Things heated up this Saturday night as students competed in an event titled, "Magic Can't Create Food, Can You?" It was hosted by the Harry Potter Alliance, a club on campus that uses pop culture to promote activism and community service. The event was part of 'Deis Impact, and was aimed at raising awareness about hunger and nutrition in America.
The event, which took place in Hassenfeld Conference Center, was inspired by one of the cardinal rules of magic in the Harry Potter series, which dictates that magic cannot be used to create food.
The competition featured three four-person teams, which were: "Student Union," "MERC" and the "Gourmet Goblins." They competed in a nail-biting culinary challenge.
The teams' budgets represented those of low-income American households, as calculated by members of the Harry Potter Alliance board. Each team was allotted a budget of eight virtual dollars to spend at the local "market" (a table set up at the side of the room) which contained foods that were realistically priced.
Canned fruits and vegetables were purposefully juxtaposed on the table with their fresher, pricier substitutes, posing a conflict of interest for contestants choosing between nutrition and affordability. "You don't really notice those little things until it's a decision you have to make everyday," said Sneha Walia '15, secretary of the Student Union.
While the teams got cooking, a number of speakers informed the crowd on topics related to nutrition and food inequality in America. Among these were Sodexo Executive chef Dave Lafleur, Brandeis' registered dietician Kate Moran, Marilyn Lee-Tom of the Community Day Center of Waltham, Elena Huang '15 of the Natural Living Club and Jaclyn Kellner '16, who runs the Garden Club on campus.
The event was emceed by Carlton Shakes '14, who elicited many laughs from the crowd throughout the night with his interviews of the contestants and the judges. The judge panel featured Lafleur, Prof. Gordie Fellman (SOC), who has a long history of involvement with the Harry Potter Alliance, Moran and Dean of Students Jamele Adams.
The event seemed to be running smoothly for the contestants until about 20 minutes in, when a twist was introduced: if the teams were willing to sacrifice one member of their team, or "household," to "work an extra shift" for 10 minutes, they could earn another dollar to add to their budget.
Co-presidents of the Harry Potter Alliance Emily Greenwald '16 and Sarah Zoloth '14 elaborated on the key messages of the event. "It's not cheap to eat healthy," said Zoloth. "Hunger is a problem in a lot of places, but we live in a place where it shouldn't be a problem, financially speaking; we have enough money to feed everybody. So it's that juxtaposition and the food inequality that some of our speakers talked about that we wanted to highlight."
"Also location is really important when it comes to food," Greenwald said, "because when you think about where you are, certain foods are more expensive and you don't have as much access to them." Greenwald went on to explain the problem of food deserts, areas where there are no nutritious food options for the people who live there.
Student Union President Ricky Rosen '14 reflected on the experience, saying "It gives us a good perspective on the difficult balance between having a nutritious meal and a flavorful meal on a limited budget that a lot of people take for granted. "It's especially easy to forget on a college campus," said Zoloth, "where there's a dining hall on one end, a dining hall on the other end, every coffee branch that could exist...it's easy to not think about not having access to food."
The event, which the HPA had been working on since last year, was the first one of its kind directly planned and organized by Zoloth and Greenwald.
It was not, however, the first social justice initiative that the club had organized. Last year, founder of the national HPA organization and Brandeis alumnus Andrew Slack '02 led a workshop talking about connecting social media with social justice, which is HPA's main mission as an organization.
Both Zoloth and Greenwald were surprised by the outcome of the competition. Neither of them had expected the students to perform to the extent they did. "We were really expecting it to be like a comedy," said Greenwald. "We were really worried that they would make the exact same thing, because they had access to the same ingredients, and we were so surprised and impressed the whole time, not only by the variety of what they made, but so much of it was so good and so creative," Zoloth said.
The contestants struggled to create meals that were not only nutritionally balanced but also original; in the end, many of them pulled it off. Even the event coordinators could not resist sneaking bites of the dishes as the judges discussed their thoughts. The judges declared the Student Union team the winners, but it was made very clear they had thoroughly enjoyed all three of the teams' creations.
All of the leftover, untouched ingredients from the event were donated to the Waltham Community Day Center.