More than 700 people attended Dining Commons One’s Homecoming Motown dinner, at which all the food on the menu consisted of Michigan grown, sustainable food.
“We really focused in on Michigan,” said Chef Tom Murray of Dining Services.
All of the food served Tuesday evening was grown or raised in Michigan, and many food vendors came from within 150 miles of Ann Arbor.
“Everyone’s on the kick of ‘sustainable,’ ” said Murray. Sustainable indicates the source of the food can be maintained regularly and is limited in the stress it puts on the local environment.
Murray explained the dining services wanted to see if using local products could be maintainable trend at Eastern, and the idea of a “homegrown homecoming” was a good place to begin.
“I didn’t think the food was as good,” Freshman Steven Kurowicki said, though he did admit he enjoyed the honey glazed grilled chicken breast with pecans and walnuts.
Because the food is produced in Michigan, the carbon footprint created by the process of getting food from the farm to people’s homes is greatly reduced. The time it takes for food to be delivered to its destination is also shortened so the food is fresher when it is prepared.
All dairy products contained milk from cows that had not received any hormones. All eggs used in recipes were from chickens that are also not treated with hormones. Murray emphasized the food served was all-natural and hormone-free.
No doubt the food was a change compared to Eastern’s typical daily menu, both in quality and quantity.
“The food that they had wasn’t typically what you see at a buffet,” said Kuowicki, who ate lamb for the first time that evening. “I tried it and I thought it was actually pretty good.”
