Garden Grab Bags: A new, healthy option for you

Brown dining is expensive, and places with à la carte eating like Andrews and the Blue Room feel like a rip off. On top of that mark up, the healthy food offered is always more expensive, like a $4.35 fruit cup versus a $2.00 slice of pizza. However, a strangely affordable and healthy offering has shown up around campus this year, much to the confusion of students. The Blue Room, Ivy Room, and Andrews have begun to sell Garden Grab Bags for only $4.75, which is basically a meal in a bag. All vegetable-based, the bags offer all the ingredients needed to make the recipe of the week, and although they are billed as a single serving, I can say from experience that they comfortably feed at least 3 people, making it the most affordable deal on campus. Part of the mission of the grab bags is to help students engage with food and learn simple recipes, but if that seems like too much effort, rest assured that all you need is a fork and a bowl. All the ingredients come pre-measured and pre-cut, meaning literally all you have to do is throw it all into one container.The bags were created in response to a growing demand for healthier, fresh options, according to Emily Lynch, the Marketing and Communications Specialist for Brown Dining. The ingredients are sourced from Farm Fresh Rhode Island's Market Mobile, which provides produce from farms in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to businesses  and schools. From the meals I've gotten, about half of the ingredients are marked as local, although the "local" blueberries from this past week were marked as products of Peru (to be fair, they were delicious). According to Lynch, the bags are just one part of the larger effort to make food healthier on campus with new meals like Andrews grain bowls and capchup, a traditional Cape Verdean dish, in the Blue Room.For the past two weeks, a few friends and myself have been making the meals in a dorm kitchen with just plates and forks from Andrews, and one plastic bowl. They take about ten minutes to put together, and comfortably feed three people, usually with leftovers. The superfood salad this past week included enough kale for three servings plus four whole baking sheets of kale chips. It's unclear how so much fresh produce can be so cheap on Brown's campus, but I recommend taking advantage of the grab bags before they peter off for winter, since the meals are based on availability of produce. All of the bags are available at places where students can use a meal swipe or cash, making it accessible to people both on and off the meal plan. Although the other efforts Brown Dining has made to increase access to fresh, healthy food are limited, the grab bags promise to be one of the Universities best food ideas. For next week, the recipe is Beans, Peas, & Sprouts Salad, and Brown Dining graciously provided a photo of what it could look like. But don't feel bad if it ends up looking like my version, it'll still taste great! Currently, they are only available on Wednesdays and still are one of Brown's hidden gems, but Lynch says sales have been going up each week, so get there early.Images via Sarah Campbell Tucker, '19, and Brown University Dining