Students expecting to see the usual lunch spread at 1920 Commons, Hill and Kings Court dining halls were met with a different assortment yesterday, and for many, the surprise was not a happy one.
Chefs at the three dining halls participated in Penn’s second annual Eat Local Challenge, which mandated that lunch options be entirely local, which means all food products needed to have been raised within a 150-mile radius of Philadelphia.
Common but not local ingredients — including pepper, olive oil, vinegar, yeast and sugar — were prohibited, forcing the chefs to get creative. Valerie Watt, executive chef at Hill, revealed that she used local maple syrup and local honey as sugar substitutes. According to Watt, “the biggest challenge was pizza — no yeast!”
Business Services Director of Communications and External Relations Barbara Lea-Kruger said, “We want people to start thinking about how they make their food choices for sustainability, community, health and taste reasons.”
Despite the prior distribution of signs to spread awareness about the event, most students said they were unaware of the Eat Local Challenge until they were getting their lunch. Once eating, many noticed the absence of cafeteria staples such as soda, coffee, tea and salad dressing. “It was like, ‘Where’s the ketchup?’” Nursing freshman Kasey Benchimol said while eating a hotdog at Hill. Homemade ketchup was made available to students.
Another common complaint among diners was the lack of variety and assortment among the food options. “It did taste fresher, but I didn’t like the selection as much,” Wharton freshman Brian Engel, who was eating at Commons, said.
Donald Stauffer, executive chef at Commons, said that creating variety and dealing with the seasonality of produce was a big challenge.
Students praised the idea of eating locally raised food, but most were not willing to sacrifice their lunchtime favorites. “It’s a good cause, but I wish I could get a soda,” Wharton freshman Allegra Margolis said.
Editor's note: This article has been corrected from its print version to reflect that homemade ketchup was made available to students.
