This spring, Sustainability Office Interns Dalia Rodriguez Caspeta '19, Izzy Parizeau '19 collaborated to organize the Third Space Dinner, hosted in Triangle House. The meal brought together students from different communities to enjoy a fresh multi-course meal cooked with organic local ingredients by co-organizer & Triangle House resident Hanover Vale '20. Han is the real deal as far as cooks go, she won a cooking competition in high school and took a gap year to work as the youngest cook at a five-star restaurant. Dinner was accompanied by an intersectional conversation about the ethics and social implications behind the food we eat, especially as it applies to Dartmouth’s campus and the broader Upper Valley.
Thoughts on Third Space Dinner, by Hanover Vale
The idea behind Thirdspace is many-fold! I wanted to share my love of cookery with others, practice my skill, create a space for conversation pertaining to food and food issues, and make traditionally “haute” cuisine accessible - both in its preparation and consumption. I also wanted to explore the Upper Valley’s produce and unique food culture. Be it foraged or grown, and really understand the region where I will spend these next four-ish years. From the moment I stepped on campus converting my dorm into a “pop-up” restaurant/educational space was a vision of mine and with the Sustainability Office's help they turned it into a reality.
With the restaurant set up in the kitchen, as I was cooking Dalia and I were mediating the flow of discussion. As there was no separation between the food and the people, the space operated as a classroom. I demonstrated how dishes were plated, what techniques and tools were used, and so forth. Our conversation ranged from food deserts, dining hall food, to what our comfort foods were, to the ethics behind meat consumption and commercial fish farming, and our diverse lived experiences when it comes to food.
When we think of social spaces at Dartmouth and social areas in general, the meal itself is important. Yet here at college it is almost impossible to find the time to enjoy a long meal/an accessible meal/a sustainable meal. Even a long meal with friends is difficult, with strangers it is unheard of. In cultivating this space I hope in many ways to bridge groups on campus and get people thinking about food’s intersectionality, and the place food has in our lives.