(Photo taken by Miriam Harrow)
Sustainable Skidmore hosted its first Zero Waste Dinner in many years last Thursday, February 20th. Around fifteen students gathered in the test kitchen to learn how to make less food waste while cooking and prepared a no-waste dinner together. The group was led by the heads of the student compost project and sustainability representatives: Andy Rhodes ‘20, Abby Grayburn ‘20, and Alex Ricci ‘20.
It started off with Dining Hall Chef James Rose briefly explaining some sustainable cooking habits and ways in which our dining hall uses those practices. He identified some commonly wasted foods, which were the ones we used to cook dinner. This included brown bananas, ends and bits of cauliflower, and old produce.
The latter was transformed into vegetable stock which became the base of our soup. The event’s leaders especially highlighted the importance of composting — and composting properly. Knife skills contribute to zero-waste dining: the better our knife skills, the less food we throw away.
We split into smaller teams to make the different courses: roasted cauliflower, white bean and kale soup, and bananas foster for dessert. Some of us cut up cucumbers and citrus for flavored water. The goal was to use the scraps and parts of foods that we would usually throw away (or compost) and make a delicious meal out of them.
Everyone contributed equally to the preparation and cooking of the meal. Some people, like Matt Clyne ‘20 were simply walking by but decided to join because he “thought it looked like fun!” With a mix of class years, this event brought an eclectic and passionate group of people together.
While the cauliflower was in the oven and the soup was cooking, we all sat at the table as Rodes, Grayburn, and Ricci led a conversation about food waste, composting, and the importance of sustainable cooking habits, like putting your milk in the middle of the fridge (as opposed to the door) to prevent it from spoiling.
Once dinner was served, we shared bread and butter, our roasted cauliflower with the absolute best dipping sauce, soup with rosemary, and ice cream for dessert. Our stomachs were more than full by the end of the meal.
This is the first time Sustainability at Skidmore has hosted this type of event in a while, and due to the positive reviews by those who attended, it was definitely a success. It provided an opportunity to make a free meal with new people, while simultaneously learning lifelong skills on how to be more sustainable in the kitchen. Even if you’re not a part of Sustainable Skidmore, coming to their events is a great way to meet new people and learn about sustainability.
You can find out what’s going on through their Instagram: @sustainableskidmore, and look out for announcements about more events in the weekly Skidmore bulletin emails!