RIT Local Food Potluck!

Today our design thinking class took part of a local food Potluck. Each team prepared two dishes that would be created using local ingredients allowing our group to gain the experience of buying local produce and preparing it to be presented to the other members of the potluck. Our group created two dishes the first was a organic salad made with NY state spinach, tomatoes, peppers, and carrots. The second dish was mash Collie flower with potatoes.

We started the morning by meeting with Derek from Freshwise at the Rochester Public Market. I really liked our group’s plan to get ingredients from the public market it was also my first time to the Rochester Public Market and I really had no idea what to expect. We arrived at the market in search for locally grown food as well as to just walk around and see how various vendors sell their products.

After we did some shopping we took our ingredients and made our dishes. The Freshwise team prepared a carrot and beat salad that was really good. When we got to the potluck there was an assortment of various foods that showcased locally grown NY products, created by people who prided eating locally. Along with the amazing food we had a networking table where people could meet and connect with one another as well as a section where we were able to showcase our brainstorming ideas with our clients. I liked the idea of having our projects displayed during the potluck because it allows those not associated with the group to see just what we are trying to do and possibly connect with any of our three clients. I wish however that there was some sort of formal presentation that allowed the groups to present there projects to general audience. I wonder if we were to do such a presentation might the groups gotten feedback from not only the other clients attending the potluck but feedback and ideas from the audience that could be used towards each groups project.

There were alot of great dishes. Two dishes that I found to be pretty cool were the apple salad made by RIT catering and the assortment of vegetables provided from the RIT community garden. It was pretty interesting to see that two of the dishes at the potluck were dishes created through the institute to promote locally grown foods. I also found it interesting to learn that RIT actually sources a good amount of there food and produce from local farms in NY. Overall I had a blast at the local food potluck. Preparing my dish really showed me just how to look for product and wonder "is that locally grown? is that organic?"This experience has also shown me just how cool the public market is and I will definitely be making more trips to the market in the future.