On the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food Restaurant hosted a table talk about Sustainable Sourcing for Fast Food with BEACN, a consulting group at UC Berkeley, Lee Bassian from Bassian Farms, Tom Franier and Mike Rose from Semifreddi’s Bakery, Tony D’Amato from Bay Cities Produce, and Ariane Michas from the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. The event was inspired by the BEACN team’s consulting project that helped Amanda’s to make goals for a more sustainable future. The student representatives discussed the importance of local, natural, food, and fair trade food items. Conscious consumers have the ability to improve the world through their food choices. One of the best ways to do this is to ask a lot of questions and to inform yourself to make better decisions. According to their survey, there is an increasing number of people who show interest in organic foods and more people are going to farmers markets.

The second portion of the event was a Q&A session with a panel of experts from different fields, including meat, produce, and baked goods. One of the panelists commented on Amanda’s Restaurant and how the goal of the restaurant is not just about serving food, but also about educating its customers so they can make conscious decisions. One of the key themes of the event was how to make these great sustainable options less intimidating, less elitist, more down to earth, and more affordable.

The panel was successful in educating and those who attended were happy with trying a free burger as well as a new pickle recipe that Amanda’s is soon to release. Amanda’s was generous enough to allow attendees to try out a new, potential ingredient: grass-fed beef burgers. The beef was juicy, well cooked, and tasty overall. Amanda’s also announced that locally-owned Semifreddi’s bakery is now supplying whole wheat vegan hamburger buns specially designed for Amanda’s. Lee Bassian explained that grass-fed beef has less cholesterol, more vitamin E, and more monoglycerides, opposed to triglycerides, which makes it less fatty. The new pickles have a one of a kind flavor and simple, all-natural ingredients.

Other topics that were discussed include how to balance a business and its social mission, understanding where your food comes from, and the importance of building a close relationship with your supplier.

Almost 20 years ago, my best friend and I launched the Environmental Club at our high school. We sold Earth Day T-shirts to raise money for the Amazon rainforest and started the recycling program in our school. Since then, I’ve become increasingly moved by Earth Day. Because of our early high school activism, I was inspired to launch a business that was founded upon environmental values.

Two years ago, before my restaurant opened, we had the chance to serve our Amanda’s Organic Apple “Fries” to students at UC Berkeley. Last year we had a celebration at my restaurant. And this year, Earth Day feels more special than Christmas or Passover to me. Since it is the 40th Earth Day, there is a lot going on:
* Berkeley’s Ecology Center is celebrating their 40th anniversary
* My restaurant, Amanda’s Feel Good Fresh Food, is holding a panel today from from 5-6pm on “Sustainable Sourcing for Fast Food” where we continue to improve our committment to the environment
* The City of Berkeley is celebrating Earth Day with a Festival on Saturday from 12-5pm in Downtown Berkeley’s Civic Center Park.

Finally, my high school best friend is having her second baby boy today, an Earth Baby!

Is this really a good deal?

When I was a kid, my mom taught me a very valuable health and economics lesson at the grocery store.  I would always look at the great value offered by family size cereal boxes, meat packages, and juice containers, and I would point them out to my mom.  She would walk down the aisle, pick out the smaller (worse bang for your buck) cereal box and continue shopping.  Being the opinionated loving daughter that I still am, I would of course have to point out that she was not making very good use of her money.  She explained to me that the value package would be worth her money if we had a big family, but that our small family of four would not, and should not, eat that much cereal(or milk or meat…) in a week before it would go bad.  It might be a better deal for all of that food, but it is not a better deal to spend $5 instead of $3 if we are going to throw half of the big package away.

The other food lesson my mom taught me was to NOT eat everything on my plate if I was full.  I know… it is crazy.  It is wasteful to throw food away, but it is also wasteful to eat more food than my body needs.  Ideally, of course, that large quantity of food would not make its way onto my plate in the first place, so that somebody else could eat it, but that is just not always the case.  As an adult, I make my own food decisions.  That includes how much I will buy at the grocery store and how much I will eat off of my plate, but it also includes where I will chose to eat when I go out.

As a Team Lead at Amanda’s I am very conscious of this value vs. portion size dilemma in our society today.  Some customers complain that our burgers are too small, or that they could buy a half pound burger somewhere else for a better value.  Do  we really want to eat that much burger in one meal?  Do you end up throwing it away in the end anyway?  One of Amanda’s neighbors, Saul’s deli, recently struggled with their decision to make pastrami sandwiches with better ingredients, but smaller.  Does it really make sense to pay more for excess?