Photostory: Students feeding students
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April 21, through the 25 is Earth Week at Santa Monica College, a time where students can learn more about sustainability practices and other environmental issues. The theme of this year's Earth Week celebration is, "food," and in honor of mother nature, there will be a variety of earth friendly events and activities.
On Tuesday, the quad played host to Students Feeding Students. The event, which was sponsored by the Center for Environmental and Urban Studies and the Associated Students, emphasized raising awareness for healthier food options and the importance of buying locally.
Those who attended were given an Earth Week shopping list, which after completion gave students access to a myriad of free food. To complete the shopping list students were required to get stamps from the various booths and clubs on the quad.
After three stamps students were eligible to receive a free produce bag provided by the AS which they could then fill at the organic produce stand. All of the produce was obtained from donations acquired by Club Grow during Spring Break.
Everything from oranges, apples, raddishes, leeks, lettuce, beets, kale, broccoli, chard, and even brussel sprouts, were available.
Students who got five stamps were able to enjoy free tamales from Tamara's Tamales and smoothies fresh from the Bike Club, who blended the juices with a bike-powered blender.
The Bike Club didn’t hog all the fun however as the Geography Club, the Eco Action Club, Club Grow, Plastic Free SMC, and even the SMC student food cooperative participated in the event.
SMC student and president of the Eco Action Club, Kathleen Green believes that events like these are necessary to instruct students on flaws in the current food system.
"It's an issue of access for students specifically because students are on a very tight budget. They don't have a lot of choices because they don't want to leave campus for food,” said Green. “It’s an issue of access for affordability and sustainability, if it's not sustainable it's not healthy.
Green also pointed out that all of the food present at Students Feeding Students was food that would have otherwise been thrown away.
“Overall I think it was a great demonstration on how you can divert waste in our food system. The most important thing about this event was showing students what goes on in the food system,” said Green.