HUDS Unveils Sixth Annual "Harvest Dinner"

Harvard University Dining Services brought its usual weekday offerings up on a notch on Thursday in celebration of National Food Day, serving New England fare like Maine lobster bisque, spinach gnocchi, and four berry pie.

The festive menu was part of HUDS’s sixth annual New England Harvest Dinner, which coincides with National Food Day, a celebration of locally grown and sourced foods.

Crista Martin, the director of marketing and communication for HUDS, said in an email to The Crimson that festive menus or themed meals, in which the menu is focused on a specific topic, occur several times a year. At least once a year, the topic is sustainability, which Martin said is a core value of HUDS and its managing director, David P. Davidson.

“The menu is made up of many items which we feature regularly, but brought together to shape one night of local and/or sustainable foods, demonstrating how tasty sustainability is,” Martin wrote in the email.

HUDS posted signs inside of the residential dining halls advertising the New England Harvest Dinner, but many students eating in the Houses and in Annenberg did not realize that the new menu was part of a larger theme.

“I didn’t really know this was going on, and I doubt I’m alone in that,” said Nicholas J. Mahlangu ’16.

Alexander J. Rohe ’17 also said he did not hear about the event beforehand, nor does he usually think about where his food might come from.

“I mean, it’s good to have events like this where we are forced to think about where the food that we eat comes from,” Rohe said.

Despite not knowing about the connection between the New England Harvest Dinner and National Food Day, many students appreciated the menu options and praised their quality.

“Definitely the lobster soup caught my attention because we normally don’t get that, and it tastes fabulous,” Catherine Choi ’14 said. “I mean, it’s one of the best dinners we’ve ever had in Adams.”

Akshay Verma ’17 said that, as a devout vegetarian, the meal was nice for him.

“It felt like more of a homemade meal than otherwise,” Verma said. “I’ve never had meat in my life, so it was nice that there were a lot of vegetarian options today.”

Several students expressed a desire to know more about food sustainability practices after learning that the menu was in fact part of National Food Day.

“I usually don’t think twice about it,” Choi said. “As long as it looks good, I eat it, but I guess maybe I should pay more attention from now on and try to buy from more locally produced sources.”