The ASU Student Nutrition Garden Club hosted two cooking demonstrations using ingredients from the campus garden in a pre-Earth Day celebration in the Obesity Solutions kitchen of Taylor Place on Thursday.
Garden club advisers Tina Shepard and Simin Levinson, who are faculty of the nutrition program and registered dietitians, used fresh greens and herbs from the garden to make recipes including kale and mint salad, arugula pesto and zucchini mint yogurt dip.
The garden is located by the Nursing and Health Innovation 1 building and includes four raised beds of crops. The food is used for the student-run ASU Downtown Kitchen Cafe.
Shepard said she wanted those who attended, an audience of about 15 people during the first demonstration, to “appreciate that we actually have a garden here on campus and how easy it is to grow your own stuff and use it.”
“Even in the middle of a city, you can have a garden,” she said.
The School of Sustainability asked the club to host an event to create awareness for Earth Day next week on April 22. The kitchen opened earlier this year, Shepard said, and although this was not the first event hosted at the kitchen, it was the first time all the equipment was used for a demonstration.
“We’re going to try and use it more, especially next year,” she said.
Levinson said the event’s goal was to teach students how easy it is to make these recipes and motivate students to use organic produce.
“It’s an Earth Day celebration, so it’s to raise awareness about eating local and homegrown fruit and vegetables,” she said.
Nutrition dietetics sophomore Mark Taylor said he found out about the demonstrations through an email announcement, and that the event went well for one of the first times the kitchen has been used.
“I’ve never tried kale, so it gave me a desire to try some,” he said.
The club started in the fall of 2013 and mostly consists of nutrition students, though students from all fields are welcome to join.
Nutrition students Sarah Alyea and Jamie Balesteri co-chair the club. Alyea said the purpose of the demonstrations was “to show people that it doesn’t take forever to cook something that’s super healthy right from your backyard.”
Balesteri said the club has gotten a lot of plants donated for the garden from local nurseries, adding that there have been two main planting seasons in October and February. She said the fall crop was especially strong.
Balesteri said the garden club has mostly worked on getting the club and garden started so far.
“We’ve just been trying to get students involved and getting students interested in what we’re doing here,” Alyea said.
She said the club has been working with local farmers to help attract more students, and that it is important for the club to get involved with community members who are doing the same kind of work.
“There are a lot of urban farms in downtown Phoenix,” she said. “They’re popping up all over the place.”
She said the club has plans to help UMOM New Day Centers with a garden they have at their family homeless shelter.
Contact the reporter at sajarvis@asu.edu
