Introduction
Our secondary Oral History Interview was conducted with Rowan University student Brooke Golden. In addition to coming to Rowan as a vegetarian (and subsequently beginning to eat meat but still retaining a healthy lifestyle), Ms. Golden used her sophomore year at the college to start both the Green Living Initiative and the Community Garden Program. For her concerns involving health and environmentally conscious eating on the Rowan campus, Brooke appeared to be a clear person of interest to speak to following our redefining of our purpose after our interview with Mr. Brian Flynn (Oral History #1). The interview was conducted in the Edgewood Park Apartments office while Ms. Golden was on RA duty by a sole group member; myself. The interview was conducted late at night, the only time Ms. Golden was available, and thus no other group member could be present other than myself. In addition, I was already an acquaintance of Ms. Golden and therefore was in a better position to speak candidly with her while still gleaning the necessary information for the Oral History and project as a whole.
For the most part, unlike our interview with Mr. Flynn, the interview with Ms. Golden proceeded much as I had expected it to.
For the most part, unlike our interview with Mr. Flynn, the interview with Ms. Golden proceeded much as I had expected it to.
Brooke Golden
The choice of vegetarianism was an easy one for the girl from Cherry Hill. For her entire life, she had been surrounded by the dangers of processed foods and the ever increasing awareness of the food industry as a whole. She had been raised to understand that healthy eating was a personal choice and could be accomplished despite adversity and the ease with which one can fall into unhealthy habits. Brooke Golden came to Rowan University in 2009 a vegetarian hopeful to revolutionize the way her community approached food and would succeed even if her own vegetarianism had to be sacrificed along the way.
Once at Rowan, Brooke soon found that the available options for vegetarians were somewhat lacking. When visiting the student Marketplace, the primary cafeteria on Rowan's campus, truly the only option for her was the salad bar, pasta, or pizza. While these varied depending on the day, the latter two offered little in terms of nutritional value and one could only tolerate so many salads in a semester that lasted more than 100 days. Brooke would try extremely hard to stick to her diet which was made ever more difficult by Sodexo's poor marketing of the options that they did have. When there were occasions where there would be either vegetarian or gluten-free options for people such as herself, they would have to be learned about by word of mouth and needed to be prepared specially for such an occasion. This made it even more difficult for Brooke to eat with and socialize with her friends over a meal, when all of them could seemingly Grab and Go and she would be made to wait for her food.
Soon though, her continued attempts at remaining a vegetarian at Rowan would reveal certain health problems which would cause her to evaluate her dietary restrictions. A visit to a doctor and subsequent blood tests would diagnose Brooke with anemia, in which the body does not have a sufficient quantity of iron and is not gleaning it from the food it is being provided with. Being anemic had made Brooke irritable, lethargic, and had put a strain on her system to work with little nutrition to achieve the same amount of energy it would otherwise have to. It was at this point where Brooke would have to decide that vegetarianism could no longer sustain her system properly and she would be forced to incorporate meat into her diet. She calls the decision a hard one, but reflects on it as a learning experience and would continue to strive to live an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
Prior to her sophomore year at the college, Brooke had planned and initiated the Green Living community. Late in her freshman year, she had gone to the Rowan housing offices and spoken to the staff about starting a program where a group of students would choose to live in a group of the on-campus Edgewood Park Apartments and attempt to learn and lead a 'green' and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The group would be expected to abide by simple rules like using fewer disposable paper goods and running less water to more demanding activities like planting trees on occasion when it was approved by the university.
In the fall of 2010, a group of students moved into a section of the 400 building of Edgewood, cordoned off specifically for them, and started their attempt at green living. Reflecting back on the process, Brooke sees it as an opportunity to grow, and an idea she hopes will flourish even when she leaves Rowan. Not fully realized due in much to budgetary and time constraints, the Green Living Community soon devolved into simple housing, not much different than any other on-campus accommodations. While not strictly 'green' anymore, the initiative still thrived within each apartment thanks to the commitment of the people living in them.
In tandem with such an effort was Brooke's goal of establishing the Community Gardens in the empty areas adjacent to her Green Living apartments. With the idea that the food would stay local and much of the surplus would be donated to a food bank in the nearby town of Pitman, Brooke proposed that the majority of her budget be combined with the budget of the Environmentalist Club to buy materials and produce a garden. In the garden, a variety of fruits and vegetables would be planted and cared for by the Green Living Community and the Environmentalist Club.
In the late Spring of 2011, ground was broken and within a short couple of weeks the garden had taken root. Brooke and the garden would face their difficulties, everything from the stealing of food by Rowan athletics teams to the defacing of the garden's sign, donated by a close faculty friend of Brooke. Each of these setbacks and more would dishearten Brooke for some time, but she would push forward, plant again, and raise a new crop which she would quickly take a portion of for those who wanted it in the Green Living Community, and donate the rest. This provided the Pitman Food Bank with a reliable source of fresh and locally grown produce that has become invaluable to their feeding of those in dire need.
Brooke, now a Resident Assistant at Rowan, would receive a meal plan with her contract that would provide her with 10 meals a week. Occasionally, Brooke still visits the Marketplace and partakes in the same fare as the general public but, she says, she is happy to see that the options offered have become not only more numerous but also much better advertised. It means as much to her as the actual providing of the food that Rowan has begun to take notice of the problems it and the student body faces and is doing its best to develop with them and use feedback to reconcile its past mistakes or shortcomings. She hopes that such advances mean many more positive changes for the community as a whole and for individuals much like herself; those who come to college with a goal to eat and live healthily.
Once at Rowan, Brooke soon found that the available options for vegetarians were somewhat lacking. When visiting the student Marketplace, the primary cafeteria on Rowan's campus, truly the only option for her was the salad bar, pasta, or pizza. While these varied depending on the day, the latter two offered little in terms of nutritional value and one could only tolerate so many salads in a semester that lasted more than 100 days. Brooke would try extremely hard to stick to her diet which was made ever more difficult by Sodexo's poor marketing of the options that they did have. When there were occasions where there would be either vegetarian or gluten-free options for people such as herself, they would have to be learned about by word of mouth and needed to be prepared specially for such an occasion. This made it even more difficult for Brooke to eat with and socialize with her friends over a meal, when all of them could seemingly Grab and Go and she would be made to wait for her food.
Soon though, her continued attempts at remaining a vegetarian at Rowan would reveal certain health problems which would cause her to evaluate her dietary restrictions. A visit to a doctor and subsequent blood tests would diagnose Brooke with anemia, in which the body does not have a sufficient quantity of iron and is not gleaning it from the food it is being provided with. Being anemic had made Brooke irritable, lethargic, and had put a strain on her system to work with little nutrition to achieve the same amount of energy it would otherwise have to. It was at this point where Brooke would have to decide that vegetarianism could no longer sustain her system properly and she would be forced to incorporate meat into her diet. She calls the decision a hard one, but reflects on it as a learning experience and would continue to strive to live an otherwise healthy lifestyle.
Prior to her sophomore year at the college, Brooke had planned and initiated the Green Living community. Late in her freshman year, she had gone to the Rowan housing offices and spoken to the staff about starting a program where a group of students would choose to live in a group of the on-campus Edgewood Park Apartments and attempt to learn and lead a 'green' and environmentally friendly lifestyle. The group would be expected to abide by simple rules like using fewer disposable paper goods and running less water to more demanding activities like planting trees on occasion when it was approved by the university.
In the fall of 2010, a group of students moved into a section of the 400 building of Edgewood, cordoned off specifically for them, and started their attempt at green living. Reflecting back on the process, Brooke sees it as an opportunity to grow, and an idea she hopes will flourish even when she leaves Rowan. Not fully realized due in much to budgetary and time constraints, the Green Living Community soon devolved into simple housing, not much different than any other on-campus accommodations. While not strictly 'green' anymore, the initiative still thrived within each apartment thanks to the commitment of the people living in them.
In tandem with such an effort was Brooke's goal of establishing the Community Gardens in the empty areas adjacent to her Green Living apartments. With the idea that the food would stay local and much of the surplus would be donated to a food bank in the nearby town of Pitman, Brooke proposed that the majority of her budget be combined with the budget of the Environmentalist Club to buy materials and produce a garden. In the garden, a variety of fruits and vegetables would be planted and cared for by the Green Living Community and the Environmentalist Club.
In the late Spring of 2011, ground was broken and within a short couple of weeks the garden had taken root. Brooke and the garden would face their difficulties, everything from the stealing of food by Rowan athletics teams to the defacing of the garden's sign, donated by a close faculty friend of Brooke. Each of these setbacks and more would dishearten Brooke for some time, but she would push forward, plant again, and raise a new crop which she would quickly take a portion of for those who wanted it in the Green Living Community, and donate the rest. This provided the Pitman Food Bank with a reliable source of fresh and locally grown produce that has become invaluable to their feeding of those in dire need.
Brooke, now a Resident Assistant at Rowan, would receive a meal plan with her contract that would provide her with 10 meals a week. Occasionally, Brooke still visits the Marketplace and partakes in the same fare as the general public but, she says, she is happy to see that the options offered have become not only more numerous but also much better advertised. It means as much to her as the actual providing of the food that Rowan has begun to take notice of the problems it and the student body faces and is doing its best to develop with them and use feedback to reconcile its past mistakes or shortcomings. She hopes that such advances mean many more positive changes for the community as a whole and for individuals much like herself; those who come to college with a goal to eat and live healthily.