On Penn’s campus there is a desire to be healthy: it can be impossible to find an open treadmill at Pottruck, people love their kale and it isn’t uncommon to hear about people going to $30 workout classes three days a week. Many of these healthy lifestyle choices are expensive, however (Ed. note: $30 for a workout class is insane...), especially for college students. A group of MGMT 104 students want to begin to change that. “A common theme is that we feel that students struggle with food on campus because people want to be healthy and people want to have affordable meals,” says Jaime Letourneau (W’19), a member of the group. “We decided that we would start an initiative with an event that is a cooking class.”
The truth is that not all Penn students know how to shop and cook for themselves. “Buying groceries and preparing for a week is relatively simple and not enough students know how easy it would be to do that,” says Peter Ojo (W’19). The goal of their initiative is to show students that they do not have to shell out a lot of money or spend a lot of time in order to lead a healthy lifestyle. “The healthy options are Sweetgreen and things like that which are relatively expensive,” adds Peter. The group wants to make healthy eating more accessible to everyone on Penn’s campus, not just people willing to spend a lot of money.
On April 6th, between 12 pm and 2:30 pm, the group, along with Penn Appetite and Wharton Wellness, will be hosting a cooking workshop at the Women’s Center, called Meals for Deals. While the group will end their involvement in the initiative with the end of their course, the event will be recurring and the initiative will be continued by the partnering clubs. The purpose of the class is to teach students how to make quick and easy meals, that are affordable and cheap. All of the meals are incredibly easy to make, that you can even make in your high rise kitchen. There are two one–hour sessions, one at 12 pm and another at 1:30 pm, each of which will feature a meal that takes 30 minutes or less. This week on the menu is veggie stir fry, which can be prepared in under 30 minutes and is easy enough for people who think that they can’t cook. The class is BYOG (bring your own groceries) and is free for students.
Check out their Facebook Page for their recipes and sign up here.
