Students feast for the environment

Author: Julia McKinnon

Alluring scents of cinnamon, apple cider, spicy jambalaya and curried lentils floated down Weybridge Street as the sun dipped behind the Adirondacks last Thursday night. For three days, students peeled, chopped, sautéed, stirred and baked in preparation for a fall feast at Weybridge House to feed 70 hungry students.

The feast was a relaxing addition to an intensive week of lectures and activities that were part of the "Teaching the Environment Symposium," which accompanied a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Middlebury Mountain Club (MMC).

With this event, Weybridge House residents were granted a chance to work together as an entire house to plan this event.

"Everyone pitched in," said Sam Collier '09.

Before dinner, students convened outside to introduce themselves and to discuss the various dishes. Then, after a moment of silence, the crowd shuffled into the house, where mountains of food and pots of hot cider awaited.

"Just being in this room gives one a great sense of being in a community and the spiritual renewal that goes with that," said Nathan Blumenshine '08, as he bit into a piece of home-baked bread and settled into a couch in the living room.

Amidst the din of chatter and eating, the Lemon Fair String Band, comprised of student musicians, performed playful bluegrass tunes.

"It's a nice break from the self-indulgence of relying on College staff," said Jason Kowalski '07, whose frisbee doubled as a dinner plate. "It's more fun to depend on your friends."

Weybridge House residents were particularly pleased with the stampede of ravenous undergraduates who showed up for the feast.

"It's a great chance to share with a bigger community at the College," said Ashley Asmus '09.

"It's the best way to see that we've cooperated this year," said Ceurvels. "Everyone split up duties. I made Spanikopita and Curry Lentil Dip. It's the idea of people sharing things, sacrificing personal space and time to make some kind of greater productivity."

Though preparing the feast took time away from students' book work, the hands-on experience of cooking and organizing Thursday's menu provided a lesson in itself.

Himali Singh Soin '08 explained that the work put into the preparation of food and drink was a tribute to the importance of local communities.

"Weybridge [House] focuses on communal living and living in the most sustainable way possible, using the least amount of resources. The feast is an opportunity to show the community what we're doing," said Singh Soin, who prepared an enormous tub of green salad with lemon garlic dressing for the feast. "Music and food is what brings people together."

At the feast, many students discussed the symposium and exchanged stories about outdoor escapades.

"It [the symposium] was ultimately a time to reflect on learning experiences in the environment and how the environment is taught in the classroom-and how it ought not to be just taught there but in the field," said MMC President Caitlin Littlefield '07.5.

About the feast, she added, "I think that all connects to the whole theme of environmental education not only because cooking is, well, experiential learning, but also because it involves reconnecting with your neighbors and paying attention to where your food comes from, and being thankful for that."

Littlefield collaborated with MMC members to organize the week's events, which commenced on Monday with a lecture by Chet Bowers, who spoke about environmental education. On Tuesday, Mead Professor Biology and Environmental Studies Steve Trombulak spoke about the importance of studying natural history.

On Wednesday evening Atwater Commons Dean Scott Barnicle introduced speaker Willem Lange as a bartender, Outward Bound instructor, taxi driver, high school English teacher and storyteller, now a regular commentator on Vermont Public Radio (VPR). Lange shared stories about his outdoor education adventures that had the audience laughing out loud.

The week's events culminated at Mead Chapel on Friday night, where Bill McKibben, Middlebury's scholar in residence, writer and local global warming awareness celebrity, delivered an insightful speech entitled "On Loving a Damaged Planet."

"Bill McKibben's speech drew from all over," said Littlefield. "Alumni from the Boston area, locals who read about it in the paper, students and parents, etc. He spoke of the irreparable damage we're doing to our planet, but placed that all in the context of experiencing life in the mountains and nature - and being humbled by those experiences."