Earth Emerson, Suffolk's Environmental Club host dinner and a movie

11/01/09More than 100 people gathered in the Bill Bordy theater Tuesday night for the first of the monthly "Dinner and a Movie" events co-organized by Earth Emerson and the Suffolk University Environmental Club.

This was the first of Earth Emerson's monthly food festivals to occur this semester. "Food is a very hot issue right now and many students at Emerson like knowing what they're eating," Jillian Tedeschi, Co-President in Chief of Earth Emerson said. It's also the first one that is co-sponsored with Suffolk University's Environmental Club. According to Tedeschi, the collaboration came from the two club advisors, Jonathan Satriale, Earth Emerson, and Erica Matison, Suffolk University Environmental Club. "We're very pleased with the turnout. We've done a lot of planning for this event, it's something we've been wanting to do," Molly LaFlesh, Co-President in Chief of Earth Emerson, said.

The event started with a buffet style dinner provided by such Boston favorites as Upper Crust and Boloco and was followed by a few words from Dominique McCadden, the Boston Recruitment Coordinator for the Leadership Campaign and Brittany Filkner, the Emerson Coordinator for the Leadership Campaign Sleep-Out which started last Sunday.

Judy Grant, Director of the Value Meal Campaign organized by Corporate Accountability International advocated the importance of people taking control of what they eat.

A showing of the movie Food, Inc. which depicts exactly where all the food available to consumers in America comes from followed.

Accoring to Tedeschi this particular event was an introduction to food and getting the Real Food Challenge implemented on Emerson's campus. "I don't want to go ahead and say that there are certain issues with our campus food, because that is what we want to explore this semester. We don't exactly know how much local food is in the cafeteria currently. We don't know if this food is organic or fair trade either. Organic food is important so that pesticides aren't used on our food and contaminate/poison our bodies. Fair trade food is important to ensure that the workers are paid fairly and treated correctly," Tedeschi said. She said that the Real Food Challenge is basically figuring out what's in our dining halls, "A lot of the food we eat comes from thousands of miles away and we don't even know it." According to LaFlesh the Real Food Challenge would be a collaboration between every Boston College to work together to get local and/or organic food into our dining halls.