A World Culture and Cuisine class in the fall created a cookbook of recipes using ingredients found in AACC’s food pantry. 

Professors Forrest Caskey and Amy Carattini, who co-taught the class,  assigned the service learning project. Class members submitted recipes that held personal significance and rewrote them with ingredients that are easy for students with limited access to food to find.

They consulted Caitlin Silver Negrón, director of the food pantry, who said the project served as an educational opportunity for students. 

“There’s a thoughtfulness element to it,” Silver Negrón said. “If you’ve never been to a pantry or if you’ve never had to utilize one to get your food, you might not understand where the limits are. … I think it was a great educational opportunity for the students to better understand what a pantry looks like in general.”

Sarah Orvis, the graphic designer and publicity assistant for the Office of Student Engagement, worked on the visual elements of the project. This included compiling the recipes students submitted and laying them out on the pages.

“I wanted to make sure that I was keeping the core of what the students were writing,” Orvis said. “So a lot of the stories were, like, pretty personally relevant.”