Local Portobello Mushroom Burger

Welcome back Ursinus, I hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing spring break and you are all staying warm and safe on this snowy day!

Did you know that Pennsylvania is the top producing mushroom state in the U.S.? The borough of Kennett Square is the historical and current leader in mushroom production (1). It focuses on growing Agaricus mushrooms, which are button mushrooms when immature and white, cremini mushrooms when immature and brown, and portobello mushrooms when mature (2). Kennet Square is only about an hour away from us, which means that there is a very good chance that the mushrooms you eat in Wismer were grown in our very own state.

Mushrooms are an environmentally sustainable food choice on campus because they are produced locally. Since local food travels shorter distances between producer and consumer, it not only looks and tastes better, it requires much fewer resources. These include transportation fuel, refrigeration, and often processing and packaging. Local food is also better for the community because more of each dollar that the consumer spends goes back to the farmer, as opposed to towards the hidden costs that come with long distance food trade (3). Fun fact: making local food choices and purchases also keeps taxes down (4)! In addition, mushroom production in general is environmentally sustainable compared to other food sources. According to System Ekofungi, "Mushroom production is the only viable, socially-acceptable, and wide-spread biotechnology to convert waste into high-quality food" (5). Mushrooms are truly unique as a sustainable food source.

You may have noticed that the grill in Wismer recently swapped out their regular black bean burger for a portobello mushroom burger as its vegetarian/vegan option. If you were turned off by this switch, I am here to turn you onto it today by providing a delicious way to order a portobello mushroom burger at the grill. And for those of you who have never substituted a mushroom for a burger, this is the perfect opportunity to try something new! I hope you enjoy!

Please feel free to provide feedback or your thoughts by commenting on this post or contacting realfoodgreenfellows@gmail.com. Thank you!

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungiculture
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricus_bisporus
(3) http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EWP163.pdf
(4) https://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/buylocal.html

Sustainable Club Spotlight: Wismer on Wheels

Happy Spring Break, Ursinus!

In honor of the week off from classes, I am refraining from making a Wismer meal suggestion given it is probably not your minds as many of you are enjoying home-cooked meals. Instead, I will use this week's post as an opportunity to bring attention to a club on Ursinus' campus that is rooted in both humanitarian and environmental objectives: Wismer on Wheels. WOW is a student-run organization that packages leftover food from Wismer dining hall and delivers it to Manna on Main Street, a non-profit food pantry and soup kitchen in Lansdale, PA.

Wismer on Wheels members pack up the leftovers after both lunch and dinner on the weekdays and after dinner on weekend nights, which amounts to a total of twelve packaging shifts every week. Each volunteer is only required to commit to one shift per week, but many choose to sign up for more. This semester, WOW has a little over 40 members, the most the club has ever had.

After the leftovers are packaged, they are stored in a designated cooler in the kitchen until the following Monday or Thursday, when deliveries take place. Manna on Main street incorporates Wismer on Wheels' donations into their soup kitchen meals that they serve to community members, helping the non-profit come closer to achieving their mission: "That everyone might be fed".

Wismer on Wheels not only benefits the community with its donations, its actions are also beneficial for the environment as they reduce the food waste that dining services produces since the donated food would otherwise be thrown away. In the fall semester alone, WOW averted almost 2,000 pounds of food from landfills, which instead contributed to the alleviation of local food insecurity. Wismer on Wheels' food donations also helped Ursinus College become a national winner in the EPA's Food Recovery Challenge. UC's Dining Services was one of the thirteen winners out of over 800 that participated.

If you are interested in learning more about Wismer on Wheels, check out the club's social media pages linked below. If you are interested in getting involved, email wismeronwheels@ursinus.edu.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wismeronwheels/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wismeronwheels
Instagram: @wismeronwheels

Members are well known in the Wismer kitchen for the bright green aprons they wear while packaging. Wismer staff often affectionately call Wismer on Wheels volunteers "The Angels"

The trunk of a car is loaded up with the food Wismer on Wheels packages to be delivered to Manna on Main Street twice a week.

Please feel free to provide feedback or your thoughts by commenting on this post or contacting realfoodgreenfellows@gmail.com. Thank you!

    II.  

       I.           

Mediterranean Quinoa Salad

Hello again Ursinus College!

With this spring's revival of the Office of Sustainability comes the revival of the Sustainable Hidden Menu! You can once again expect weekly blog posts to help you make creative, healthy, and sustainable food choices on Ursinus' campus. The purpose of this first post is to tackle an especially popular misconception about healthy eating and food for fitness: your protein needs.

This campus is swarming with athletes, and as an athlete myself, I understand how important proper nutrition is for our performance. Currently, the sports nutrition and drink industry in the United States is worth $16 billion dollars, 70% of which is made up by protein powder (1). Numerous profit-driven corporations benefit from consumers believing that more protein is better for weight loss, muscle gain, and health. This belief is the marketing goal of these companies, and so their advertising and influence hugely affects the demand for protein in America. The truth, however, is that Americans consume nearly twice the daily recommended amount of protein for optimal health, and this extra protein is not necessarily good (2).

It is probably hard for a lot of you readers to hear and believe these facts because it goes against the information surrounding you and what many of you might practice. Perhaps knowing how our bodies handle protein will help you to understand. The extra protein you consume over the recommended amount is not needed to build or rebuild muscle, so instead it is processed and used for energy, or stored as fat, just like the other macro nutrients that you eat (carbohydrates and fats). So, unfortunately, more protein does not translate directly into more muscle, and it could even mean more fat. In addition, since protein is made up of amino acids, excess protein intake makes our bodies become acidic. Calcium is used by our bodies to neutralize acidity (think Tums), which becomes an issue because this is taken from our bones (3). Therefore, in the attempt to strengthen our muscles by consuming excess protein, we might be weakening our bones, which is a red flag especially for athletes.

Another issue with eating more protein than recommended is that it is too often consumed in the form of animal products, which also comes with high levels of saturated fat. You can thank the dairy and meat industries, and their strong influence on the government, for this one! The good news is that you can easily meet all your protein needs from plant-based products, which come without the fat and with added benefits, such as fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Did you know that 100 calories of broccoli has 8.5 grams protein (4)? In addition, plant-based choices are not only better for your body but better for the environment as well. Plant-based foods, like vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains, require much less resources and energy to produce and distribute than animal products and highly processed and packaged foods (junk food).

One plant-based protein that is readily available in Wismer is quinoa. It has been available consistently at the salad bar next to the fruit this semester. Quinoa is a whole grain that is packed with protein. One cup of quinoa has 8 grams of protein and additional benefits, including more fiber than brown rice and corn and numerous vitamins and minerals. Quinoa makes a great substitute for rice or pasta on your plate, but it is also a great way to add substance to your salad. Today's Wismer hidden menu item is a delicious and plant-based Mediterranean style salad, featuring quinoa and a unique dressing.

Please feel free to provide feedback or your thoughts by commenting on this post or contact realfoodgreenfellows@gmail,com. Thank you!

1 http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Markets/Protein-powders-The-heavyweight-in-the-16bn-sports-nutrition-market
2 https://authoritynutrition.com/foods/quinoa/
3 http://www.vegsource.com/articles/heidrich_protein.htm
4 https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list

It's Summer Time!

Greetings Ursinus Community!!

We hope everyone is surviving finals week! Since most of us will be leaving for summer break in the next couple of days for this week’s blog post we will be bringing you…

5 Ways to Eat More Sustainably Over Summer Break

1) Eat Seasonally
When fruits and vegetables have to be grown out of their growing season it takes a lot more resources than when they are grown in season. It helps lower your ecological footprint by eating only fruits while they are in season – and there’s lots in season over the summer! Below is a helpful chart to help know what is in season when in Pennsylvania. The in-season fruits and vegetables during the summer are apples, beets, cantaloupe, cucumbers, sweet corn, lettuce, onions, peaches, summer squash and raspberries – try to eat some of those over summer break!

(http://www.papreferred.com/seasonal_calendar.aspx)

2) Eat Organic

Certified organic food cannot have synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or antibiotics used when they are being grown or produced. This limits the amount of synthetic chemical leaching that can take place from agriculture fields into the surrounding ecosystems and thus help protect that ecosystems biodiversity. Make sure when you go to the super market over break you look for this seal of approval! Also check out our C-Store post from last week to learn more about all the different food certifications and what they mean!

(www.usda.gov)

3) Eat Less Meat and Dairy

The billions of animals raised for meat consumption in the US today is done in CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). Not only do these CAFOs violate a lot of animal rights issue but they are also extremely resource heavy, using large amounts of water, corn, and energy in order to produce meat in large quantities. Meat production also accounts for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing a salad over a hamburger one night over spring break can have huge environmental benefits. Try to go “Meatless Monday” during summer break; even just one day, or one less meatless meal, will have a huge impact!

Sources: http://www.hellawella.com/top-10-easy-ways-to-eat-more-sustainably/8790

                http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nil-zacharias/its-time-to-end-factory-f_b_1018840.html

4) Eat Whole Foods

Eating highly processed foods can not only be bad for your health but can also be bad for the environment. The production and transportation of processed food leads to carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Likewise processed foods are usually wrapped in various types of plastics that get thrown away and end up in a landfill somewhere. Eating whole food is definitely the way to go when trying to eat more sustainably.

5) Drink Tap Water

Similar to whole food, bottle water is packed in plastic bottles. Again the majority of these bottles get thrown away and end up in a landfill. By using a reusable water bottle and drinking tap water your ecological impact is significantly decreased! You will also want to make sure you stay hydrated during the hot summer months.

These five simple ways to make your summer more sustainable can help have a huge positive impact on the environment. Now in addition to these sustainable actions here are two fun tips to help make your summer even more sustainable and tasteful!

When you go shopping for groceries choose items with less packaging and bring your own reusable bags that way you are reducing your plastic consumption. Just keep your reusable bags in the trunk of your car  - that way you always have them with you. Since the reusable bags hold more grocery then the plastic bags think about all the plastic you can save!

Here is one final sustainable recipe for the summer to help keep you cool!

Fruit Popsicles

Grab some Popsicle molds or ice cube molds and fill them with frozen or fresh fruit. Pour a juice of your choice into the molds and then freeze them. You can also blend up some watermelon with mint and little lime juice, pour it into the molds and freeze. By using fruits that are in season, this snack is tasty, refreshing, and sustainable!

(https://www.pinterest.com/warmhuggs/homemade-fruit-pops/)

We hope you all enjoy your summer break and think about how you can all be more sustainable. We will be back next fall with even more sustainable recipes for you to try out in Upper Wismer. So make sure to check back in in the fall!

Enjoy your summer everyone!!

Allie & Vanessa

Real Food Challenge

Office of Sustainability Fellows

Staying Sustainable at the C-Store

            With the end of the spring semester quickly approaching, many of us will be purging our left over dining dollars at the convenience store in the effort to use them all before summer. Ursinus loads the C-store with everything a college student could crave—from soda to Reese’s candy to Doritos—but they also stock it up with options that are much more environmentally sustainable and healthy in comparison. Today we will help you navigate the C-Store and identify the goodies available for an environmentally-conscious bear like you!

Tips:

Certifications

Look for certifications on packages that indicate products meet various sustainability-related standards such as organic, non-GMO, fair trade, rain forest friendly, etc. Here are some examples:

Less is more!

                Check out the ingredients on the back of product packaging. Generally, fewer ingredients means less processing. The planet takes a toll for the processing of food products as it usually requires more transportation and fuel and consequently emits more greenhouse gasses and creates more waste. When considering the environment within our C-Store purchases, aim to buy foods with four ingredients or less. Also, the more natural the ingredients are, the better. Not being able to pronounce a certain ingredient or not knowing what one is can serve as red flags indicating highly processed foods as well. However, these could also be vitamins and other micro ingredients. Use your cell phone to quickly look up questionable ingredients to figure out how much processing goes into it!

Eat plants for your planet

                As we have stressed many a times on this blog, a diet of plant-based foods is an ideal way to eat for the well-being of the environment. Meat, animal products, and their production processes, provide us with inefficient sources of food in regards to our plant, water, and land resources (to name a few). In addition, animal agriculture is a huge greenhouse gas emitter and cause of other types of pollution. When buying snacks, try to stick to plant-based options. This is typically very easy to do, and you most likely have some vegan favorites already, but sometimes animal products can make an appearance without us noticing it. This applies especially to dairy products. Dairy can be present in several forms besides the obvious of milk and cheese. These include lactose and whey, a sugar and protein derived from milk, respectively. Look for these while you are checking out the ingredients in your snacks before you buy them. If you are still not sure, the allergy information provides a great short cut, since it will identify if the product contains milk.

Look for brands you can identify as local!

Some Suggestions!

Hungry?

Annie’s Mac n’ Cheese

Right Foods Dr. McDougall’s Vegan Pad Thai Noodle Soup and Vegan Tortilla Soup

Macro a Vegetarian: Thai dumplings, pad Thai, sushi, sesame noodles, etc.: Locally sourced, made in Monroe Township, NJ.

Channa Masala: No certifications, but it is vegan and made with some non-GMO ingredients.

Amy’s meals and burritos – non dairy, non-GMO, mostly organic ingredients

Garden Salad

Snacks

Mary’s Gone Crackers crackers and pretzels: USDA certified organic, non-GMO verified, what and gluten-free, nut-free, whole grain

Cliff Bars: Rain forest alliance certification, 70% organic ingredients, vegan

Tostito’s organic blue corn tortilla chips: USDA certified organic, non-GMO verified, three ingredients

Late July Organic tortilla chips: USDA certified organic, non-GMO verified, 100% whole grain, zero trans-fats, lower sodium. Be on the lookout for some flavors that have seasoning contain whey though.

Drinks

Naked Juice (various flavors): Non-GMO verified, 100% juice

Aloegloe (lemonade, crisp aloe, white grape, coconut): USDA certified organic, sourced in North America and produced in California

Honest Tea (Half tea/half lemonade, honey green, and pomegranate blue): USDA certified organic, fair trade certified hibiscus and sugar, non-GMO

Rosenberger’s Dairies milk: If you choose milk, Ursinus provides us with a pretty good choice as the brand carried in the C-Store is local, from Hatfield, PA.

Sweets

Newman-O’s: A great substitute for Oreo’s because they are made with organic flour and organic sugar. They are also vegan, believe it or not!

Lucy’s Cookies (ginger snap and chocolate chip): Many organic ingredients, non-GMO verified, vegan certified, kosher certified, nut-free, gluten-free

Bark thins snacking chocolate (pretzel, almond, mint): fair trade certified, non-GMO verified, vegan

 

    

A Sweet Sweet Potato

One classic Wismer food item is the sweet potato. Did you know that sweet potatoes are native to the Americas? They were originally grown in the tropical Americas. Then they were later introduced to other parts of the world like Europe, Africa, and Asia. The cool thing about sweet potatoes is that they can be grown all most anywhere, as long as there is deep, moist soil. They can thrive in both tropic and temperate zones.

This is good thing because the sweet potatoes that we all eat in Wismer probably come from within the US, cutting back on food miles and transportation that can cause emissions that are harmful to the environment. Compared to foods that have to travel long distances in order to reach our mouths like bananas, sweet potatoes are a healthy food option with relatively few food miles.

Here are three different ways to switch up the way you eat your sweet potato and make it an even sweeter experience!

1. Grab a packet of peanut butter from the Deli Bar. Mix the peanut butter in with the potato. Then top it all off with some cinnamon!
2. To give your sweet potato a little extra crunch and flavor, you can mix in some cranberries from the Yogurt Bar.
3. Now instead of always adding items to your sweet potato, you can instead add your sweet potato to some of your other foods. Cut up your sweet potato and add it as a topping to your salad or pasta. This is a great way to get an extra dose of veggie!

And, of course, brown sugar is always a full proof way to enjoy a sweet potato!

Now sweet potatoes are typically grown in Pennsylvania during August and September, so right now the sweet potatoes you eat are not necessary local, but they still likely come from within the US. Thus the most ideal time to eat them is right when we return to school from summer break.

Happy Eating!!

Source Info:

https://worldcrops.org/crops/sweet-potato

Strawberry Bruschetta

            As we are sure you all have noticed, strawberries have made their way into the Wismer’s fruit bar! We know you are as excited as we are (because who doesn’t love strawberries?) so this week’s recipe features the little ruby gems.

Did you know that Pennsylvania is one of the country’s top producer states of strawberries? It is important to note, however, that although strawberries are coming into season, it is still very early for Pennsylvania producers to be harvesting them. This means that the strawberries available to us in PA right now are most likely from other states with warmer climates, like California. Therefore, having strawberries in April comes with a toll on the environment due to the transportation required to ship them to us. Since transportation most often requires the burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon emissions into our environment, the farther our food must travel, the more it contributes to the climate change. This is why sourcing our food as locally as we can is an important part of having an environmentally sustainable diet.

Ursinus’ dining service, Sodexo, makes an effort to buy locally, with a goal of 20% local sourcing of the food they distribute by 2020. A regional producer that Sodexo already collaborates with, Amoroso’s Bread & Rolls, provides Wismer with the majority of its bread. This is why we feature bread in today’s menu item.

The best time in Pennsylvania to enjoy strawberries varies slightly each year. Strawberry plants can produce their fruit as early as May, but this typically peaks in June, and then the fruit stays in season through the remainder of the summer months. Though eating strawberries in PA is not ideal for the environment now, we recommend ample amounts of strawberry consumption in a few months! In the meantime, you can take advantage of this rare treat in Wismer, and the recipe below can help you do so while simultaneously spicing up your dining hall meal options.

Strawberry Bruschetta

What you’ll need:

• Strawberries (~2 or 3)
• Bread of choice
• Feta cheese
• Spinach
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper
• Soup bowl, plate, knife, and fork

Instructions:

1. Grab some strawberries from the fruit bar, a soup bowl, a knife, and a fork.
2. Head over to the deli to pop one or two slices of bread into the toaster. If you wish to make your bruschetta on a roll or other type of bread behind the deli, ask the deli worker to toast the desired bread for you.
3. While your bread is toasting, take a seat to slice your strawberries into pieces of your size preference with the knife.
4. Put the strawberry pieces in the soup bowl and bring it to the salad bar. Cover the strawberries in balsamic vinegar. While you are here, get some spinach leaves.
5. Retrieve your toast, place it on a plate, and head over to the Mediterranean bar. On the way, stop at the salad bar again to drizzle some olive oil on the toast. At the Mediterranean bar, get some feta cheese and place it on top of the toast.
6. At your seat, use the fork to smoosh down and evenly disperse the feta cheese on the toast.
7. Place several spinach leaves on top of the cheese.
8. Next, scoop out the now marinated balsamic strawberries using your fork, letting the excess vinegar drip back into the bowl before placing them on top of the spinach.
9. As a final touch, sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper on top of the bruschetta. If you prefer a more authentic pepper than the one in the shaker provided on your table, a pepper grinder is provided near the dressings at the salad bar!
10. Enjoy!

Tip of the week:

If you were wondering what is currently in season in PA, the answer is asparagus, lettuce, and tomatoes. Perhaps these three would work nicely together with strawberries in a salad! Happy eating!

Sources:

https://uvfdining.sodexomyway.com/planet/local.html

http://extension.psu.edu/business/ag-alternatives/horticulture/fruits/strawberry-production

http://www.simplesteps.org/eat-local/state/pennsylvania