In honor of Earth Day, ASU’s school of Nutrition and Health Promotion partnered with University Sustainability Practices to hold their third-annual film and food fest Thursday.
The theme of the event was taking ugly fruits and vegetables and presenting them in a beautiful and delicious way, Tina Shepard, registered dietitian and clinical professor for the School of Nutrition and Health Promotion, said. The event included a demonstration of “quick and easy” recipes in the Health South Education Kitchen and was followed by a screening of the film “Just Eat It” in the Innovation Auditorium.
“The recipes that we demonstrated with roasted vegetables and cheese, some of the vegetables were ugly, crooked, had strange lumps and things because our society likes to buy things that look perfect,” Shepard said.
The different recipes presented during the demonstration included roasted carrots with carrot-top pesto, pickled turnips and chard stem hummus.
The members of Cultivate, a community-oriented and student run garden club located on the downtown campus, grew some of the ingredients used in the demos, Shepard said. The lettuce, rosemary, mint, basil and other vegetables and herbs they grow are used in the instructional kitchen and the kitchen cafe in the Health South Building.
“Just Eat It” is an award-winning film investigating food waste and rescue and the importance of minimizing the amount of food we throw away. As a society, we throw away nearly 50 percent of usable food, according to the film.
Jessica Lehman, nutritionist and instructor for the school of nutrition and health promotions, said, “If you don’t know what to do with vegetables that look kind of funny, just pickle them. Or, if you have extra vegetables or if they’re going to go bad, just pickle them.”
Those who attended the screening of the film helped themselves to a buffet of healthy food, including the food that was made in the demonstration.
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JoEllen Alberhasky, program coordinator for University Sustainability Practices group, said, “Part of what our mission is to not only teach and research sustainability but also make sure we really walk the talk. And this event certainly fits that description.”
Alberhasky said the group has sustainability initiative grants that students, faculty and staff can apply for if they have ideas about a sustainability event or activity they’d like to pursue on the downtown campus.
“They go up to $5,000, and we would love to be able to work with students on all kinds of sustainability measures. It can be food, water, energy, recycling, reuse ideas — we do the whole gamut,” she said.
Contact the reporter at Contact the reporter at JLott3@asu.edu.
