By: Olivia Hort On Friday nights, the leaders of the Student Farm’s Cooking Collaborative can be found busy chopping vegetables, cracking eggs, stirring pots, and enjoying the company of each other while creating a delicious, local, and healthy meal. The student-led cooking series, piloting this spring and returning in the fall, aims to bring community members and students together to learn hands-on cooking skills and prepare a healthy, locally sourced meal while empowering guests to think critically when making decisions about where their food comes from.
Student Farm Club members at the Cooking Collaborative pilot.
The idea for the interactive cooking series came in 2015, when Student Farm Club members, Alyssa Gurklis and Hayly Hoch, returned from a summer internship wondering how they could positively impact the Penn State campus community. Both wanted to integrate the skills learned through their food-system internship with Penn State Extension-Allegheny County to benefit those around them. Mixing their passions for local food and community engagement, Gurklis and Hoch decided to create the Cooking Collaborative program as a way for students to learn cooking skills and to connect with local food systems.
Hayly Hoch and Alyssa Gurklis
The pair decided to take a unique approach to the series by making it a hands-on experience for each guest as they prepare the meal. In order to create a more interactive and community-oriented environment, the series has a small number of guests and different hosts, or leaders, each time. Gurklis and Hoch also wanted to focus the series on preparing meals on a budget, something they recognized as a useful skill for every college student and young professional. The series is about much more than cooking and budgeting, however. Gurklis and Hoch designed the series around individuals realizing their agency when it comes to food choices, thinking more critically about their food and becoming more confident in the kitchen when it comes to preparing healthy meals. Last semester, some of the most popular dishes made included falafel pitas, African style peanut stew, rice and beans, and various Indian dishes. On Friday, February 10, 2017 the Cooking Collaborative team gathered at Taproot Kitchen to do a pilot run of this semester’s dishes. The team made rice and beans, beet yogurt dip, eggs, guacamole, cabbage slaw, and more!
Cooking Collaborative pilot dishes
Cooking Collaborative partners with Friends and Farmers Cooperative and Taproot Kitchen to put on the exciting series. Friends and Farmers Cooperative currently provides an online marketplace where locally sourced produce and other foods can be purchased, in support of local farmers. The Student Farm Club purchases local produce and other foods from Friends and Farmers to prepare at Cooking Collaborative events. Taproot Kitchen is a community of individuals with disabilities and their families and friends who garden and cook healthy meals together in the Taproot Kitchen space. Thanks to Taproot Kitchen, the Cooking Collaborative now has a new home at the Meetinghouse on Atherton St. to gather in and enjoy the meals they create with each other. With access to this great cooking space, the Cooking Collaborative team, comprised of Alyssa Gurklis, Paul Laudenslayer, Carissa Heine, and Gretchen Seigworth have been busy planning for a fall filled with Cooking Collaborative events!
Carissa Heine and Gretchen Seigworth
Calling all foodies or those who are in need of some cooking help! New dishes are coming from the Cooking Collaborative team and they invite anyone interested to attend upcoming series. Stay tuned for more information about upcoming Cooking Collaborative events by connecting with us on Facebook or by joining our listserv. The Student Farm Club would love to see you there to learn, eat, and laugh together with us! For questions or further inquiries, feel free to contact Alyssa Gurklis at azg5380@psu.edu.