By wpengine October 31, 2001
In a ceremony at the Kosher Dining Hall yesterday afternoon, Cornell Dining announced its partnership with FLIK International Corporation, a leading kosher food service management company, to expand the kosher food program on campus. The relationship was forged this summer. With the help of FLIK — named for founder Rudy Flik, husband of Julie Milligan Flik ’63 — Cornell Dining can offer kosher food in a wider variety of locations. The new kosher program also has a multicultural focus, providing meal options for students who follow Halal (Muslim), Hindu, Seventh Day Adventist, Roman Catholic and other dietary restrictions. “For some of us in this room, this is a dream come true, after many years,” said Prof. Joe Regenstein, food science, who was integral in the planning and implementation of the new kosher program. Kosher food was previously available only at the Kosher Dining Hall (KDH) and a few cash-op facilities. Cold kosher food is now available at more locations, such as the Ivy Room. The new Northstar dining hall in the Community Commons has joined the KDH in serving hot kosher food. In the United States, “no school but Cornell serves hot [kosher] food in two places,” said Nadeem Siddiqui, director of Cornell Dining. “We’re unique in that sense,” he said. All kosher food for Cornell is prepared at the KDH and is then distributed across campus. Rabbi Avi Scharf, the resident Rabbi at the Center for Jewish Living, sets the rules for the mashgiachim, or religious supervisors, who oversee the FLIK chefs. The mashgiachim ensure that food is prepared according to the standards of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (OU). The “It’s Kosher” line at Northstar serves 175 or more students each day during lunch and sometimes feeds 300 students at dinnertime, according to Richard Anderson, Northstar manager. It’s Kosher allows freshmen who keep kosher to eat close to home, alongside friends who might select different foods. “Part of the whole North Campus ideal is that they should be able to interact,” Regenstein said. “Seeing people of all kinds of racial and ethnic [backgrounds] going through the Kosher line and enjoying these Kosher foods” is part of the program’s aspiration. “For anybody who eats there, stereotypes are broken, and their concept of the world is broadened,” said Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, director of Hillel. The expanded kosher program has made life easier for many students. “My freshman and sophomore years I lived in Risley, so I had to walk all the way down here [to the KDH],” Abby Kornfeld ’02 said. “That’s a long walk,” she said, remembering in particular the slippery trip down Libe Slope in winter. “They’re just making it more and more accessible.” New kosher meal plan options allow students to eat at the KDH every day, or only on holidays. The KDH, previously run by students, is now operated by professionals from FLIK. “This whole dining program allows students to be students,” said John Sharret ’03, who served as treasurer for the Center for Jewish Living and KDH. Instead of worrying about tax receipts, he can focus on studying for prelims, he said. Although FLIK brought several staff members to work in the KDH kitchen, they retained some employees who worked at dining hall when it was student-run. Bill Beadle, FLIK food service director at the KDH, said he has worked for FLIK for 15 years but did not prepare Kosher food before he came to Cornell. “You just have to keep it separate,” Beadle said, referring to the rule that meat and dairy products cannot be served together. Beadle will take Regenstein’s class in January to learn more about kosher and Halal food production. “I’m 50, but it’s never too late to learn,” he said. In keeping with the new kosher program’s multicultural focus, the KDH will prepare the food for Muslim Ramadan services on Nov. 17 at Anabel Taylor Hall. Archived article by Heather Schroeder
By wpengine October 31, 2001
With the burden of ever-growing environmental concerns on its mind, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) has decided to expand its environmental initiatives by creating a new major and by pursuing more research. “Cornell has a lot of strength in environmental areas,” said Susan Henry, the Ronald P. Lynch dean of CALS. “This is important not only for the college but society as well.” Currently pending is a new interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences major. According to Prof. Susan Riha, earth and atmospheric sciences, the major is awaiting approval by the State Department of Education and the State University of New York. The status of the approval should be known within the next six to nine months, and if approved, the major will be implemented next year. The major is intended to prepare students for future study and employment in a variety of fields, including the natural sciences, public policy, natural resource management, environmental law, business and medicine. The curriculum for the cross-disciplinary major will include courses focusing on earth systems, biotic systems, economic systems and social systems. “Reports suggest that the University declare interdisciplinary approaches to the environment as a priority in our research and education,” Henry said. New CALS research efforts spotlight the impacts of invasive plant species on native agriculture and environment, environmental sustainability, conservation and ecological and evolutionary processes among others. Bernd Blossey, director of the Biological Control of Non-Indigenous Plant Species Program, is researching the impacts of invasive plants on native plants, amphibians and invertebrates. “In essence, we look at how native food webs change as a result of ongoing invasions,” Blossey said. Blossey works with graduate and undergraduate students on different aspects of the problem, such as field research, rearing insects, searching out salamanders and harvesting plants. “Within the program we work with lots of different animals,” said Blossey. “So we gain input from different disciplines yet hold a commonality on how invasive plants affect the ecosystem.” This research is sponsored by a three-year, half-million-dollar grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To promote community outreach, Blossey speaks at various federal parks, management agencies and the Department of Environmental Conservation. He also works with high school students across the country to introduce to them the idea of biological control. Biological control “is so easy to do,” Blossey said. “It can be done in your backyard.” The program is also working with the CALS communication department to create a website that will be used as an information exchange between the high schools and Cornell’s research facilities. Sandwiched among Cornell’s broad environmental interests lies recycling. Prof. Larry Walker, biology and environmental engineering, is conducting research on the development of renewable resources for energy and industrial chemicals. “Currently, less than ten percent of specialty chemicals, intermediate chemicals and commodities, and less than five percent of the U.S. energy demand, are plant-based,” Walker said. Research in this area is a collaborative effort between faculty and graduate students in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, the School of Engineering and the Department of Applied Engineering Physics. Other important areas included the recycling and management of metal resources. “Novel approaches must be developed to manage and recover metals that have been dispersed throughout the biosphere,” Walker said. “This research involves plant molecular biology and metabolic engineering to create plants that have increased rates of metal uptake.” Walker also belongs to the Sustainable Agriculturally-Based Bioindustries Cluster (SABBIC), a group of faculty members coordinated by Cornell who for the last 18 months have been discussing ways to use agriculturally-based resources to produce energy, industrial chemicals, novel natural products and waste recycling technology through the application of advanced engineering and industrial development concepts. “SABBIC activities are inherently multi-disciplinary, as only a broad-spectrum of biological and physical scientists and engineers can catalyze the development of sustainable bioindustries,” he said. The committee has recently received a $2.1 million grant from the United States Department of Agriculture Multidisciplinary Graduate Education and training Program (USDA MGET). The grant is for research and educating graduate students in bio-based industry. The new environmental research and major are part of Cornell’s incentives to develop a university-wide program in environmental awareness. “We need more people in my position to [continue] to work on this topic,” said Blossey. “But this program was created in CALS, and Cornell is a leader in [environmental research].” Archived article by Rachel Einschlag