What's for dinner? It's the inescapable question that's on your mind every day. One dedicated foodie is working to provide fellow Tufts students with a new answer to that age-old dilemma.
Senior Alix Boulud, co-founder and president of the Tufts Culinary Society, is spearheading a proposal to build a fully equipped on-campus kitchen for use by student groups, athletes, academic departments and hungry undergraduates.
She will present this proposal to the Board of Trustees tomorrow to solicit its support.
When Boulud formed the Culinary Society three years ago with now-junior Manuel Guzman, over 600 students expressed an interest in joining the club or learning how to cook. But without a convenient on-campus location, the group was not able to host any cooking lessons. In response, Boulud came up with the idea of creating a kitchen for student use on campus, and the support poured in.
"There has been so much enthusiasm and interest from all over," Boulud said. "The Athletics Department would love to use it for health and nutrition programs for athletes, culture clubs want to host cooking demos there [and] parents of students would love for their children to learn how to cook."
The student body has also voiced an interest in the project. In a recent Tufts Community Union Senate Survey, 80 percent of student respondents reported that they either agreed or strongly agreed that a fully equipped kitchen facility could serve as an asset to the Tufts community.
After the Senate selected Boulud to present her project to the Board of Trustees, she assembled a team of faculty members and students to help with the fundraising, construction and management of the kitchen. Although the project is still in its early stages, Boulud and her team are optimistic about its timely completion.
"Right now, we don't know how much it is going to cost or where we are going to get funding, and though we are looking at a few spaces, we have no set location," Boulud said, adding that she hopes to have a completed, functioning kitchen in two or three more years.
For now, Boulud is working with Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds to find a suitable location for the kitchen. After the site is picked, an independent architect will appraise it, and the project's budget will be determined. Then the fundraising and construction can begin.
"Our next step is to find a space, appraise it and then raise the money," Boulud said. "We are hoping to appeal to kitchenware companies to donate both large equipment, like refrigerators, and smallware, like blenders and knives. Securing these donations would make the actual building of the project more manageable."
In Boulud's appeal to the Board of Trustees tomorrow, she will request its support in seeking personal donations from alumni for the costs of construction and maintenance.
"We're hoping that the support and excitement we've encountered will be reflected through donations," she said.
Eventually, Boulud hopes to use the kitchen for accredited courses, a wide range of clubs and organizations and also as a place for students who live on campus and thus would not otherwise have the opportunity to cook with their friends.
"I think the kitchen could change the way people eat on campus and give more options to people who love to cook or who have special dietary needs," she said. "It would bring people together to eat nutritious homemade meals."
The built kitchen will be equipped with large appliances, like stoves and ovens; small kitchen tools, like pots and utensils; and enough counter space to accommodate about 15 to 20 students. Though many details remain indeterminable until a space is selected, Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos said that a member of the dining staff will likely take over the responsibility of managing the kitchen.
"The new facility will require a curator — someone who's responsible for maintaining the space, keeping it up properly, dealing with repairs or replacements," Klos said. "It's a kitchen, and sanitation standards need to be upheld."
The kitchen will also require constant surveillance to ensure that students are being safe when they cook.
"That could happen in a lot of different ways — it's the kind of thing where we would typically employ student moderators," Klos said.
Boulud felt that an on-campus kitchen is particularly fitting given the current national cultural climate.
"Today, more than ever, a project like this could really benefit our campus culture," she said. "Things like obesity and lack of nutrition are national problems, and on college campuses, so many people make bad decisions, like ordering pizza at 3 a.m. every night. Being able to cook for and feed yourself is such a crucial skill to have later in life."
Branwen Smith-King, the assistant director of athletics, lent her approval to the project early on by writing a letter of support for Boulud to the Board of Trustees.
"This is a project that could lead to a long list of benefits for the Tufts community," she said.
Smith-King envisions using the kitchen for nutrition mini-courses offered by the Athletics Department, meals for athletic teams and basic cooking lessons for students.
"Tufts is taking responsibility for teaching its students life skills," she said. "If you don't know how to take care of yourself, the rest of what you've learned is not going to serve you well."
Boulud agreed that the culinary aptitude learned in a kitchen is essential — both during one's college years and in the future.
"You have to eat three meals a day for the rest of your life; you might as well enjoy them," she said.
