Dara writes:
When I resided in Berkeley College at Yale University in the mid-90s, the dining hall food was so abysmal I moved off campus. The dingy, co-ed bathroom, minute cubicle with bunk beds I shared with my roommate, and the rodents didn't help either. All that has changed. Not only have most residential colleges at Yale undergone total renovations, but my college's dining hall has become a model for sustainable, local, and mostly organic food.
James and I have taken so many car trips lately to see his father, that we have taken to listening to Podcasts. Several recent ones were from a Princeton conference on food and ethics, which took place last November. Panelists repeatedly mentioned the Yale Sustainable Food Project as a model.
The daughter of Alice Waters, the chef who was instrumental in the "eat seasonal and local" movement, matriculated at Yale and inspired her mother to urge more organic dining. What has happened at the residential college Berkeley is staggering. The menu sounds amazing, it is seasonal, and some of it comes from a farm that is a fifteen minute walk from campus. The farm takes summer interns and I was kind of sad to learn the interns must be undergrads.
Unfortunately being on the road so much has meant a steady diet of McDonald's Snack Wraps: crispy chicken, jack cheese, lettuce, and ranch dressing in a tortilla. My theory is it is small enough to not make me sick, or for that matter thirsty for three days because of the amount of salt McDonald's pours on its food.