World Food Week 2016
World Food Week was a sustainABLE NUS initiative to commemorate World Food Day on 16 October 2016, which in turn commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. World Food Week aimed to educate and raise awareness on sustainability issues related to food, as well as the health and cultural significance of food.
Various groups in NUS stepped forward to organise different kinds of activities for the NUS community (event listings can be found here). Here are some of the highlights of the week.
03 October – Riding on the Third Wave of Coffee
03 October – Healthy Makan! Fair
The Coffee Interest Group from the College of Alice and Peter Tan had a pop up café at UTown plaza that offered coffee brewing workshops, as well as free coffee to anyone who brought their own mugs. They also shared how coffee can be grown in a sustainable way that reduces deforestation and herbicide use.
Students from the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering organised a food fair at UTown plaza featuring local vendors selling healthy food products, which included healthy snacks, gourmet nut butters and cold-pressed juices.
03 to 07 October – Cosy Green Nook @ Central Library
NUS Libraries set up a cosy corner displaying books on social, security, health and sustainability issues related to food. There was also a space where people could write down their pledges to stop wasting food.
05 and 07 October – Documentary Screening: Hungry for Change, Your health is in your hands
NUS Libraries also organised two film screening sessions at the Central Library. The documentary shown was “Hungry for Change: Your health is in your hands”, which exposes the diet industry’s deceptive strategies designed to keep people coming back for more. Each audience member was given a bag of fruits to promote healthy eating.
05 October – The Legacy of Khana Khazana: Mother to Child
Decked out in traditional Indian clothes, the Kent Vale Ladies Group set up a booth in UTown serving traditional Indian cuisine. In addition to food tasting, the booth also displayed various kitchenware and spices found in the Indian kitchen. Displayed alongside the kitchenware were stories about how they were passed down and used through the generations.
07 October – Japanese Tea Ceremony & Matcha Café
The NUS Sado Club had a pop up café at AS8 to introduce the art of the Japanese tea ceremony and share how tea can be grown sustainably. In addition to high grade matcha, tea sweets were also served. For those who did not take part in the tea ceremony, there was a café style sit-down area.
07 October – Picnic under the Skies
The International Relations Office (IRO) organised a pot luck for exchange students. It was supposed to be an outdoor picnic at UTown Green, but because of the rain, it was shifted to the covered roof top of the Education Resource Centre. Despite the rain, our exchange students showed up in force, some of them bringing food from their own countries to share. As the host, the IRO prepared Singaporean delicacies from our various ethnic groups, which included assorted Nyonya kueh, chicken curry in bread (a.k.a golden pillow), naan, roti John etc.
Other activities that happened during World Food Week were:
- Project Tumbler by NUS Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE). Project Tumbler is an ongoing discount scheme aiming to reward people for bringing their own mugs/tumblers for takeaways. During World Food Week, NUS staff and students could get two Project Tumbler stickers instead of the usual one sticker at fruit juice stalls.
- Introductory talk on vegetarianism for Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) students
- Meat free day – RVRC students and staff pledged to go meat free for one day during World Food Week
- Food collection drive for Fei Yue Community Services by RVRC