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The Indiana Daily Student

Big Red Eats Green brings fresh options to students

Variety of chilly peppers are on display at the booth of The Chile Women during the Big Red Eats Green event on Thursday Afternoon.

Chile peppers, gluten-free mallow chip cookies, heirloom tomatoes and more could be found just outside the IU Art Museum 
on Thursday.

IU’s Office of Sustainability brought green-eating to students as a part of the fifth annual Big Red Eats Green food festival. The event, which happened from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of the art museum, encouraged students to eat from local growers and support sustainable food practices.

Senior Cory Lamping, an intern with the IU Office of Sustainability, began planning the event 
beginning in July.

He said one of the goals of the festival was to showcase local vendors and growers from off campus so students, especially freshmen, can learn more about food organizations in Bloomington they ordinarily would not find without 
leaving campus.

“It’s really about bringing it to them,” Lamping said. “Making sure they know what’s available, making sure they know how awesome the food scene in Bloomington is, how important sustainable food is for the thriving of a community and hopefully get them out to the farmer’s market on Saturdays, out to these local restaurants that are doing a lot of really great work.”

This year’s festival, which was smaller than in years past, featured 11 vendor booths and two local growers. All businesses at the event were required to either sell food grown locally or demonstrate 
sustainable practices in their work.

Lamping said usually about 800 students walked through the festival and most vendors sell out of their product by the 
end of the event.

Vendors and growers were told to keep their items small in portion sizes and less than $5, so students could experience a sampling of the foods at the festival.

Local favorites like Soma, Laughing Planet Cafe and Upland Brewery were in attendance, selling one of Lamping’s favorite foods at the event, Upland Brewery’s tacos. 
Upland uses locally produced pork in its Bahn Mi tacos, which were 
sold at the event.

“We want to be a part of the local community,” Chris Swartzentruber, of Upland Brewery said. “If we were to get factory farm food from all around the United States, then it would make us just like everyone else. If we’re actually getting good products in from the local community that we live in, then it supports the community and also you can give good food to the people.”

In addition to local eateries, Big Red Eats Green also featured 
growers like the Chile Woman and Heartland Family Farm that frequently appear at the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market.

Teresa Birtles, owner of Heartland Family Farm, said her farm has come to Big Red Eats Green every year. Heartland Family Farm sells fruits and vegetables grown free of chemicals.

Birtles said she believed students are becoming more informed about the food they eat.

“We love selling real food to people who appreciate it,” Birtles said. “And I think that students are really learning how to appreciate knowing where their food comes from and knowing that it’s clean.”

Rainbow Bakery, an all-vegan bakery in Bloomington, returned to the festival after its absence last year with baked vegan donuts, gluten-free cupcakes and cookies and signature drinks like lavender lemonade made with dried 
lavender flowers.

“In terms of the sustainability green factor, that’s like as sustainable as you can get,” Lisa Dorazewski of Rainbow Bakery said. “We’re using less resources to make our food because we’re not using animal products.”

In addition to the Bloomington-area vendors, Big Red Eats Green also had live music from Duck Trash and Pnature Walk, and campus organizations like the Dunn Meadow Café, Oxfam Club, WIUX Radio and Healthy IU.

“It’s really a festival to try to highlight Bloomington’s local food scene, which is phenomenal,” Lamping said. “It’s one of the most vibrant in the 
country really.”

clanich@indiana.edu | @carleylanich

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