By Isaiah Chisolm
A photo of a cake that was molded into a tree using several layers of frosting. It was served to the public at Fairfield Way. Photo: Isaiah Chisolm/ WHUS News
A 39 degree windy Wednesday couldn’t stop the University of Connecticut as it kicked off the spring season with UConn’s 10th annual Earth Day Spring Fling event.
The UConn Spring Fling is an annual event that was created in 2008 to celebrate sustainability on campus. The event is sponsored by several organizations including the UConn Dining Services,’ UConn’s Office of Environmental Policy and the EcoHusky Student Group.
Every year carries a new theme for the Spring Fling and Ethan Olmstead, a senior at UConn, said that this year’s theme was called “tasty waste.”
“Basically it’s food that people might have thrown out but they’re repurposing it,” Olmstead said. “There is bread pudding and the bread is day old bread but they’re repurposing it.”
The UConn Dining Services’ played an especially big role as the student workers and chefs came together to create tasty culinary meals using food that’s closer to the expiration date but is still in good flavor.
Some of the foods included a vegetarian pot pie, a steak and ale pot pie, a tamale pie and homemade gluten-free cornbread.
Robert Landolphi was one of the chefs responsible for making some of the food at the event said it was thanks to food share that they were able to make good food.
“A lot of times supermarkets, what they do, is when the food is going to hit the expiration date, they throw it in the freezer,” Landolphi said. “They get to the point where they think they’re going to lose them and they give them to food share and we worked it out with food share. They said, hey we have an abundance of frozen meat and vegetables, could you guys possibly take it and do a tasty waste luncheon with these products.”
Along with some of the food made by UConn Dining Services’, there were several organizations and companies looking to promote their services at Fairfield way. One such organization was The Omar Coffee Company.
Omar Coffee is a company that was founded in 1937, with the goal of importing and distributing fresh coffee beans to the foodservice industry. Their company promotes 100 percent Rainforest Alliance certified coffee. By purchasing fresh coffee beans, they also support farmers worldwide who may not make the best money for their services in their respective countries.
Shannon Cercone, an Omar Coffee representative, said that proper care leads to the best coffee beans.
“The more it’s cared for, watered properly and if there are no pesticides then it will grow just like any vegetable,” Cercone said.
The idea of being Eco-Friendly is shared one at UConn and the Spring Fling event helps encompass that idea with good food and Eco-Friendly organizations.