Local restaurants serve up samples at Big Red Eats Green

Local food and music invaded the front of the IU Art Museum Tuesday as part of the Big Red Eats Green food festival.

Organized by the IU Office of Sustainability, Big Red Eats Green brought local restaurants, food growers and speakers to teach guests about the benefits of eating locally, while they sampled some of Bloomington’s sustainable food options.

Many students stopped by the festival between classes and bought food from the various vendors, including Lennie’s, Laughing Planet Cafe, Sweet Claire’s Bakery, BLU Boy Chocolate Café and Cakery and Upland Brewing Company.

Student groups also promoted their sustainability-focused initiatives.

“Vegan and vegetarian food is sustainable and environmentally-friendly,” junior Becca Polk, treasurer of VegIU, said. “We’re trying to spread the word about these types of foods on campus.”

Senior Erin Kilhefner is the membership and publicity director of the Student Sustainability Council, which brings together representatives of several student organizations on campus to advance issues of sustainability.

“We try to pass initiatives as a collective community and work together to promote and accomplish projects,” she said.

Kit Gambill served as co-coordinator of Big Red Eats Green. She said she grew up on a small farm near Terre Haute and was raised on local food.

“When I got to Bloomington, I was so impressed by the amount of local food that was available, and it was great being able to eat food that I grew up on,” she said.

However, she said she realizes many students did not have an upbringing like hers and lack knowledge about the subject.

“They know about restaurants, but they don’t know that a lot of these restaurants get their food from local farms and that a lot of their ingredients come from people who live twenty minutes away,” she said. “They don’t know the importance of eating locally and what their options are, and Big Red Eats Green helps reveal that.”

In addition to eating food, guests were given an opportunity to listen to three presentations from IU faculty members.

Christine Barbour, a senior lecturer in the political science department, discussed the importance of knowing where food comes from and presented ways to eat more sustainably.

“It matters where our food comes from,” she said. “Food tastes better when it’s thoughtfully produced.”

She also said food has a bigger effect than many people think.

“The way that we eat, the way that we nurture ourselves, feeds more than just our stomachs.”

Follow Jacobs School of Music reporter Rachel Osman on Twitter @rachosman.