Dive into USA Sevens The Current goes to Las Vegas for the USA Sevens Rugby Tournament, page 17.
Vol. 5, Issue 8 Feb. 21, 2014
Alumna leads Peace Corps Winter Term trip to Cameroon By Alex Zielinski Photo Editor Winter Term 2014 saw a select few adventurous students traveling to Cameroon, an experience two years in the making. Eckerd Alumna Alina Dallmeier (‘12), currently a Peace Corps member in Cameroon, Africa, had been organizing the trip since she started working with the Peace Corps in the fall of 2012. Dallmeier knew early on that she wanted to participate in the Peace Corps. “Sometime in high school, I heard of someone doing it,” Dallmeier said. “I’ve always liked to travel, so I thought it would be cool to do.” Dallmeier participated in a spring break trip to Mexico with Director of International Student Services Olivier Debure in 2012, immediately following her application submission to the Peace Corps. The trip worked with an Eckerd graduate who was in the Peace Corps at the time as well. This trip inspired Dallmeier to plan a trip if she was accepted into the Peace Corps herself. Dallmeier was accepted into the Peace Corps shortly thereafter and was told she would be placed either in Central or South America. This worked perfectly with her plan to organize a spring break service trip with Debure. After graduation, Dallmeier was notified that she was placed in Cameroon, nearly 7,500 miles from the location that they originally assigned to her. Traveling to Africa for spring break was out of the question. With at least two days of travel
photo by Alex Zielinski Sophomore Andrea Martin hands out candy to children.
each way, a service trip would only have five days to work at most. Dallmeier suggested that the trip become a Winter Term trip instead of a spring break trip. This created a shift in the way the class would be marketed. Rather than advertising it as a service trip like Director of Campus Ministries Rev. Doug McMahon’s Malawi Winter Term, Debure marketed the trip as a Peace Corps volunteer experience. The reason behind this was simple. Despite the obvious as-
sumption that the trip would indeed focus on service, the work of a Peace Corps volunteer is more than that. In fact, a Peace Corps volunteer does little manual labor when it comes to projects. According to Dallmeier, a Peace Corps volunteer is a management figurehead. “We are there to make sure [water] projects get completed in time,” Dallmeier said. “We provide the materials, the village provides the labor.” Peace Corps volunteer work does
not focus solely on environmental projects. A volunteer is assigned one of many roles based on education, work experience and what is included in their application. “I was assigned to do environmental projects, such as the water projects,” Dallmeier said. “Because of my degree in environmental studies.” Other roles include education, business marketing and health. As part of the Winter Term trip, students experienced many of the different ways to serve. Students vis-
Farm to Fork program building student support By Emma Cotton Asst. Health & Fitness Editor Bon Appétit’s Farm to Fork program has recently caught the attention of students due to its health and sustainability-oriented goals, but lack of apparent available information. The program, which started company-wide in 1999, requires each of Bon Appétit’s chefs to spend at least 20 percent of their budget on local food. Local, according to Director of Dining Services Scott Myers, is defined as being from “small, owner-operated farms which range within a 150mile radius” of Eckerd’s campus. From the brochures in the main cafeteria, students know that the orange Farm to Fork label represents “ingredients that are seasonal and minimally processed and purchased from a local farmer or artisan.” These are on the food description signs, mainly by the carving and stir-fry stations. A brief description of the program can also be found on the Café Bon Appétit section of Eckerd’s website. However, there seems to be confusion about specifics such as Please Recycle
INDEX:
NEWS 2-4
the origins as well as the everyday implementation of the program. “I know that the food goes directly from the farm to the cafeteria, but I want to know where the products come from,” Sophomore Ryan Lee said. “I think it could be more obvious that we have a local program, and I think that Eckerd students would respond positively.”
Myers, who is in his first year at Eckerd, is proud of Eckerd’s accomplishments with Farm to Fork. “A minimum of 20 percent of our products are from local sources,” he said. All of the farms that fall under the “local” category have certain criteria to meet. “[They must be] worked by the
photo by Nicole Tocco Eckerd’s new orange juice station uses oranges from Mixon Fruit Farm, one of Bon Appetit’s Farm to Fork vendors.
VIEWPOINTS 5-8
ENTERTAINMENT 9-12
owner, must produce under 5 million gross dollars each year, and the total mileage for the truck route cannot exceed 500 miles.” Myers also said the food from a local farm is expected to be here within three days after its departure. “We don’t want to create a carbon footprint,” he said. Myers said that by the end of the next academic year, his team hopes to purchase 50 percent of fish, chicken, beef and pork from local farms. Currently, Dining Services sources as much local chicken and pork as they can budget while student Farm to Fork volunteers work with chefs to source beef and fish. Sysco, Myers said, “is our broad liner.” the company was chosen based on geography. It is based in California, but it has stations all over the east coast, some of which are in Florida. Most of Sysco’s large trucks that can frequently be seen unloading boxes into the caf are from relatively close by. “It makes sense for us to use Sysco, but we don’t buy a heck of a lot of food from them,” Myers said. See FARM TO FORK, page 3
ited schools, hospitals and women’s groups in Fundong and surrounding villages. Students facilitated HIV talks and were a part of many ceremonies to commemorate and thank Dallmeier for the work she has done. The most prominent type of projects they worked on were those related to the environment, which included two separate water projects and the planting of various fruit trees at schools to create orchards. Eckerd students’ curiosity about understanding different cultures is See SERVICE, page 4
VIEWPOINTS CVS says no more tobacco CVS to end sales of tobacco by October 2014 to promote a healthier lifestyle. page 5
ENTERTAINMENT Glassblowing Eckerd student takes flameworking class, finds his passion in glassblowing and works to monetize his ventures. page 9
THE QUICKIE Tale of a Triton: Alicia Lorfink Student has opportunity to help rescue injured manatee with ECSAR, for which she has a passion. page 12
HEALTH & FITNESS Supplement risks Learn about the dangers of taking excess protein supplements when working out. page 16
THE QUICKIE 13-14 HEALTH & FITNESS 15-16 SPORTS 17-20
The Current is a free, biweekly student newspaper produced at Eckerd College. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writers.