Monthly Archives: July 2015

Just Food conference at Princeton Theological Seminary

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5zP4WPgcqY

The upcoming Just Food conference at Princeton Theological Seminary is aiming for “an essential conversation about food justice, sustainable agriculture, food insecurity, and innovative ways to change the way we relate to food.”

The lineup is promising. Featured speakers for the Sept. 24-26 event include Will Allen, recipient of the John D. and Katherine T. McArthur Foundation Genius Grant and founder of Growing Power, the Milwaukee-based nonprofit urban farm; and Norman Wirzba, author of “Food and Faith,” and professor of theology, ecology and rural life at Duke Divinity School.

Workshop subjects include community gardens, using story and art, and human rights in agriculture. Field trips to the Seminary’s new 21-acre Farminary, directed by Nate Stucky, are also on the schedule.

Showing community connections, the conference will close with a food market on the campus green and will feature The Feed Truck – the Kingston United Methodist’s mobile experiment in radical hospitality, that already makes regular stops at Trinity Church, 33 Mercer.

Registration for the conference at the Seminary, 64 Mercer St., costs $195 and includes the program, a Thursday coffee break & dinner, the Friday coffee break, lunch and dinner. The Friday dinner is provided as part of the Farminary field trip. For information, call (609) 497-7990 or write coned@ptsem.edu.

 

21 acres and a new Farminary program

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The Princeton Theological Seminary, our neighbor on Mercer Street, has launched Farminary, a program centered on its 21-acre parcel of land in Lawrenceville that combines theological education and sustainable agriculture. Nate Stucky is the Farminary’s founder and full-time director.

Excerpts from the TakePart story by Steve Holt:

“Stucky grew up in Kansas, on a farm outside Wichita, and farmed full-time for two years before coming to Princeton to pursue his Ph.D. He and a Princeton [Theological Seminary] alumnus first discussed the concept of a Farminary several years ago, but the seedling of an idea didn’t break ground until a mentor encouraged him to pursue his dream of taking seminary into the fields. He discovered last year that the Princeton seminary owned a 21-acre farm a few miles from campus that it had purchased as an investment a few years earlier, so Farminary was pitched to the seminary president, who loved it.

Besides the personal theological implications of studying scripture on a farm, Stucky says it doesn’t make sense to train faith leaders who are not conversant in the areas of ecology, sustainability, and food justice….At first, the harvest at the Farminary will likely be modest enough to feed only the students and faculty, but organizers are discussing long-term uses for the food, such as donating it to local food pantries, using it to source Princeton’s seminary dining hall, or even donating it to be used in Trenton public schools.”

Exploring food & America’s racial dynamic

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Neopolitan-style pizza: From left, Chelsea Johnson, Class of 2018; Alexander Schindele-Murayama, Class of 2016; Dominique Ibekwe, Class of 2016; and Cordelia Orillac, Class of 2015, get a lesson in making traditional Neapolitan pizza dough from Chef Rick Piancone in the kitchen of Rockefeller and Mathey colleges. "We wanted to do pizza because it's a familiar comfort food that has been very commercialized. The chefs taught us how the art and craft in traditional Neapolitan pizza compares with the U.S. version and how the taste changes," said Ibekwe.

Neopolitan-style pizza: From left, Chelsea Johnson, Class of 2018; Alexander Schindele-Murayama, Class of 2016; Dominique Ibekwe, Class of 2016; and Cordelia Orillac, Class of 2015, get a lesson in making traditional Neapolitan pizza dough from Chef Rick Piancone in the kitchen of Rockefeller and Mathey colleges. “We wanted to do pizza because it’s a familiar comfort food that has been very commercialized, said Ibekwe. “The chefs taught us how the art and craft in traditional Neapolitan pizza compares with the U.S. version and how the taste changes.” – Photo by Danielle Alio, Office of Communications

Professor Anne Cheng '85

Professor Anne Cheng ’85

With “Literature, Food, and the American Racial Diet,” in the spring 2015 semester, Professor Anne Cheng ’85 encouraged her 133 students to research the relationship between food and America’s racial dynamic across society, culture and history, but the students’ final projects weren’t limited to research papers. They also included a food lesson and a tasting.

As Jamie Saxon from the Office of Communications writes:

“Assignments included writing analytical essays, experimenting with food writing, and conducting research into the history of food, which, noted Cheng, is often a history of imperialism and colonization. For their final project, students went food shopping, rolled up their sleeves and created dishes that illustrated some aspect of how food interacts with racial identity.

Divided into 30 small teams, the students discussed readings and shared their own experiences with culture and food. As part of a new Campus Dining initiative led by Executive Director Smitha Haneef to support students’ academic experience, each team was paired with a chef who advised them on food ingredients, preparation and presentation. The dishes were presented and tasted at the “Princeton Feast” held April 30 in the Frist Campus Center.”

See the Princeton Alumni Weekly feature here and Campus Dining’s account here.