The past year of wildfires, floods, and toxic hazards are urgent warning signs to look closer at the intersection between human health and the health of our environment. The interdependence between people and the planet is the key to sustainability and that’s why the theme for Campus Sustainability Month is Building A Healthy Future.
Through events, collaborations, and service, learning & engagement opportunities, the Office of Sustainability, will engage in conversations about environmental wellness, ecological health, and how to build and sustain thriving and equitable communities.
Check the calendar below to see all of the incredible Campus Sustainability Month happenings at Temple this October. Click the links to sign up for events and join the movement toward a healthier, happier planet.
For more information on the Office of Sustainability and its programming and other strategic initiatives, please visit our website Temple University Office of Sustainability.
Love them or hate them, the founding fathers of the United States were wise to design a constitution with change and reinterpretation in mind. After all, in their time, concepts such as online privacy, modern firearms, and racial equality were nearly unfathomable—there was no way for them to predict the future, and so there was no way they could cover every single legal issue in an unchanging document. This intentional flexibility is what has allowed crucial social justice cases such as Brown v Board and Obergefell v Hobbes to be decided in favor of progress. It has also allowed sixteen adolescents from Montana to challenge the state and federal government on the biggest human rights issue of today: climate change.
Facts of the Case
In 2020, the young plaintiffs of Held v Montana joined with Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit law firm focused on the youths’ rights to a safe and stable climate. The suit was filed against the state of Montana, with a claim that the government’s lack of acknowledgement towards climate-related environmental degradation went against the state constitution, which guarantees residents “the right to a clean and healthful environment,” and stipulates that the state and individuals are responsible for maintaining and improving the environment “for present and future generations”.
Plaintiffs of Held v Montana
The plaintiffs have joined together from across the state, ranging from two to eighteen years old at the beginning of the trial. The youngest plaintiff is now a five-year-old boy with respiratory issues worsened by climate change-related wildfires, and the oldest is twenty-two-year-old Rikki Held, who claims that climate change has made supplying water to her family’s 7,000-acre ranch difficult. Other notable plaintiffs include the Busse brothers, who live just outside of Glacier National Park and Sariel Sandoval, who grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Despite being from diverse backgrounds, the plaintiffs have all felt the impact of climate change in Montana, whether it be from increased wildfire smoke, eroded hiking trails, water scarcity, or loss of traditional subsistence methods. As Lander Busse, the older of the two brothers, states: “A lot of this is just rooted in how many Montanans, including us, live life on an everyday basis, and how ingrained the wildlife and the land and the nature is in who we are.”
Montana and Fossil Fuel
More often than not, climate change is a difficult issue to seek justice for because of the variety of greenhouse gas emission sources. After all, it would be a tedious and drawn-out legal battle if the plaintiffs in this case intended to go after high energy factories or fossil fuel refineries in the state. However, the plaintiffs of Held v Montana are accusing a government of going against its own constitution, which makes the case concise.
Surface coal mine in Decker, Mt
The plaintiffs argue that Montana has “extensive support for fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas”, and that it has a duty to address climate change. The state responded to the claim by disputing the relationship between the fossil fuel industry and climate change and denying the pattern of increasingly severe weather systems in the state. It is important to note that just before the trial began, language was added to a piece of legislation from 2011 which explicitly prevented Montana’s EPA from evaluating greenhouse gas emission/climate impacts in and beyond Montana’s borders during project approval, known as the MEPA Limitation. If you aren’t allowed to report on climate change, it becomes easy to deny any potential causes.
Much like climate change is truly a bipartisan issue, this case is another example of the political power the fossil fuel industry has on politicians across the aisle. When the case was first filed, Montana’s democrat governor Steve Bullock called climate change “one of the defining challenges of our time”, and then defended the state against Held’s claims. Similar actions from West Virginia’s democrat senator, Joe Manchin, have happened in the past.
Montana’s Glacier National Park provides access to the great outdoors, but is not safe from rising temperatures
When a state protects the fossil fuel industry regardless of party, it is usually due to a historical reliance on the industry. Montana’s original constitution was drafted in 1889 and was heavily influenced by mining executives. According to Michelle Bryan, a law professor at the University of Montana, “Some historians called it a corporate colony: all the profits were going out of the state and residents weren’t seeing the benefits.” By that logic, the 1972 constitutional amendment which first defined citizens’ right to a safe environment was “Montana’s declaration of independence from corporate mining.” Even so, Montana is the fifth largest coal producing state and the 12th largest oil producing state in the country.
A Landmark Victory
After much deliberation, Held v Montana resulted in a victory for the young plaintiffs in early August. District Judge Kathy Seely determined that Montana’s emissions, coming from 5,000 gas wells, 4,000 oil wells, four refineries and six coal mines, proved to be a major factor in affecting climate change. The decision was easy: beyond the scientific evidence of fossil fuels contributing to climate change, the defendants also failed to provide any evidence proving the MEPA Limitation was in the best interest of the government. As a result, the MEPA Limitation is officially unconstitutional, as well as a different piece of Bill 557, which would allow Montana agencies to approve permits without an evaluation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Map of Current Green Amendment Legislation via National Caucus of Environmental Legislators
As one of the first victorious court cases to identify climate change as a constitutional issue, and as a powerful example of young people’s dedication to environmental justice and civic duty, Held v Montana is a momentous victory that will alter the way we talk about climate change forever. The victory in Montana sets an important legal precedent for similar cases that are already moving forward in Hawaii, Utah, and Virginia. New York and Pennsylvania also have state constitutions that recognize the right to a clean environment, and nine other states are currently proposing their own “green amendments”, including Kentucky, Texas, and Maine. Of the states mentioned, several (and Pennsylvania in particular) have a long, contentious history with the fossil fuel industry and are suffering the environmental consequences. As the news of victory spreads, so will the confidence of young environmentalists across the country, and with hope we will soon see a wave of progress towards the end of climate change.
Before I even knew there was a Temple University in Philadelphia, I was already dreaming about flying across the Pacific to attend Temple University Japan. Most students have the opportunity to learn Spanish, French, or Latin in American high schools, but when I entered the 9th grade I was surprised to learn that Japanese was one of the languages I could choose from. I studied Japanese for four years, and soon enough representatives from every Japanese university under the sun were soliciting our class for prospective students. Out of the myriad of choices, Temple certainly caught my attention the most. However, I realized that attending four years of university in Japan was probably a little too ambitious, so I wound up applying to Main Campus instead. I still planned to study abroad at TUJ for a semester, but I decided to save it for my Junior year. This past Spring, it finally happened. My dream of visiting Japan came true.
Tokyo Central Station
Due to my interests and my experience as the Office of Sustainability’s Transportation EcoLead and a Geography and Urban Studies student, I spent most of my time exploring the transportation system of Tokyo. Many days after school, I would walk out of Temple Japan’s building and make my way towards Sangenjaya Station on the Den-en-toshi metro line. From there, it only takes two stops to reach the bustling entertainment district of Shibuya, famous for its iconic scramble crossing. Besides entertainment, Shibuya also hosts one of the many mega-transfer stations in the Tokyo region, a bustling hub of commercial activity with eight train lines intersecting within it its massive structure of impressive skyscrapers and labyrinthian hallways all intertwined. Every day was a new adventure with all the options I had at the tap of a PASMO smartcard. That’s honestly what’s truly magical about Tokyo: the plethora of options and the convenience that they provide, and one of the places this truly manifests is in its transit system.
Like the rest of Tokyo, public transit usage at Temple University Japan is incredibly high. Practically every student gets to school by train, and those who don’t bike or walk. But why is public transit so popular amongst students? For one, the university is conveniently located near Sangenjaya Station on both the Setagaya and Den-en-toshi lines.
Narrow roads allow pedestrians to move (mostly) without the danger of cars
This connectivity allows practically anyone in Tokyo’s 23 wards to get to school in an hour or less. Secondly, driving to school is made nearly impossible by the lack of parking, the narrow roads leading to campus, and the difficulties innate to buying and owning a car in Tokyo, especially as a foreign student. Biking or walking to school is made easy by the narrow streets, which put bikes and pedestrians first and cars second. Additionally, a convenient system of bike shares and bike parking reduces the hassle of buying and safely parking a bike that we often see in American cities. Through a combination of frequent service, plentiful amenities, and excellent reliability, Tokyo’s rail network is certainly among the greatest in the world, and as such, the ridership numbers are extremely high: over 8.7 million people ride the subway network every day.
Romancecar (Shinkansen) in Gotokuji Station, Setagaya, Tokyo
Unlike in American cities, hardly anyone in the Tokyo area thinks twice about riding public transit to their destination. In my time there, I recall only once or twice running into any major hiccup such as a delay or gap in service. I could often just walk out of my apartment in the morning without any rush or stress to catch a specific train. All I needed to do was show up at my local station, and the system would take me where I needed to go in almost exactly the same amount of time every single day.
By contrast, here in Philadelphia I almost always map my route on the Transit App or Apple Maps or check the schedules so I know exactly when I have to leave to catch a specific train or bus. If I don’t catch that specific one, then it’s possible I’ll be late to my destination or miss a transfer somewhere along the way. However, even if I plan, no amount of planning can account for a train or bus just not arriving at the scheduled time or extremely infrequent service. SEPTA is volatile and often unpredictable or inconvenient. This is something that has to change if we are to get more people out of their cars and onto the more sustainable option: public transit.
Personal automobiles are quite popular in Philadelphia and the United States as a whole, and some say they’re completely unavoidable for most transportation needs, but in reality, Temple’s Main Campus actually has a lot of the same bones required to be just as good at getting students out of cars as the Tokyo campus.
Cecil B Moore Station is the Broad Street Line station most used by Temple Students
Three transit stations and multiple bus routes exist on or near campus, and the bike share and bike parking around campus are quite plentiful. The issue isn’t a lack of options, but that all of these features lack the same level of quality and reliability as those in Tokyo, preventing them from reaching their true potential. Additionally, the dominance of car infrastructure and a lack of decent funding for transit and bike infrastructure in Philadelphia and the United States as a whole leaves much to be desired for current and potential users. That’s not to mention the safety and cleanliness issues that disincentivize people from choosing transit, another symptom of government disinvestment and sparse funding. If we are to be serious about sustainable and equitable transportation in this country, we need to call upon our elected officials and government agencies alike to put the needed investment into our public transportation systems and bike networks. Not only could it save lives, but it also might save our planet in the process.
In 2019, 9% of plastic waste was recycled. The rest was incinerated, put in landfills, or disposed of using unregulated methods
Last month, Circular Philadelphia released a comprehensive policy guide on the current state of single-use plastic legislation in Philadelphia.
Despite the clear negative impacts of plastic production on the environment and our increasingly overwhelmed waste management systems, single-use plastic production has doubled in the last 60 years. This increase in production was exacerbated by the pandemic through online purchasing of delivery and takeout food orders increasing the demand for single-use packaging and food containers. The pandemic also hindered Philadelphia’s ability to manage plastic waste, as sanitation workers faced both an overwhelming amount of waste to clean up and a disproportionately high risk of exposure to COVID-19 due to their working conditions. This forced the city to prioritize trash management over recycling, leading to a drop from 22% in 2019 to a low 8% in 2022.
Despite the surge of single-use plastic during the pandemic, Philadelphia has recently taken several steps in the right direction when it comes to managing waste. The city increased on-time trash collections from 56% in 2021 to 96% in 2022 and added 150 new personnel for trash collection. Philadelphia also passed its ban of single-use plastic bags in 2022. A recent report found that after three months, reusable bag use doubled, and plastic bag use fell to almost zero.
Possible Solutions
Circular Philadelphia also reports that there are steps the city can take to reduce plastic waste even further in as short as a few years. The easiest solution to waste is legislation that bans or punishes single-use plastic, a measure that has already been used to eliminate plastic bag use in states such Hawai’i, Maine, and New York as well as municipalities such as Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and of course, Philadelphia.
Other methods include shifting responsibility for plastic consumption away from consumers, and instead pushing producers to reduce the amount of single-use plastic they use in their manufacturing and shipping process. In 2022, California passed a law that requires all packaging to be either recyclable or compostable by 2032, which is expected to help reduce plastic packaging by 25% and requires 65% of all single-use plastic packaging to be recycled within the following decade.
Another possible option is utilizing market-based solutions. Market based solutions often rely on a change in behavior from the consumer based on new trends or beliefs about what is socially favorable/acceptable. For example, it is favorable to like and protect animals, which made purchasing reusable straws popular when plastic straws were linked with harming sea turtles. But here are also several opportunities for change to come from the producers, such as manufacturing companies replacing traditional plastic bags with ones made from bioplastics, or stores offering reward points to customers who use reusable bags. A single cure-all solution for single-use plastic waste will be difficult to find, but combining several methods is a great start for achieving a waste-free future.
Circular Philadelphia’s Plan
Circular Philadelphia makes the argument that simple but thorough legislation informed by practices in other cities and regions is likely the best way to achieve fair, consistent, and measurable change when it comes to plastic waste in Philadelphia. Their recommended solution is a three-step legislation mechanism that eliminates certain single-use plastics from the take-out operations of restaurants’ and other prepared food establishments
Step 1. Ban certain single use plastics for take-out food
The most straightforward step to this process is banning items that are commonly littered after use, which includes polystyrene containers, plastic straws/cutlery, and plastic lined cups.
Step 2. Encourage a shift to reusable containers by imposing a fee on continued use of single-use plastics for take-out food
In order to encourage businesses to stop using any single-use items that remain unbanned, Philadelphia can incorporate an inspection for single-use plastics into the responsibilities of the Health Department and charge a fee for restaurants that are not compliant. The success of this part relies on its enforceability, which means it would mainly apply to places with food establishment licenses. It also requires flexible definitions for what is single-use, recyclable, compostable, reusable, etc. so that the city can update standards based on the available systems in its recycling department.
Step 3. Reinvestment of fee proceeds to clean up Philly and create a transition fund
Fees from noncompliant businesses would then be reinvested into waste management practices such as street sweeping, public trash cans, and assistance for businesses trying to switch to reusables.
Can It Be Done? Will it Work? Is It Worth It?
Short answer, Yes! Circular Philadelphia has already worked with the Health department to create a system of identifying restaurants that have reusable containers, meaning the framework is already in place to help more businesses comply with the proposed legislation.
If this legislation were to pass, Circular Philadelphia estimates that the benefits would include reducing the $48M spent on annual litter clean up, lowering food packaging costs from $0.29 per use for single-use to less than $0.01 per use by leveraging reusable containers, and addressing concerns such as microplastic consumption and the impacts of climate change.
Single-use Plastic and Campus Life
If these proposals were adopted, things could really change around campus. The multitude of student-serving food trucks, who are not owned or operated by Temple University, but under the jurisdiction of the city, would be on the hook for any plastic utensils and Styrofoam containers they distribute.
The majority of restaurants students eat “at” on campus don’t have indoor, or any, seating options and also lack the facilities to wash the number of dishes needed to meet rush hour demand. Reusable options available to other restaurants, such as metal utensils and sturdy dishes, generally aren’t viable for food trucks or “the Wall” vending pad by Mazur Hall. Students also tend to be on the move and use takeaway options in between classes, which would mean carrying around a dirty reusable plastic container. Unfortunately, this is considered a major inconvenience to a lot of students, and they’re not going to bring their own reusable containers if they still have the option for disposables.
All-encompassing waste policies like these — with real teeth and that extend beyond just the Aramark-owned and operated campus dining providers — could instigate broader behavioral and operational change across the city and on campus, especially with the massively popular food trucks. Until then, students can get us closer to a sustainable and waste free future by joining the fight for meaningful policy change, doing their best to use reusables themselves, and supporting those local businesses who are leading the way.
Reflections from Climate Café student facilitators Kai Yuen & Maggie Roseto
In the face of anthropogenic climate change, people are scared and struggling to find ways to deal with feelings of activist burnout, and impending doom. The term “eco-grief” or “climate-anxiety” was coined by the Climate Psychology Alliance to describe the feelings relating to the chronic fear surrounding environmental disaster.
“College students are experiencing all-time high rates of depression, anxiety and suicidality, according to the latest Healthy Minds survey. In the annual survey, which received responses from 96,000 U.S. students across 133 campuses during the 2021–22 academic year, 44 percent reported symptoms of depression, 37 percent said they experienced anxiety and 15 percent said they have seriously considered suicide—the highest rates in the survey’s 15-year history.”
As Environmental Studies Majors, we are constantly learning about the inescapability of climate issues. It is difficult to attend classes everyday learning about the sometimes seemingly unreachable solutions to slowing the rapid destruction of the planet. Even outside the classroom, overwhelming amount of media and bad news coverage of extreme weather effects, glacial melting and more natural lands being ceded to big oil overwhelms and it is difficult to not get bogged down and feel hopeless in the face of such an insurmountable crisis.
Addressing student wellness
The Climate Psychology Alliance has started a program called “climate-café” modeled from a death-café model. This semester, we have adopted the program for Temple University through the Office of Sustainability in order to provide EcoReps and the Temple Community a place to share their feelings about and personal responses to climate change.
hyper object – an object or event whose dimensions in space and time are massive in relation to a human life, eg a black hole, an oil spill, all plastic ever manufactured, capitalism, and especially climate change
There is a large lack of space for people, and especially students to reflect, digest, and work through their thoughts about climate change, since it really is a hyper object, whose dimensions in space and time are massive in relation to a human life and therefore extreme difficult to make sense of.
Climate Cafés at Temple
In spring of 2023, the Office of Sustainability began our own version of Climate Café, hosted and facilitated by EcoLeads who participated in training run by the North American Climate Psychology Alliance.
Focused specifically on addressing climate and environment-related anxiety for students and young people, Climate Cafés at Temple were implemented to provide a haven from the business and activity of the world.
To address this, we sought to create an interdisciplinary and holistic experience where peers learn from each other, sharing their diverse perspectives and approaches to interacting with climate and the environment, coming together to work through and process shared climate grief intellectually, cognitively and emotionally,
What happens during a Climate Café
The climate café is essentially a guided reflection through dialogue with like-minded peers. We try to create a comfortable, peaceful space filled with tea and refreshments, and natural objects. The climate café consists of four parts;
Principles and Ground Rules
Personal Statement
Climate Café,
Wrap=up and Processing
We begin by explaining the purpose of the climate café with some background and laying out some ground rules. Basic ground rules include being respectful and open to other people’s views, active listening, and leaving space for silence.
The personal statements take up a generous amount of time. Participants are encouraged to choose from a series of natural objects on the table and share why they chose the object, something about climate change, and something about themselves. Everyone is encouraged to share but there is no requirement, participants are told to share whatever they feel comfortable with.
After this round, the floor is open for discussion for anyone to bring up something that jumped out at them during the personal statements, or anything else they wish to talk about more, wish to share, or need to get off their chest. To conclude the café, we always provide a brief reflection and then ask participants to provide feedback on how to improve the program and what things would make it a more comfortable experience.
Evaluating Measuring Impact
There were many similarities in themes and topics discussed in our eight climate cafes this semester. We spent a lot of time discussing current events as it was a tumultuous semester. We discussed the Willow Project, train-derailments and extreme weather like flooding in South Florida and California. Many participants talked about desensitization and feeling numb to many of the ideas in the media. We also talked about individual and corporate responsibility and autonomy of action. We also shared the importance of looking at cute animal videos and other things that bring us joy.
I think the biggest takeaway we have found is that people are just looking for community.
Climate Café has provided a space for students to find fellowship and meet like-minded peers. It seems our peer-led climate café program has allowed people to realize that they are not alone in their feelings and can relate to other peers through common values.
Throughout the semester we have given each participant a pre and post evaluation form assessing anxiety levels overall, and about climate change. We hosted eight climate cafes and reached 60 participants. 51% of respondents felt that their anxiety in general lessened, while 45% felt it stayed the same and 6% felt it worsened. 56% of respondents felt that their climate change-related anxiety lessened, while 43% felt that it stayed the same and 11% felt that it worsened. Because the vast majority of participants felt that their anxiety remained the same or improved, we are hopeful that this program will positively impact students and other members of the Temple Community in semesters to come.
51% of student participant respondents felt that their anxiety in general lessened and 56% of student participant respondents felt that their climate change-related anxiety lessened.
Because the vast majority of participants felt that their anxiety remained the same or improved, we are hopeful that this program will positively impact students and other members of the Temple Community in semesters to come. Huge thank you to everyone who shared the space with us this semester. We look forward to growing the program throughout the fall semester and reaching even more students.
With a little planning you can donate and recycle most everything you might otherwise end up on the curb.
Every spring, thousands of students move out of apartments all over Philadelphia. Unfortunately, this process creates a lot of trash and can negatively impact our neighbors.
But here’s the good news; it doesn’t have to be that way! There are so many resources available here in Philadelphia. With just a little bit of planning, you can have a positive impact on the environment as well as your community.
Furniture Donation
To successfully donate your furniture, it will take a little bit of planning. Some of the resources below offer pick-up services and request that you book an appointment a minimum of a week in advance. Others require you to drop off your donations at the location.
Looking to maximize your impact, see if your neighbors have furniture to donate as well.
Re-Store
Re-store is Habitat for Humanity’s discount home improvement store. 100% of ReStore profits go to build and repair homes in Philadelphia.
This national non-profit provides education, job training and career services that help individuals faced with barriers to become competitively employed.
How to donate: Goodwill accepts furniture donations via direct drop off at their donation centers and stores. Click here for directions.
Cost:The cost of gas if you have your own vehicle.
Clothing Donation
After swapping or selling your clothes, donation is the next best thing. Most of the resources require you to bring your donations directly to the store. Luckily all are just a short distance and accessible via SEPTA.
This non-profit supports local charities by taking donations and selling them at their thrift store. Proceeds are distributed to local organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
How to donate:Drop off only. Click here for directions.
Protesting, marching, educating ourselves, watching Cowspiracy, changing our majors, choosing our career paths, all to protect the Earth we can see slipping away. We are in the midst of a climate crisis. Generation Z is trying to find solutions. We are taking on the challenge of solving this climate crisis, starting a movement, but at what cost?
Tackling Intersectional Issues
We are watching our gardens fail, earlier springs, unpredictable snowstorms, higher rates of avalanches, biodiversity loss, eradication of coral reefs, flooding, and asthma linked to air pollutants. We can see the natural world slipping away.
We are learning; that income inequality, gun violence, and redlining are all climate change issues. Intersectional issues must be tackled all at once, to bring about immediate change. We may feel empowered, and also overwhelmed.
How do we deal with this knowledge?
We can advocate, write, and make artistic representations of the environmental crises that need awareness. At some point feelings of burnout begin to come to many climate actors’ minds. We feel overwhelmed by the crippling anxiety of knowing that the climate is changing at unnatural rates. Despite our best efforts to reduce plastic consumption, eat a plant-based diet, and use public transportation, it never feels like enough.
There is a word for this feeling; the term eco-anxiety/ climate-anxiety was coined in 2005 by the Climate Psychology Alliance.
It is a word used to describe “a chronic fear of environmental doom” (Climate Psychology Alliance). These feelings of eco-anxiety are everywhere, they are suffocating and only increasing. It is important to acknowledge these feelings and find healthy ways to cope with them. In order to stop climate change, climate actors have to find a way to take care of themselves, so they can provide their best efforts and resources to create the change they know they need to see.
For me, I turn to the outdoors. I try to get lost in the natural world. I find myself seeking centering feelings from fresh wind, bird songs, and the rippling creek. Many people use meditations, long baths, hikes, or other methods to maintain their well-being.
Introducing: Climate Cafe
One place for climate actors to share their feelings is called Climate Cafe. Climate Cafe started as a way to support climate actors who are overwhelmed by the burden of climate grief, anxiety, and doom. In this space, participants are able to share thoughts and feelings free from shame. Our group at Temple shared intimate feelings of grief, anxiety, and fear of failure. The website’s mission statement reads “Meet with other people and takes turns expressing how climate and ecological breakdown makes you feel” (Climate Cafe). Check out the Climate Cafe website here for more info.
Through Climate Cafe, we found a space to connect with like-minded peers, with similar struggles, guilts, and griefs. We had an important moment for dialogue, to bring ourselves forward to talk about how we can each find our roles in being activists while acknowledging the things we will have to carry with us along the way. It is a space for people to remind themselves they are not alone, we can do this, together.
A lot of us feel we are carrying a great weight, wanting so badly to slow the rapid destruction of the planet we love and inhabit. Climate Cafe acts as a space for people to put the load down for a second, take care of themselves, and be well.
So far, only a fraction of us have gotten the privilege to attend Climate Cafe, stay tuned for more of these events coming in the upcoming semesters from Temple Sustainability!
Attacking Food Waste and Making Nutrition Accessible
Northern Philadelphia is considered a food desert. You may be wondering what a food desert is and how it contributes to the prevalent issue of food insecurity and scarcity in our neighborhoods.
Put simply, food deserts develop as grocery stores cluster around regions with high-paying customers, but are not built in regions of low income households–preventing access to food.
For some context, less than 1 percent of Center City residents live more than a half-mile away from a grocery store. Yet, in North Philly neighborhoods like Belfield or Spring Garden, that number is in the range of 40 to 50 percent, according to a Drexel study. This disparity in the distance makes it difficult for residents in food deserts to have access to healthy and affordable foods. This issue perpetuates an even greater magnitude of resulting problems as these individuals are now more likely to be obese, and suffer from diabetes, heart disease, or malnutrition.
Perhaps walking around the surrounding area of Temple you have come across corner stores that sell food. Yet, the goods available are limited boxes or canned and filled with artificial flavors and preservatives. In one case, I visited Mercado Food Market, located on 1859 N Van Pelt St, where the produce was limited to a few fuji apples, bananas, carrots, and a bag of expired romaine lettuce. These few items are not enough to sustain a well-balanced healthy diet, let alone feed an entire neighborhood of families.
The lack of fresh produce in corner stores is indicative of the larger problem of the scarcity of fresh fruits and vegetables available in the area.
Using Surplus to Solve Scarcity
At Sharing Excess, we are using surplus to solve scarcity. The Temple chapter works with restaurants, grocery stores, wholesalers, and farmers to redistribute food. According to Feeding America, Over 100 million meals are wasted in the United States annually and we aim to fix this problem of excess food.
The process begins with our headquarters in Philadelphia rescuing food from our partners, delivering the food to campus which then allows us to set up pop-up events across campus and northern Philly to distribute. We have been hosting pop-up events every other week for the past semester and hope to expand our general body.
If you are wondering how to help and interested in changing the broken food system, feel free to join our GroupMe, follow us on Instagram for updates @sharingexcess_temple and join our mailing list temple.sharingexcess@gmail.com
Hi Temple! My name is Riya Shah, I am a sophomore Health Professions Major and a Food Systems Sustainability EcoLead at the Department of Sustainability.
This semester I was able to host two Low-Carbon Eating workshops which allowed students to learn about carbon emissions associated with food production, transportation, and decomposition. We also made a plant-based dish at each workshop using local ingredients that exemplified budget friendly meals that were also healthy, convenient to make, and environmentally friendly.
Cooking Low Carbon
Often, it is difficult to put much thought into the sustainability of the food that we purchase and consume as busy college students, but these decisions have a large impact on our planet. Plant foods have a significantly lower carbon footprint (amount of carbon released into the atmosphere contributing to global warming) than animal foods. Foreign foods like tropical fruits that have to travel far distances contribute high amounts of emissions as compared to locally-grown produce, and require artificial chemical processes to preserve the foods which pose health side effects and environmental run-off.
Finding affordable, low carbon foods can be a challenge as well, especially depending on one’s location. One such organization that helps to alleviate this challenge and provide free, locally donated produce to the community at no cost is Sharing Excess. Temple University’s chapter has generously been hosting pop-ups almost every Friday to both Temple Students and local Philadelphia residents.
Over the course of two weeks, students volunteered during lunch from 11am – 2pm at the dish return station in Morgan Dining Hall. From buffalo cauliflower wings to unfinished pizza slices, students were able to get a glimpse at the process of diverting food waste from landfills.
Goal: Teach students about food waste and get metrics on how much food ends up in the dining hall’s bio digester. The two weeks inspired a multitude of learning opportunities and insights around waste literacy on Temple’s campus.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the Weigh the Waste event:
Even though the food waste bucket is at the dish return spot in the dining hall all the time, this event highlighted the lack of student familiarity with separating food waste.
Most of the students eating at the dining hall were unaware that there was a food waste bucket at the dish return table in Morgan.
A majority of the students however, were willing to listen to instructions on where to put their waste when directed by the dining hall staff and EcoReps.
Thanks to students’ willingness to learn, we saw individuals become more familiar with the process of separating their food waste.
EcoLead Mason Dofflemyer instructs student diner on how to properly dispose food waste
Food Waste and Future Opportunities
From this event, there is a lot of momentum around the scope of food waste. We are so excited to continue to partner with Aramark to address the issue of food waste on Temple’s campus. These two weeks of Weigh the Waste have identified how we can improve our food waste mitigations strategies as students and as an institution.
