BAU Department of Gastronomy Holds "Protect Your Food" Event

The "Protect Your Food" event was held on the BAU North Campus in cooperation with the Bahçeşehir University (BAU) Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts and the Beşiktaş District Directorate of Agriculture. The event, which aimed to teach how to transform food leftovers, brought together 8 women serving as neighborhood heads (muhtars) in Beşiktaş's neighborhoods.

The event was held with the participation of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Z. Dilistan Shipman, Head of the BAU Department of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, and Mine Sevil Kara, Beşiktaş District Director of Agriculture. Shipman said, "Our goal is to carry out this work with women neighborhood heads and enable them to pass on what they learn here in their own neighborhoods. In this way, we aim for this culture to spread, starting from children and from neighbor to neighbor. If we can achieve this, we can all learn to live with zero waste."

The neighborhood heads, who learned to transform food through training by BAU Instructor Chef Yusuf Onur Meniktan, BAU Café Manager Simla Çilingiroğlu and the BAU Restaurant Chef, expressed that they were very pleased with the training.

"WE CAN LEARN TO LIVE WITH ZERO WASTE"

Stating that we are a generous and open-handed nation, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Z. Dilistan Shipman said: "Because we make everything in abundance, there is usually some food left over at home. Unfortunately, we throw the leftovers away. To change this culture, we decided to hold this event together with the Beşiktaş District Directorate. In this way, we think we can make the wrongness of this habit known not only to housewives but to everyone living in the neighborhood. While discussing how to do this, we decided to invite the women neighborhood heads here and teach food transformation practices as Bahçeşehir University. We said, let's see together, hands-on, how we can make use of the small amounts of cooked food left at home. Our goal is to carry out this work with women neighborhood heads and enable them to pass on what they learn here in their own neighborhoods. In this way, we aim for this culture to spread, starting from children and from neighbor to neighbor. If we can achieve this, we can all learn to live with zero waste."

"OUR GOAL IS FOR THIS JOURNEY TO REACH ALL OF TÜRKİYE"

Stating that they started the practice in Beşiktaş because the university is located in the Beşiktaş district, Shipman continued: "We hope that this journey, which started in Beşiktaş, will reach all of Türkiye. Our neighborhood heads have occasions where they meet with neighborhood heads from other districts. One of our main wishes is that they tell each other what they have learned on such occasions and that this awareness gradually spreads. Of course, another wish of mine is to go to schools and instill this awareness in children starting from primary school. We started this work with our neighborhood heads in Beşiktaş, and hopefully we can also reach the neighborhood heads of other districts. Then, thanks to them, we will spread to schools and our event will become a big project. I think it will benefit everyone across the country."

Beşiktaş District Director of Agriculture Mine Sevil Kara said: "We planned the project together with Bahçeşehir University. Since Beşiktaş has the highest number of women neighborhood heads, we wanted to organize such an event. Our aim in this event was both to increase production by making better and different products from the leftovers in our kitchens and to recover waste materials through recycling. This event, which we started with our women neighborhood heads, will grow even further as they pass it on to other neighborhood heads."

"OUR GOAL IS FIRST TO PREVENT UNNECESSARY PURCHASING"

BAU Instructor Chef Yusuf Onur Meniktan, who trained the neighborhood heads, said: "Although we try to teach how to make something from the food left over in the kitchen, our main goal is to prevent unnecessary purchasing. Because this process starts with our purchases. Therefore, it is necessary to buy as much as we need, use as much as we need, and store it properly after use. Obtaining new dishes from the products we store actually forms the basis of this training. After giving this training to our neighborhood heads, we aim to raise awareness on this issue and for them to spread this awareness to other people."

"WOMEN NEIGHBORHOOD HEADS WILL START IN THEIR OWN HOMES FIRST"

Dilek Yücetepe, Head of the Mecidiye Neighborhood in Beşiktaş, expressed her thoughts on the training as follows: "I am very happy that women neighborhood heads were included in this project. Because the person most involved with the kitchen and food in a home is the mother. Women neighborhood heads will also start the change in their own homes first. That is what I will do, for example; I will first apply the things I did not know about food preservation or shopping in my own home. Then I will pass on what I have learned to housewives in my own circle and my own neighborhood. There are many things that are believed to be right but done wrong, and after this training I can inform them about these. It would be wonderful if other districts were inspired by our event and held similar events of their own. It would spread from district to district across the province, and we would achieve great results."