IUFI Newsletter 27 October 2020

IU Food Notes

I’ve been contacted this week by several student journalists asking about food insecurity among students during Covid. I’m afraid I didn’t have a lot to offer. The institute was of course involved in the Emergency Meal Project during the Covid shutdown over the summer and so we had some sense of demand among those students – how many? – who remained in Bloomington. The Project, however, ended when IU Dining staff turned their attention to ramping back up for the fall semester. And while we have a better, if far from precise, idea of who is in town – most undergrads and grads – I haven’t seen any metrics regarding food insecurity. One imagines that the employment situation for students is a difficult one with so much of the service sector in Bloomington operating on a limited basis, but who knows. I suppose one alternative to being unemployed in Bloomington was to stay “home” with family support. Nor do I know the extent of student employment on campus: the same as pre-Covid (probably not)? Reduced by how much? And in a few weeks we transition to Covid lockdown II. It’s not clear what that will look like and if we should perhaps explore reviving the Meal Project for December and January.

On another front, this week the Institute together with the Center for Research on Race, Ethnicity and Society will host our first
Food & (anti-)Race(-ism) seminar, a discussion between Lauren McCalister of Three Flock Farm and The Plant Truck Project and newly-arrived IU Anthropology faculty member Keitlyn Alcantara. The Plant Truck Project “aims to make plants, seeds, medicine and healthy, food accessible to people that have historically been discriminated against and denied access to land and food.” Alcantara’s research meanwhile looks at food sovereignty movements in Late Postclassic and contemporary Tlaxcala, Mexico. Alcantara also founded Sazón Nashville, a cooking initiative with Latinx middle school students in Nashville.

Carl Ipsen
Professor of History
Director, IU Food Institute
cipsen@iu.edu
14 September 2020

Announcements

IUFI and CRRES Present
Food & (anti-)Race(-ism): A Conversation with Keitlyn Alcantara and Lauren McCalister.
Friday, 30 October 2020 @9am

The IU Food Institute proposes to dedicate its 2020-21 seminar to the topic of food and race. Seen locally, nationally and globally the intersection of race and food highlights important issues of racial inequity in areas that include land access, farming, food processing, and access to adequate and healthy foods. Renewed awareness regarding indigenous foodways around the world is also pointing the way to a more sustainable future. In the present context of rising nationalisms and a pandemic that impacts already disadvantaged racial groups more than others, these issues take on special urgency.

Register here

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Indiana Uplands Food Network Webinar Series

Second Tuesday of each month at 1:00 pm EST

Tuesday, November 10th, 1:00 pm EST

Sharing the Labor, Sharing the Love: Strengthening Community from the Ground Up

Karen Mitchell from Purdue University will present about her work with Grow Local, an organization in Lafayette, IN dedicated to strengthening communities and enhancing quality of life through establishing and supporting community-shared gardens. Using cornerstone institutions such as faith-based organizations, social service centers, and others as locations for the gardens helps the program thrive. Watch this short introduction video to learn more! If you have specific questions that you would like Karen to address, please email mitcheka@purdue.edu.

Tuesday, December 8th, 1:00 pm EST

Growing Christmas Trees in Indiana

James Farmer from Indiana University will present on his research with Indiana Christmas tree growers and consumers, exploring the challenges of an increasingly competitive marketplace as well as the surprising opportunity it presents for local farmers to add Christmas trees as a low maintenance, high value crop to their operations. You can explore the reports generated from this research on the SFSS website.

Sign up for the Indiana Uplands Food Network mailing list to stay up to date with future events and webinars, and join the Indiana Uplands Facebook group to connect with others in the network!

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The Campus Kitchen, a student-run initiative operating since spring 2019, has been instrumental of the success of the EMP in summer 2020. With the beginning of the fall semester and the EMP project successfully at a close in July, this student-led organization has joined forces with the IU Campus Farm and the Crimson Cupboard to provide a CSA-style service to food insecure students at IU.

The Campus Kitchen has resumed operations at Goodbody Eatery on Tuesdays between 6-7 PM by giving out ingredient boxes full of fresh produce to cook healthy meals at home. Boxes are given out on a first come, first served basis, while observing IU pandemic guidelines with mandated mask wearing and observing physical distancing. The Campus Supported Agriculture initiative boxes come with recipes ideas, cooking instructions, and information on locally grown produce. Over 80 boxes have been distributed so far via two locations, Goodbody Eatery and the Crimson Cupboard with recipes provided by the IU Food Project.

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