The first session of the seminar series "Access to Our Local Kitchen" will be held at Penn State Brandywine on Monday, Jan. 28, at 12:30 p.m. in the Tomezsko Classroom Building, room 103. Marc BrownGold, general manager of Swarthmore Co-Op, will share some of the prevalent nutritional issues and food challenges that face local areas while discussing how healthy, local, fresh and accessible foods are important to resident communities.
Swarthmore Co-Op was created in 1937, making it the third oldest food co-op in the country offering locally obtained, fresh, fair trade and organic foods to its customers. The Co-Op acts as more than simply a food market, hosting an assortment of events such as speeches, movie showings, tastings and courses every month while educating the community on local economy and the environmental impacts of food.
Brandywine Associate Professor of Earth Sciences Laura Guertin prepared the seminar series in hopes that it will raise awareness regarding the hunger and health challenges faced by local communities. "Educating students and getting them thinking about these challenges will hopefully lead to future action to improve food and health problems," Guertin said.
Funding for the food seminar series comes from Penn State Brandywine's Laboratory for Civic Engagement, which promotes the incorporation of civic engagement into the academic curriculum and co-curricular activities of students.
Noah Langnas, of Philabundance, and Karen Shore, head of the consulting division of The Food Trust, will speak on February 6 and 25, respectively, to complete this three-part seminar series. This free event is open to the public, as well as the campus community.
For more information on this and other events this spring, go to our Speaker Series 2013 webpage.