Student Reflections on Social Soup #1

What is Social Soup at the University of Utah?

The Social Soup Lecture series are events held a few times throughout each semester, engaging students in social, economic, and environmental issues that surround food. I had never attended an event before, so I was not quite sure what to expect when entering.  This month’s topic focused mainly on healthy eating for the school year, and being that it is only the third week of school, I found this to be the perfect start to the Social Soup events for this semester. – Travis

On Tuesday, September 3^rd, 2012, I attended my first Social Soup event ever.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I wasn’t disappointed.  I walked into a very nice room in the Marriott Library on the U of U campus, and was immediately met with the pleasant smell of organic foods.  We were served a cold soup called Gazpacho.  It was made from ingredients grown in gardens located on the U campus.  There was a table set up giving away some fresh greens to grow on your own as well for those interested. – Paul

The general topic of Tuesday’s Social Soup was healthy and simple eating for students with limited resources. The overall consensus was that students are limited on time and money and therefore they might find it difficult to consume a healthy array of foods. The speaker mentioned that students should be eating a “rainbow of foods, including fruits and vegetables. Color in meals is essential to a healthy diet.  – Ashley

This Social Soup event opened with a series of videos featuring chef Jamie Oliver. In these videos he offered suggestions for keeping a healthy diet exciting and new; such as using colorful vegetables and trying exotic new recipes. This suggestion in particular resonated since we were eating gazbacho, a cold vegetable soup prepared from ingredients grown in the schools garden. Following the introductory videos, nutrition professor Jean Zancanella began her discussion on eating healthily on a budget.  Dr. Zancanella fielded the audience for suggestions as well as including her own insights. This approach served well to keep the group engaged and open to ideas as the many suggestions and comments could attest. The final piece of the event was a chef from the university who provided a demonstration on baking a delicious peach cobbler, illustrating a way to use a fruit that is currently in season. – Tomas

Jamie Oliver delivered a couple of poignant yet entertaining messages via video clips. The first was Food is Like Music wherein he confessed that the best meals come from having fun with cooking. At the same time, he warned us to keep it simple. The second clip expanded our understanding of the diversity and variety of vegetables available at the markets then matter-of-factly reminded us that “boring is not cool.” Jamie showed us that there are many varieties of different kinds of vegetables such as purple potatoes, yellow beets, red carrots, and white eggplant. Why stick with the same old choices every time? – Martin

What Students Learn at Social Soup

The event really made me realize that eating healthy doesn’t really mean you need to spend a lot of money in order to be healthy. I liked the message of the videos themselves; keep it simple, and try something new. Later on in the discussion sardines were brought up to replace salmon; they are a cheaper way to achieve the same type of nutrients. Although sardines aren’t a favorite within our culture, we all need to branch out and try something new; especially when it can save us money yet still give us the nutrients that we need! – Kassi

Throughout the event, we were also given multiple resources that we can take advantage of as students. One example is the campus gardens where we can volunteer and work to grow our own food. There are also the gardens by ORP where you can manage your garden and eat your own freshly grown produce. Another example is the farmers' markets that we have on campus and the opportunity we have to purchase freshly grown produce. These are just a few of the inexpensive ways mentioned that helped to advocate for food justice. – Mariah

The event in general was a new experience for me.  Not typically do I sit in an auditorium to discuss eating habits.  Though it seems like such a simple aspect in our daily lives, it truly is important to speak to friends and reflect ideas off of each other about our diets and habits, which can have positive or adverse effects on our society.  The program was in a relaxed setting, and the students in the other communications class were reporting on the event.  The speakers and chefs were responsive to questions from the audience, which invited us to ask questions that might have seemed “silly”, but probably answered uncertainties many of us have had in the past.  – Aaron

Healthy Steps: Beyond the Soup

My roommates and I all share food which does make eating home-cooked meals much easier, but sometimes it is difficult when we are not all eating together. Making rice and cutting up vegetables for the whole week is easy because you can make just a small portion for yourself or more for other people. But the coolest part is that is has much more nutritional value than cereal! – Shea

Throughout my life nutrition and fitness have been very important to me.  There have been times when I have one has been more important to me than the other.  Having a balanced diet was essential while I participated in sports in high school and middle school.  Being younger, I was able to have the blessing of not worrying as much about my food intake. As I have grown older I can see that my daily nutrition is a lot more important to me and my body than it was ten years ago.  As I attended the Social Soup Lecture Series at the University of Utah, I was able to add to my knowledge regarding nutrition and was able to see how eating healthy can be fun and different.  – Jared

Coming from a family where my father was a health professor, good food has always been important.  As I have moved away from home and had to make meals on my own I have realized that it can be really difficult to eat healthier when only preparing food for one of two people and on a budget. The speaker of the Social Soup gave us all great ideas of how to eat healthy, even as students. Between the soup, the speaker, the chef, and the cobbler it was an excellent example of how we should all be eating.  – Shea

There was a lot of talk about community gardens and farmers markets. Both of these resources help sustain a lot people; they are organized to help those less fortunate. Making healthy food choices was a main focus because this allows people to understand how important nutrition is to our health. If you are smart with your food and budget, you can go far. The food stamp challenge will be interesting in seeing how we can implement those topics talking about at this Social Soup.  - Shalee

I thought this event was a great advocate for food justice in more ways than one.  There were informed speakers and professionals that shared their knowledge with-in their vocations signifying the importance of food in our society and in particular how to eat healthy on a small budget.  – Maren

[A]s I was exiting the auditorium I was given a free little container with fresh radish sprouts to eat. All in all I would say that it was a great first Social Soup experience, sure we were provided with some pretty common sense ideas but sometimes I think that students forget that it’s not so difficult to eat a little bit healthier. Now I’ll be telling my friends on campus to try and attend the “Real Food for Food Day” lecture on October 23^rd. – Victor

Sugarhouse gets a garden

Sugarhouse Community Garden Director Heidi Spence, October 23rd, 2012

Sugarhouse gets a garden

Feeding families and the community

Julianna Clay

Until University of Utah attendee for the master’s program Heidi Spence submitted her proposal in, February of 2011, The Sugarhouse Community Garden was an abandoned pair of tennis courts. At the time Spence was taking a gardening class at Wasatch Community Garden where she met another girl who lived close by who had the same idea and together they drafted a second proposal. From there it was only a matter of getting it approved by the board.

Since then with a grant from Wasatch Community Garden and with the help of Lowe’s Home Improvement, and the community the garden now has 96 full sized plots and 10 half sized plots. In total 92 families garden at Sugarhouse Community Garden. All of the plots are tended by the owners of each bed.

One of the members of and owners of a plot Andrea Timberlake explains and elaborates on her experience, “Community gardening has been fun!  It's been enjoyable working with my family to prepare the beds, plant, weed, pick and finally share and eat.  It's been instructive too, to visit with other gardeners about their gardens, admire them and sometimes, share.  The abandoned tennis courts were transformed, brightening up the bleak corner in Sugarhouse with flowers and other plants.”

Heidi Spence in addition to being the creator and director of the garden also has her own bed. She says that the garden has a huge variety and inventory of all sorts of plants, herbs, vegetables and fruits, “I alone have 30 varieties of tomatoes and throughout the garden there are at least 40-50 varieties of tomatoes. We also have strawberries, raspberries, lettuce, kale, broccoli, sprouts, cabbage, chard, thyme, oregano, dill, fennel, watermelon, honeydew melon, pumpkins, squash, and an edible flower called nasturtium.”

This year as well as being able to help feed the community and their family members the garden also donated to St. Mark’s Millcreek, which is subsidized housing for elderly people. They delivered about 30 lbs. to them about three days a week all summer.

Many of the people involved with the garden including Spence agree that The Sugarhouse Community Garden is not just about growing food for their families,  it’s about learning, sharing and building a sense of real community.

The Hungry and the Shameless

Mohammad Abdullahi (right) with one of the kids he works with through the Refugee and Immigrant Center

From the homeless, refugees, the bankrupt and broke who can’t afford to throw away the last bite left on the paper to the people who do, “That might as well be gold you threw away.”

 Salt Lake City, as you may know, is home to dozens of organizations dedicated to the service of the less-fortunate. These less-fortunate are people from all around the world, all around the U.S, and from our own backyards here in Utah; we rarely think about them, and when we do it is simply a thought. Some of us may think “why don’t they work?”, “it’s their own fault”, “it’s not my job to help them” and my personal favorite, “I’m too busy to help them.”

            The point is not to draw attention to the economy, politics or even those organizations that help these people but the point is to reflect on ourselves and our own relationship to this as a social issue as well as a moral issue.

            The U.S Department of Agriculture reported one in seven Utah households struggled to maintain adequate food supplies in 2011. A number mostly representing impoverished refugee families in Utah.

“This isn’t Somalia people!” said Mohammad Abdullahi, a refugee correspondent of the Refugee and Immigrant Center with the Asian Association of Utah. Abdullahi works with Somali refugee families who are in need of assistance in regards to work, education, translating, medical exams, transportation and especially food assistance. “These people come from a place where people literally die by the thousands due to malnutrition and when they get here sometimes it’s hard to say if their situation improved” Abdullahi said vehemently.

“That might as well be gold you threw away” said Spencer, who asked me not to disclose his last-name and refused to let me take a picture or video of my interview with him, when I asked him what it’s like to be homeless and be forced to dig through dumpsters. I invited him to the mosque I attend for some pizza with the guys and he gladly accepted.

Everyone on earth would agree that no one should have to go hungry because they can’t afford food, or because they can’t afford nutritious food I should say. I’m sure we’ve all heard compelling quotes from celebrities and religious leaders, and have read verses in religious texts compelling the feeding of the poor. If we want our economy to get back on its feet, and our lives to improve then we need to make sure no one is doing it on an empty stomach otherwise it won’t work.