This past weekend was filled with events led by Students for Environmental Action (SEA) in honor of Earth Week. With a tree-planting event Friday, a campus cleanup Saturday, our semi-annual Local Food Banquet on Sunday, our Earth Day Fair on Sunday, and finally our first ever Brandeis Food Day, it was nearly impossible to have missed out on at least one of the fun events. Brandeis’s campus was covered with chalk, banners, free food, and farmers (!) all hoping to help encourage the movement of environmentalism and awareness of how much impact an individual can actually. Each event had a different flair, but all of them were cohesive in their overall message: One small change can make a difference, so join in with SEA to continue to promote a cleaner, healthier, and communal earth!
Starting out on Friday, a group of students planted a tree in honor of the start to Earth Week.
A similar event happened on Saturday, in which a group of us set out with trash bags and gloves and walked around campus in search of trash. Within seconds, we were picking up the thrown red solo cups, cigarette butts, and candy wrappers laying in and around bushes/trees/grass that is finally green and plush.
Simultaneously, we all were cooking away all Saturday to create a delicious, vegan meal for our Banquet on Sunday. We purchased items from Waltham Fields Community Farm and acquired as much local and organic food as is possible at this time of the year from multiple markets near Waltham. Instead of the formal version of Banquet we usually hold, we took it to a new level and made a beautiful hippie picnic with blankets throughout the SCC. We all sat around and enjoyed a wonderful meal together. We had two farmers from Newton Community Farm come speak to us, as well as our very own Jesse Stettin ’13 speak about his experience WWOOFing (stands for World wide opportunities on organic farms) in the South of France this previous winter break. To finish the meal we had red velvet vegan cupcakes that actually taste better than any other cupcakes I’ve had (and I’ve tried them all, promise).
Following the delicious meal, we then had a fair that had tables from many different environmental groups on campus. We even had some off-campus organizations for example GreenBean, the organization that implemented our new bottle-recycling machine in Usdan that gives you money back for your bottles) with giveaways as well as information as to what you can do here on campus.
Later that evening, in conjunction with the Student Union Senate, we had a film screening of Gasland with free Baan Thai giveaway to munch on while gaining some education.
To wrap up the wonderful weekend, we had our first Brandeis Food Day filled with local apple giveaways, herb-planting, a Farmers Market, and a screening of different fooducation (new word!) clips with local cheeses provided by the Cheese Club.