This week I have decided to mix things up a bit. Instead of reviewing a local Baltimore restaurant, I want to shed some light on a promising, exciting new student-run club: Real Food JHU. Freshman Raychel Santo and junior Ian Osborn launched the club as co-presidents in the fall.
According to the Center for Social Concern’s website, the club “is a student-run chapter of the national Real Food Challenge movement committed to bringing local, sustainable, humane and fair food to the Johns Hopkins campus and the surrounding Baltimore area.” In short, Real Food JHU is a sub-set of the national Real Food Challenge group, which promotes healthy eating alongside environmentalism and fair labor. On the Homewood campus, Real Food JHU is attempting to do just that.
“We want to increase students’ awareness about the food that they are eating and where it is coming from,” Santo said. “It’s about making more conscious decisions with your fork.”
The group recently co-sponsored an event at Nolans with Dining Services and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Kim O’Donnel, a celebrity chef from Seattle, demonstrated a recipe which consisted of braised winter squash with bok choy and black bean sauce and coconut rice. She also made six other entrees.
The event helped promote “Meatless Mondays,” a national campaign based on reducing the over-consumption of meat.
It was Osborn who became interested in Real Food’s mission after starting a garden. A large aspect of the club’s mission is to promote locally and organically grown produce, Santo said. Encouraging local food purchasing is very much at the heart of the matter. Their theory is that if one supports local farmers, more often than not the labor will be deemed “fair” and the produce not picked from a large corporately run factory-esque farm.
Osborn’s farm has already grown over 200 pounds of produce since last fall, and they donate it to Campus Kitchens. Splendidly delicious produce picked right out of a garden behind the Center for Social Concern for a good cause? Sounds pretty good to me. As Santo put it, “when you grow your own food, you have a greater appreciation for food in general.”
Santo and the club’s mission is clear: People need to re-learn what is truly healthy while remaining environmentally friendly and socially aware. She and Real Food JHU hope to promote this cause by bridging food sustainability and nutrition.
“We want to bring awareness [while also connecting] all the different facets of Hopkins,” she said. “Graduate students and faculty are doing work in sustainable food too.”
When I asked Santo about on-campus dining, she did not answer in the negative tone I expected. In fact, her response was quite the contrary. When one is in the FFC, for example, “be creative,” she said. “Combine things you might not think of. All the resources are there. If a soup is too thick to be a true soup, put it on greens and you have a [nicely dressed] salad.”
I applaud Real Food JHU’s efforts. Perhaps even more impressive than its mission is the club’s pragmatic and fast-paced execution of all it hopes to accomplish. This club recently launched, and it has already co-sponsored multiple successful events in the same vein as Chef O’Donnel’s event.
As a believer in farmer’s markets and locally grown produce, I find this “bridging” of “sustainability,” health, environmentalism and social awareness of an entire workforce inspiring. With all it has already accomplished in a few short months, I look forward to seeing what Real Food JHU conquers next.
If you are interested in joining or learning more about Real Food JHU contact Raychel Santo at rsanto1@jhu.edu.
