t c h e n , b u t “With a collected to Dartmouth, Dartmouth at I quickly its best looks understanding that became known exactly like a access to cooking as someone meal cooked who cooks. and groceries at slow and shared E ve r y wh e re I at a long table Dartmouth is one went, people full of friends. asked for way that food and I t ’s w i n t e r opinions on term, and like power materialize on restaurants in most Dartmouth this campus, I cooked the Upper Valley, students come what I thought and made space and e n d - Fe b r u a r y, of DDS, what it I’m sick. Perhaps repeated.” was like to work unlike most in kitchens, etc. Dartmouth I’ve been “coldstudents, when I get sick, I think blitzed” by individuals expressing of the soup I’m going to make. interest in learning techniques and But, to make a soup at Dartmouth, by individuals looking for private
chefs. When this happened, I wondered if I would ever find the time and space to process how cooking at this level made me feel. I wanted answers to the questions I was thinking about while shelling English peas and finely mincing shallots. While classes were helpful in thinking about systemic issues relating to food access, farming, agriculture and food policy, it was the conversations with my peers and friends that were truly illuminating. Friends shared family recipes, shared their favorite food stories and told me about their family restaurants and experiences working in such spaces. Friends talked excitedly about their cultural foodways. This was a term I had no prior knowledge of when I first came to Dartmouth, but it came to life over my time here through conferences like Cows, Land and Labor and Foodways in Indigenous Communities, the work of the Organic Farm, the Real Organic Movement and an amazing field-trip experience to the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont. Realigning my energies to focus on cooking in ways that take the stress of managing professional and I cooked at the Lodge. I cooked kitchen spaces has led me to projects in cabins, I cooked at off-campus that allow me to reflect on cooking catering kitchens and I cooked with more joy in apartments. t h a n d r e a d . “Cooking and access I cooked in With a collected t r a n g i a s, a n d understanding to ingredients at the I cooked on that access to College must become outdoor campus cooking and grills. I cooked g r o c e r i e s a t part of the food w i t h ch e f s at D a r t m o u t h i s landscape accessible Dartmouth, and one way that to Dartmouth I cooked with my food and power lola before she materialize on students.” passed. I cooked this campus, at the Culinary I cooked and Learning Center made space and in Lebanon. I repeated. cooked in Casque and Gauntlet’s I cooked dinner parties, I cooked basement. I cooked in dorms, in with friends, I cooked for professors LLCs and now, I mostly cook at and I cooked alone. I cooked with my home and with the Third Kitchen roommates, I cooked for strangers. Project. I cooked at the skiway, I cooked at Coming to college with a churches, I cooked at the O-Farm passion is powerful. However,
PHOTO COURTESY HANOVER VALE
coming to college with a passion alone can be blinding. With food insecurity at Dartmouth and other colleges nationwide becoming a pressing issue, cooking and access to ingredients — and culturally specific ingredients — has to be so much more than just a community activity or a passion sponsored by a campus club or center. Cooking and access to ingredients at the College must become part of the food landscape accessible to Dartmouth students. In reflection, food and cooking is my sweet spot that combines my passions at Dartmouth. Learning that about myself is enough to consider my time at Dartmouth successful. I will continue to hone that sweet spot to manifest compassion, gratitude and care to share with those around me the answer to why I cook — it never mattered how.
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Food for Thought PHOTO
By Lorraine Liu