PILLAI: Food for thought during quarantine
Column: Unboxed
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has changed our perception of food and our own eating habits. During my brief months on campus as a first-year, I often scurried through the Livingston Dining Hall at the dinner rush. Whether I was assembling a colorful salad or waiting in line for pasta or veggie burgers, I paid little attention to my meal, choosing instead to worry about some upcoming midterm or assignment as I was preparing to eat.
I circled the whole building twice to find an empty seat, and when I did, I sometimes tipped over the chair I was trying to squeeze into or elbowed the person next to me. Like many students, I treated my food and the experience of communal eating as mundane markers of daily life.
Memories of crowded eating still haunt me. In the summers, I visited Smorgasburg, the largest outdoor food market in the U.S., in Brooklyn’s East River State Park. Thousands used to flock to Brooklyn to sample the latest food trends from vendors set up in canopy tents.
When I visited, the sun was blistering in the afternoon and made the long lines somewhat uncomfortable. Yet, no one seemed to mind the heat or the occasional bouts of barbecue smoke that blew over the crowd. Now, it seems almost unfathomable that people shouted, laughed and ate while jammed next to one another in a small space.
Today, dining in close quarters is restricted, and everyone’s food routine looks different. Some prefer to cook, while others buy takeout. Some have opted into meal kit delivery services, while others have turned snacking into their new secret weapon.
In the absence of dining experiences such as Smorgasburg, I have turned to the kitchen. My unrelenting sweet tooth caused me to take on a new challenge: Vegan baking. To be clear, my diet does not align with any vegan principles whatsoever.
On most days, you can find me munching on cheese crackers and using cereal as an excuse to drink lakes of milk. But, after reading through a few books by vegan chef and restaurateur Chloe Coscarelli, I have been converted to a part-time vegan cook.
I once swore that I would never become vegan due to my devotion to eggs, milk and butter in the art of baking. I was accustomed to making items including pumpkin cheesecakes and mac and cheese muffins, which all require dairy products to lend richness to their recipes.
My first venture into vegan baking was a banana cake made with almond flour and covered in a chocolate ganache that used coconut oil rather than heavy cream. The lightly sweet, nutty cake exceeded my expectations in terms of taste, but I would have preferred for it to be less dense. After baking that first cake, I began to search for recipes that naturally avoided animal products rather than using substitutes, such as vegan margarine or flax eggs.
With the help of Coscarelli and others, I have pulled vegan apple crumb cake, chocolate chip cookies and Hostess-style cupcakes out of my oven. To my surprise, these recipes were far easier to make than any other baked good requiring eggs or cream whipped to a frothy peak.
Thinking about the ingredients that went into each recipe made me more aware of the foods I consume and the unnecessarily unhealthy options that line grocery store shelves.
Prompting us to consider our dietary choices, the pandemic is also proving how much food matters and how food can be a political issue. For instance, the decision to travel this past Thanksgiving became a partisan one.
For the first time, families had to consider the fact that sharing some turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes could mean sharing a deadly virus with their loved ones.
This year’s catastrophes have exacerbated food insecurity. More than 35 million people in the U.S. were food insecure in 2019, but that projection has increased to more than 50 million people in 2020. Before the pandemic, Black and Latinx individuals were 2.4 and 2 times as likely to live in food-insecure households as white individuals, according to Feeding America.
Of the 28 counties in the U.S. with majority-Indigenous populations, 18 counties possess high food insecurity rates in 2020, according to Feeding America. Communities of color are not only disproportionately suffering from COVID-19’s health effects, but they also lack access to sufficient and nutritious food.
José Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen, proposed instituting a Secretary of Food and Agriculture in an op-ed with The New York Times. Andrés pointed out that the government could work to provide free school lunches, federal assistance to restaurants, subsidies to farmers selling healthier options and better working conditions for essential workers in agriculture and food packing plants.
The incoming administration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. should heed Andrés’s advice and make it its mission to end food insecurity. Whether we are college students, senior citizens, essential workers or children, food is a necessary source of strength for all of us that can no longer be overlooked.
With reliable infrastructure and resources, we can finally offer sustenance, unity and joy in the form of food.
Preanka Pillai is a Rutgers Business School sophomore majoring in marketing and business analytics and information technology. Her column, "Unboxed," runs on alternate Fridays.
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