Look out for some new soup options offered at 1920 Commons in the next few weeks.
Bon Appétit Management Company announced yesterday that it would launch a new sustainability project at 1920 Commons Dining Hall that would aim to eliminate all waste that originates from soup or sauce.
The program, which Bon Appétit hopes to institute immediately, would enforce that all leftover sauce at the end of each day be saved and then added to the following day’s soup.
“There is nothing wrong with the sauce that is left over at the end of the day,” Barbara Lea-Kruger, Business Services’ Director of Communications and External Relations said. “It is actually quite delicious.”
The program, which is part of Penn’s Green Campus Partnership, is expected to reduce the dining hall’s waste by up to 6 percent.
Penn Dining Services has already organized many soup-tasting focus groups around campus for students and faculty to taste the soup that includes the previous day’s sauce. According to Lea-Kruger, negative responses have been “negligible.”
“Last Monday I had a delicious pesto-marinated chicken,” said Lea-Kruger. “The following Tuesday, I had pesto soup with a hint of chicken flavor, and the taste was quite interesting.”
Despite this program, some students from Penn Environmental Group expressed concern that the sauce would still go to waste as leftover soup. However, Bon Appétit will be boiling down soup that is left over at the end of the day and use it for the following day’s sauce.
Pabritzio Tortellini, the head chef at 1920 Commons, said, “Until the dish is so tasty that there are no leftovers, the original sauce will alternate between sauce and soup, sauce and soup, sauce and soup.”
The alternating cycle, which begins with the first sauce, could theoretically go on for weeks, if not months.
When asked about health concerns regarding this new program, the Pennsylvania Department of Health declined to comment.
“Students can look forward to mushroom soup with turkey gravy, or cream of broccoli soup with yesterday’s excess tomato sauce from the eggplant parmesan,” added Tortellini.
Students have expressed their concerns with the pilot program.
“I am not sure that I loved 1920 Commons’ soup offerings as is,” Wharton junior Rosalyn Goldwasser said. “The mandatory addition of day-old to week-old sauce will definitely not help.”
Students are also concerned for their health.
“There has to be something wrong with this health-wise,” added Engineering and Nursing freshman Jamal Van Deetrich. “Just because it is prepared food does not mean there isn’t an expiration date.”
Business Services and Bon Appétit want to assure students that they should have faith in their judgment regarding food offerings at Penn.
“Students need to stop always thinking about their own pleasure and well-being and start focusing on the environment,” added Lea-Kruger. “Global warming is an inconvenient truth that needs to be addressed.”
_This article appeared in the Daily Pennsylvanian’s Joke Issue 2013. For more information, click here
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