By Lauren Becker

Living in a sorority house and seeing all of the delicious food being served every day to all members in the house prompted me to explore where all of this food was coming from. My goal in doing this project was to examine the process of how my food got to the kitchen and then onto my plate. Every breakfast, lunch and dinner is provided to the members of the sorority and unlike most sorority houses, we hire our own chefs to ensure we receive the highest quality meals.  I first started off by interviewing the two chefs that worked at Alpha Chi Omega. I asked them where the food was coming from, how much work goes into preparing the food and how much food they make per meal. From sitting down and talking to the chefs, I learned so much. I even got permission to go in the kitchen and get footage of the chefs prepping for a meal. I had no idea how much work went into prepping food for over 100+ people. It opened up my eyes to the countless hours of work the chefs actually put into a single meal. Besides from prepping for meals, they also have to order all of the food at the beginning of the week. The suppliers come on a weekly basis to ask what ingredients/ food is necessary for the week’s meals. Most of the food comes from the two main companies—Sysco and Piazza Produce. Everything is delivered fresh, which is very nice. My other main point I made sure to include in this mini documentary is a suggestion for all of the leftover food. There is so much food that goes to waste because no one eats it. Other sororities at other school have programs in place to donate the leftover food to homeless shelters or people in need. I believe Indiana University should look into programs like these.  It would keep food from being wasted.

After collecting all of the interviews and footage from one of the nightly dinners, I put my project together. I put it together using Final Cut Pro. Besides from the interviews and footage, I also incorporated a voice over.  Being a broadcast journalism major, I did not run into any problems while editing. I am very pleased with how the editing looks.

This project was completed back in 2015.  Looking back at the steps I went through to complete this project, I would not change anything except possibly add in a student perspective about the food they are consuming. I asked the two chefs about the food, but I never asked a student how they felt about it. Other than that, I am very happy with the final product.