Truffles & Trash: A Chat with Dr. Kelly Alexander
Last Thursday, April 2nd, the Food Studies Department welcomed Dr. Kelly Alexander from the University of North Carolina to talk to us about her new book, Truffles & Trash: Recirculating Food in a Social Welfare State. With a B.S.J. in Journalism from Northwestern University and an M.A. and PhD from Duke University, Dr. Alexander has spent much of her life thinking about the everyday value of food in various contexts across the world and cultures.
With the publication of her new book, Dr. Alexander took the time to talk to us about her field work in Brussels that focuses on how Belgium as a country and Brussels as the capital of Europe works to manage food waste and redistribute unsold yet edible food across the region. We all celebrated the accomplishment by eating a wonderful concoction of kitchen-scrap curry made from edible food items that were due to be thrown away.
“I started to think about what it meant to throw away imperfect foods,” Dr. Alexander told us as she recounted her time working in the kitchen at La Truffe Noire in Brussels and the many perfectly edible pieces of spinach, mushrooms, and day-old bread. From there, the rest is history.
By working in food banks and other “scrappy” institutional and community endeavors such as urban markets and cafés, Dr. Alexander told us that she was able to better understand the way that people are able to access, use, and redefine food waste.
Interested to learn more? Consider picking up Dr. Alexander’s new book! Truffles & Trash: Recirculating Food in a Social Welfare State