San José State University hosted the Sustainability Fair, themed "From EcoSystems to Food Systems," at the Paseo de Cesar Chavez on Wednesday.
The fair was held to educate students about sustainable food systems from the organizations and vendors at the event according to the SJSU website. There was also food sampling from Spartan Eats live food demonstrations according to the same website.
Human resources senior Lilianna Mendez attended the Sustainability Fair. She said she found the event through social media.
“I've been looking into leading a more sustainable lifestyle, so I decided to stop by since I'm in between classes,” she said.
Mendez said her favorite table was the department of nutrition, food science and packaging, where they served a zero-waste salad.
“That was pretty good and (I got) the recipe, and the cooking demo was really fun too,” Mendez said.
Andrew Nguyen, management information systems junior and president of Hike @ SJSU said he was at the fair sharing information about his club, along with industrial engineering graduate Abhishek Shah, the club’s social media lead.
Hike @ SJSU is San José State's student-led hiking organization according to its Instagram bio.
Nguyen said Hike @ SJSU does two hikes every month, one local hike every month and one destination hike, and sometimes more if members want to organize their own event.
“This month we're doing Castle Rock in Saratoga for our local and Mount Umunhum,” Nguyen said, which can help promote sustainable and healthy lifestyles.
Environmental studies junior Malvika Malhotra was at the fair representing the Environmental Resource Center, which is part of the environmental studies department on campus. Malhotra said the resource center has been working all semester to prepare three different tables: the native plant table, the pledge table, and take back the top. These are three different organizations or subsections that encourage students to have more sustainable mindsets on campus.
“(The Environmental Resource Center’s) big event that they put the most time, energy, and money into is Earth Day, (which will happen) next semester. There, they try to find sustainable, local sponsors to help the community,” Malhotra said.
Malhotra said just knowing about how to access resources is a really good way to be sustainable.
“Being a Spartan, there’s so many sustainable incorporations you can have on campus, like the clothes closet, the sustainable transportation unit or the community garden,” Malhotra said.
