An organic endeavor

While most students stress about writing papers and studying for exams, one group of university students faced a different kind of classroom challenge this semester — where to find their next locally sourced meal.

Along with attending lecture and reading from a textbook, students taking AMST 498Q: Special Topics in American Studies: Advanced Material Culture took the "Locovore Challenge," where they had to spend four consecutive days eating nothing but foods grown or produced within 150 miles of College Park. The students began day one of the challenge last Thursday and used sources like the city's farmer's market over the weekend to get their meals.

American studies professor Psyche Williams-Forson, who teaches the class, said the students will learn to appreciate the different complex factors that go into eating closer to home through this experience.

"I want them to see food as an area or set of objects to study that are surrounded by issues of gender, race, class, region and time," Williams-Forson said. "You begin to really have to think about the foods you consume and the meanings attached to those foods."

Williams-Forson said many students don't expect the challenge to be so difficult, with hurdles ranging from finding and preparing the foods on a tight schedule to taking the area or set of objects to study that are surrounded by issues of gender, race, class, region and time," Williams-Forson said. "You begin to really have to think about the foods you consume and the meanings attached to those foods."

Williams-Forson said many students don't expect the challenge to be so difficult, with hurdles ranging from finding and preparing the foods on a tight schedule to taking the awkward shopping trips.

"Graduate students have gone to grocery stores like Whole Foods and asked for local things and said they felt very uncomfortable doing it," Williams-Forson said.

In addition to blogging about their experience, the students will write a paper that describes one meal they ate and reflects on the different aspects associated with that food, such as the challenge in finding it or who sold it to them.

To beat the challenge, many students came up with creative ways to get their meals.

Senior studio art major Sophia Smith said she met her quota by getting some of the local fruits and vegetables routinely delivered to her mother's house.

"It made me think a lot about how virtually anything I was eating before [the challenge] wasn't local," she said.

Junior American studies major Cain Jeffries traveled to a meat farm on the Eastern Shore to get his local foods. He said the challenge helped him connect with his food in a whole new way.

However, he said he wouldn't be able to continue eating that way on his limited college budget.

"It was very eye-opening and made the eating experience more personal for me," Jeffries said.

"It was definitely worthwhile and I'm glad I did it, but economically it's impossible to do."

In spite of the challenges, Williams-Forson said many students came out of the experience with a better appreciation and broader knowledge of what local foods have to offer.

She added it also forced students to interact with producers such as local farmers and get a sense of the cultural dynamic between producers and consumers.

"It heightens their awareness of some of the foods they have not experienced," Williams-Forson said. "It's a way for students to really engage food differently."

Williams-Forson said even if students didn't continue to eat exclusively local, she hopes the experience taught them valuable lessons they could take with them outside the classroom.

"Students don't realize the amount of time and energy that's involved in putting together meals and where they're going to get the food, so you have to give a lot more time and attention to planning," Williams-Forson said. "It moves them out of their comfort zone."

saravia@umdbk.com