Author Archives: Anna Bahn

Port Richmond Partnership

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Cheryl wrote a similar blogpost and I thought it was an amazing idea, so I thought I’d respond and include my own thoughts. We had the same mentee.

Like Cheryl, I was under the impression they would assign us mentees, and assign them mentors. When we first met them, it was a big free-for-all, like Cheryl said. I think this could have been helped if we were paired up and given a whole class period to get to know each other, with a game or a questionnaire of some sort.
And the mentees had no idea what was going on when we first got there. I think the whole program could have been much better if they were volunteers who were actually looking to have help. Or maybe beforehand, we could have been paired based on our interests. The high schoolers were uninterested in us, like Cheryl said, and this was mainly because they are culinary arts students and we are not. We tried discussing our classes with them, like we were supposed to do, and they had little interest. And they were busy cooking, which I remarked to many people like Brandon Hart who all suggested we invite our mentees to Wagner. My mentee did not have a cell phone, just a number that no one ever answered we were never given their email addresses. I understand many have difficult home lives, but communication could have been improved between the high school and Wagner.
My last thought is the kitchen tour the high school students attended. I think it was strange how the staff and cooks that gave the tour acted as though the students there may only work in a kitchen like Wagner’s, they wouldn’t work in a prestigious restaurant or bakery. I could tell my mentee was insulted by this, and maybe her fellow classmates were, too, but no one was going to say it.

I thought it was nice meeting my mentee, she was very nice even if she didn’t know what to do when Cheryl and I came for our visits. I’m glad I met her, I just wish the program could have helped me do more for her.

Paris Discussion

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(I originally wrote this as a comment in response to a few other’s posts about this discussion, but I could not post it.)

The conversation from our history class about the Paris attacks also shook me. But in a different way. I’ve always been a little scared that something was going to happen again, but I always hoped it wouldn’t happen to me. The other night I was in a movie theater seeing the new Hunger Games movie, and I got scared whenever I saw movement around me. Ever since the movie theater shootings in the past few years I’ve been a little afraid of a shooter, and ever since I can remember I’ve been afraid of violence due to the 9/11 attacks and the many mass killings in America. I thought that this conversation was kind of enlightening because we pointed out to Dr. Smith that we’re almost a little conditioned to this violence. She had no idea, and was a little horrified to find out, that we grew up having “intruder drills.” Some kids said they started them in middle school, but I remember them as far back as kindergarten. We would lock the door, turn off the lights, pull down the shades, and huddle in the corner away from the door and windows, or at least that’s how my school district did this. My school had a lot of exchange students go through, my family housed three from Germany, and I know for a fact none of them have experienced this. Other countries don’t do this. And our generation thinks it’s normal.

Superfoods!

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Sometimes I’m torn between the perspective that people should be able to think for themselves and the idea that the government should restrict and regulate the food industry and its packaging and marketing. But the food and drug industry often goes too far to sell foods, by making ridiculous claims about products. Superfood is a marketing term that has no real definition for regulation in America, so it’s often used willy nilly to sell things.

I think I was quite lucky in high school and college to learn about false marketing, “unhealthy” foods, and unethical production practices. In 11th grade we watched Food Inc in our health class, which is mainly about the ethics of the food industry, and so far I feel like I learned a lot about the psychology of eating. I’ve annoyed my parents with a lot of know-it-all facts. I also know a lot about the drug industry because my mom works in the compliance and ethics department of a big pharmaceutical company. But I’m one of a very small population who is lucky to be educated on all of this.

Most of the time I think America should do the same things the United Kingdom does (quite often, actually.) One thing I am surprised at is I was the only one to mention the fact that the UK has banned the use of the word “superfood” in marketing, unless the outrageous claims made are actually supported by evidence. The new legislation also requires foods that claim to be low in one product, such as salt, must have labels if they are high in sugar or fat, which is often the case with minimizing one flavor and adding another.

As one of the lucky ones, I know it’s hard to educate the whole populous of America. It’s hard to get my mom and dad to stop buying from companies like Tyson or to try and buy more products from a local farmer’s market or to get them to understand superfoods are normally just ridiculous claims. Unless the United States is going to go on a big campaign to give the world my high school health class or our psychology of food class, maybe regulation is a good thing.

Eating at Home vs. Eating at College

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Cheryl wrote a similar post, and I would comment in response but I think I have something different to say. At school, I eat surprisingly healthy. We already discussed how the freshman 15 is a myth, although I got a lecture from my cousin’s wife at Thanksgiving how it isn’t a myth and it’s because teenagers drink too much alcohol. I feel like I eat a lot more vegetables and fruit at school, and not only because of the cafeteria effect and the variety.

I am more in charge of my own diet in the cafeteria and in my dorm room. I have a lot of “junk” in my room, with snacks like TastyKakes (it’s a Pennsylvania thing), Halloween candy, and other foods high in sugar. But I also keep things like celery, carrots, clementines, and fruit cups in my fridge. I often go for the Wheat Thins when I want a snack, but I tend to snack on clementines when I want something sweet.

At home, I want my “home” food. I eat a lot of things I can’t get at school, or things that the school cafeteria doesn’t make well. The cafeteria cannot for the life of them make good pasta (my mom says it’s hard to make pasta in a buffet setting, but that’s just an excuse to me), and that’s my favorite food, so I eat a lot of pasta at home. I have scrapple, another Pennsylvania treat that most people don’t really like. It’s a “meat,” but I’m not really sure what’s in it.

I’m home during a lot of holidays and important events, such as this past week I was home for my brother’s birthday and Thanksgiving. We went out to eat quite a few times while I was home; I went out to eat with my mom a few times just to spend time together, and I went out to eat with my best friend, Christy, to catch up. In total, I went out to eat about four times while I was home, not counting spending money on snacks when out shopping and at the movies. My family hosted Thanksgiving this year – my mom has a huge family and we have the biggest house – and we made a lot of food and then it went into our fridge and onto our counter. All we’ve been eating since Thursday is pie and Turkey and mashed potatoes. And over winter break we’ll be hosting Christmas and going to multiple parties, eating even more holiday food and leftovers.

I love being home with my dogs and my mom and my friends, but I wish I could be a little bit more in control of the fruits and veggies in my house. I think the freshman 15 would only be a problem during winter break!

Movie Theater Eats

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When I’m home, I try and go to the movie theater to catch up on the films I miss while I’m so busy at college. I’d also rather go see Broadway shows instead of movies since I’m LIVING in New York City, but that’s just me. And honestly, Broadway shows have begun to be a tad bit cheaper than movies. Granted, I’m really good at getting cheap tickets, but still. The most expensive movie ticket is an upwards of $20 for the IMAX and 3D movies, the cheapest being probably $10. But with a film, I almost always end up wanting that traditional treat at the movies: food.

During my break at home, I saw the new Hunger Games movie with a big group of my friends at home. We had a tradition of going to the midnight showing and I loved the books, so I was excited to see them all and see the last installment. The first thing we all did when we got to the movie theatre was get in line to buy food. I split a popcorn with my friend, Juliette, and we all kind of paired off and split food. We spent all of this money on food when we know that small popcorn was not worth $7.50, and the small drink was not worth $3.50. And when the cashier asked me whether or not I wanted to get a larger drink for 50 cents, I remembered what we learned in psychology about super sizing and how it originated in a movie theater.

Once again, I went to the movie theaters while I was at home. My parents took my brother and I to see Spectre; we’re huge James Bond fans. We went a few days after hosting Thanksgiving, so we had just gorged on Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner (Turkey Supreme!) But my brother still proposed we get popcorn, so my mom and I went and got seats while he and my dad got food. They soon came back with four drinks, a bucket of popcorn, and pretzels with cheese for my mom and I. My mom kept saying she was too full, but ate the pretzels anyway.

Movie theaters run on food cues and social conventions. So even though I didn’t have all of my drink or my popcorn the first time and neither did any of my friends, they still considered getting the larger size for 50 cents. And my mom and dad kept saying they weren’t hungry, but my dad was the one who bought all of the food and they still ate it. It’s an expensive trip to make, so I think I’ll stick to the Broadway shows while at school.

Thanksgiving – Glazed Over

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You guys are going to think I’m obsessed with Charlie Brown, since my last holiday post was about It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Well last night my mom and I watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and it got me thinking. Yeah I don’t know why I’m having so many philosophical thoughts about Charlie Brown.

A good portion of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is the whole gang talking about the first Thanksgiving. I started thinking about how when I was younger I was told the whole history of Thanksgiving every year – or so I thought. We were all told about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans and how they “helped” each other and then they had a big feast  to give thanks to the good harvest they had that year. When I got to high school, they finally pulled the veil and told us the real history, about how many of the Native Americans were to die later from the Columbian Exchange, the Pilgrims stole their food, and made many of the Native Americans slaves.

Now Thanksgiving is a myth told again and again to children. They often have Thanksgiving pageants where the children tell the “story of Thanksgiving” in song and dance. There are decorations with happy Pilgrims and Native Americans, and of course happy looking Turkey often wearing Pilgrim hats.

The idea of Thanksgiving is a nice thought. It’s one of the most secular holidays, and it’s celebrated by all kinds of people in America. Maybe the idea of Thanksgiving could be rerouted to the celebration of friends and family and actually giving thanks to all the good in life, instead of the history of the first Thanksgiving.

Boxed.com

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Despite being on the subway every other day in Manhattan, I still haven’t developed that “New Yorker look,” as I like to call it. They’re the people on the subway, looking down at their feet or their phones if on a line that has cell service, not making eye contact with anyone around them. I have a tendency to look around a lot and survey my surroundings, which I believe to be a positive thing, and I constantly read those ads sitting above people’s heads. The other day an ad caught my eye for boxed.com.

Boxed.com is like Costco but online, selling wholesale products for surprisingly similar if not identical prices as Costco’s. They actually buy their products from Costco and are a subsidy of Costco. It was started 2 years ago, and it’s been doing relatively well.

One thing I immediately noticed browsing boxed.com’s website is the absence of fruits and vegetables. There are multiple “aisles” to “walk down” and one thing among these categories is “fruit and nuts,” but it is only filled with fruit cups and dried fruits. This could be a fairly obvious solution to food deserts, since wholesale is the cheapest way to buy food. They also offer cleaning, health, beauty, pet, and office supplies, and a lot more of it, mimicking Amazon’s supermarket.

Boxed.com ships anywhere in the US and costs $5.99-$9.99, depending on the size of your order and where you ship it. And your first order ships free. In part of New York, New Jersey, Boston, and Atlanta Boxed Express is offered, where the user chooses a time and a “shopper” will go to the local Costco for you and bring them. Even better, it’s free for orders over $75, and personally my family never goes to Costco without spending at least $150. Compared to the prices of the Costco membership, these shipping costs are pretty minuscule if you only buy groceries once a month. There’s even a mobile app and SO many Retail Me Not coupons, and reward points that are redeemed for coupons. Although, EBT and food stamps are not offered “at this time,” but that probably means they’re looking into it.

Boxed.com could be a relatively simple solution to food deserts, especially since Boxed Express could expand into more areas soon. Boxed.com would probably do best by offering a membership for free shipping, and we can hope they can accept food stamps soon.

Halloween Candy

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I’ve always gone Trick-Or-Treating. This isn’t my first year not going completely (I dressed up but didn’t go once when I was really sick. Another time we had a huge storm and Halloween was delayed in my town, so I went later.), but it still feels weird.

So I figured this would be an appropriate time to discuss Halloween candy. I was watching It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown last night (because what else do college students do on Fridays?) when I noticed something about the way kids went trick-or-treating in 1966. Besides giving out rocks (poor Charlie Brown) they received cookies, apples, popcorn balls, and cakes with the typical candy treats. Now-a-days, giving out baked goods and non-prepackaged foods is unheard of, even receiving a Rice Krispy Treat or package of Oreos is a little weird. It’s considered unsafe to eat things made by other people for Halloween. Parents are even advised to check every single package for small holes that could indicate something injected into the candy, and for knives and pieces of glass thrown into bags. And some areas hold “trunk-a-treating,” where families decorate their cars in parking lots and hand out candy. Sometimes it’s only kids from a certain neighborhood or the schools set it up. I asked my mom about this change, and she thinks parents are definitely a lot more paranoid about it than they were when It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was released (she was born a few years before.) While she said she definitely went through my candy and threw out anything that looked suspicious, her trick-or-treating experience was more like the movie.

Halloween wasn’t always about the candy. According to an article in the Smithsonian magazine, trick-or-treating wasn’t popular until the 1950s and 60s. The documentary we watched in psychology said snacking became popular around this time. The food industry started advertising for Halloween, somehow turning it into a holiday all about treats in just a few decades. With even more heavy advertising, everything handed out became candy. No homemade goods, toys, or small amounts of money. More candy means more sugar.

This year, it is projected Americans will spend $6.9 billion for this Halloween. 4 billion of that is spent on candy, and 4% of all candy consumed in one year is consumed on Halloween. Kids LOVE that Halloween candy, as demonstrated in Jimmy Kimmel’s Youtube challenge, ‘I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy‘ (but who can blame them, trick-or-treating in my neighborhood was A LOT of walking.) There are now other options for parents who don’t want to give their kids this candy. Dentists have candy buy-backs and some organizations have donations, such as Operation Gratitude. I know I participated in Trick-Or-Treat for Unicef in elementary school, in which I carried around a box and asked for quarters, but I still got candy. Parents could have their children opt out of the candy and only ask for donations, but that’s not very likely. While watching on of my favorite TV shows, Shark Tank, the other day, I learned parents are making up Tooth Fairy like characters for Halloween. Switch Witch is a story book and stuffed animal that’s like Elf on the Shelf or Mensch on the Bench and hangs out around the house for a month. Kids still get the fun of trick-or-treating, but all of their candy is given to the Switch Witch, who brings them a present the next morning. I personally think it’s a genius idea, but the sharks didn’t agree.

In America, Halloween is the second most profitable holiday, second only to Christmas. Halloween spending has definitely gotten higher since the 1960s, and the way we celebrate has changed drastically, especially for kids. I guess we’re not as willing to wait for the Great Pumpkin anymore.

Food Cues in Manhattan

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Cheryl and I ventured out into the city on Saturday, which we were planning on doing all week. On the ferry ride over, we decided to just wander through Central Park, and later enter a Broadway lottery for Matilda the musical, two things Cheryl hadn’t done yet. We walked around Central Park for about three hours, going the furthest up and back we could in that time.

We lost the lottery. That was sad, of course, and Cheryl still hasn’t seen a Broadway show (this weekend, hopefully.) But we decided to do cross another thing off of our NYC bucket list: Junior’s. People talk about Junior’s constantly, it’s the typical tourist spot. And it’s right across from the Shubert Theatre, so the second we saw it, we both said we were hungry.

Junior’s is famous for its hot chocolate and cheesecake, so can you guess what we ordered for dessert? Hot chocolate and cheesecake.

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Look at all that whipped cream.

Are tourists’ hunger in New York City affected by how famous a restaurant is? There are probably thousands of restaurants in the city, but Junior’s is popular, Cheryl and I were hungry, and it was cold. In the end, it was an AMAZING choice, but it made me wonder why we made that choice. Were we actually hungry, or did we just want to live out the tourist dream?

We Are All Going to Die (and Take the Earth Along With Us)

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This past week I stumbled up on an article on the New York Times written by Jim Windolf, titled ‘Why Everything Is Bad for You.’ The author discusses how freaked out America (and even the whole world) is in regards to food. It feels like everyday there’s a new article about the danger of a specific food, especially ones that are popular or essential to our diets. The author points out the ridiculousness of how much emphasis Americans put on the negative things in their diets. But in my opinion, maybe we should.

Windolf talks about how he just wants to eat his bologna, American cheese, Wonder Bread, and margarine, but those darn American writers keep complaining about how much bad stuff is in our food, especially processed food. And they are right; our food is terrible for us. It’s not just a psychological problem; those darn American writers are definitely correct. We have a right to complain; Windolf insinuates that it is our problem and we are worrying too much, but something is definitely wrong with our food.

There are so many articles about what’s wrong with our food, which Windolf links, but nothing is happening to fix our food. It’s very expensive to eat food that isn’t all processed, sugary, fatty foods. Windolf also brings up the environmental impact of our foods (e.g. a single almond might use over a gallon of water to produce), which makes the selection available in our grocery stores even smaller. Last year I watched a documentary called Food Inc, which exposed the many problems of the food industry, particularly its treatment of animals. I never buy from Purdue or Tyson now. It’s almost impossible to eat food that is good for not only a human but the earth, too.

The question I ask Windolf and the food companies that run the American government is this: why do you want ME to stop complaining? This isn’t a psychological problem (for the most part), this is a problem with how America produces our food. There are ups and downs of the government controlling our economy and the food industry, but big business is currently controlling our government. One of the facts of Food Inc stood out to me: In the 1970s, the top five beef packers controlled about 25% of the market. Now, the top four control more than 80%.

The facts are there, but people like Windolf and the food industry are just acting like we’re complaining. We have a right to complain, but why aren’t they doing anything?