Fed, short for food education, is IU’s newest food-related student organization. It was officially recognized by the school in the fall, and since then has been planning amazing events on campus, ranging from cooking demos to talks about food sustainability.
I sat down and talked to Luc LaGasse and Enrique Hernandez, two of the club's founders, to get the rundown on the club.
How It Started
Fed started as a documentary for a class project. LaGasse planned on making a documentary about food in Bloomington, and he reached out to Enrique for help with it. They decided to shift gears a bit—instead of a documentary, they started a club because they felt it'd have a greater impact on students.
From then on, everything fell into place. After becoming an official organization on campus, they were able to get a spot in IU's Food Project House, and they've planned several events throughout this semester.
What They're Doing
Fed's goal is to change how college students think about food. LaGasse realized there was an imbalance between the lack of food knowledge IU students have and the thriving food community Bloomington offers. Fed is bridging the gap by organizing events on campus to teach students about different aspects of food.
For one event, they paired with Spoon IU to host a Mediterranean cooking demo with Chef Doug Petersen of Topo's 403. Students learned how to make Mediterranean dishes like fresh pasta, chicken piccata, melitzanosalata and shrimp scampi. The best part? They got to eat the food they helped make.
They recently coordinated an event for IU Food Week in collaboration with the IU Food Institute. Each day of the week, there was a food-related event. Fed hosted a panel discussion about food sustainability in Bloomington at Nick's English Hut.
How to Get Involved
You can like Fed's Facebook page for more info about their events, or you can check out the IU Food Institute's website. LaGasse and Hernandez stress that you don't have to get involved with Fed to learn about food—the important part is to get out there and figure out what you can do to learn about food on campus.