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Kat Zhang Caught Green Handed

Student caught cooking with local and seasonal produce

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Kat cooking with local produce

Name: Kat ZhangHometown: Charlotte, NCGraduation Year: 2014Kat was caught cooking with local and seasonal products at the Basic College Cooking workshop through the Duke Campus Farm and Duke Community Garden, held at the Smart Home.  Kat was given a “Bleed Blue, Live Green,” reusable coffee mug.  What made you interested in this event? How did you hear about it?I am really interested in college cooking. I’m living off campus next year, and I wanted to learn how to make a couple of dishes. My friend Marissa told me about it!Do you usually go to the sustainable events on campus?Unfortunately, I don’t. I did go to a Duke Campus Farm Beet Festival, which was awesome. I’ll try to go to more events in the future!How could sustainable events be better advertised?I get a lot of my information about events from the 2014 Class Council emails, which are a schedule of all upcoming happenings for the next week. You should definitely try to get your events on that email. Also, making events regular/recurring instead of one-shot (like if you had the cooking class every month or even every semester) could ensure that students can start passing the word.What other things do you do in your everyday life to be sustainable?Aside from recycling and turning off my lights, not very much. I wish there were more collective (dorm organized or friend organized or something organized) sustainability initiatives that I could participate in.What sustainable efforts have you noticed around campus?The hybrid buses, for one. And the nice stickers that tell me to turn off the water/lights! If you could change one thing on campus to make it more sustainable, what would it be?Definitely more bike programs. I wish that bikes were easier to obtain, easier to repair, and had more than a foot long bike path! Will you be caught green handed next? Caught Green Handed is an initiative of Students for Sustainable Living created to reward sustainability actions at Duke. Get caught doing something eco-friendly, and receive great prizes including t-shirts, stainless steel water bottles and reusable grocery bags!  It's simple, just take actions throughout the day to reduce your environmental footprint and with a little luck, you could be Caught Green Handed! The contest will continue on a twice monthly basis throughout the fall semester.