focal point Cooking it up with SCARF

By Sean Siapno focal point editor

While scarves may be out of season with spring rolling around, Skyline’s SCARF will never go out of style.

SCARF actually stands for “Sustainable Cooking and Real Food” and they are an unofficial club here at Skyline. They meet on the first Monday of every month at 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in order to educate students about sustainability. CHEESY is their motto as it represents their five tenets: cheap, healthy, easy, eco-friendly, sustainable, and yummy. Their origin roots from statistical knowledge she gained, she left with a bigger purpose: to start SCARF alongside her stats professor.

Hough describes himself as a “Climate-crisis solutions nerd” and has always been involved in the world of sustainability. In collaboration with Ratti, this club is a means to spread awareness on living a more CHEESY way of life.

“Food choice is essential,” Hough says. “I want to help people realize that they don’t need a lot of money, or experience making an inexpensive, long-lasting, and delicious meal.”

All of their work is handson. Not only will you learn stomach. Every meeting there’s always a new recipe that the club will have to cook.

With recipe inspiration coming from The New York Times, Pinterest, and various cook books, SCARF makes meals that spark the message of their club.

In their most recent meeting, they prepared a Citrusy Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup promoted by The New York Times. Through an induction cooktop, a great alternative to the gas stoves we normally use, SCARF cooked this recipe in just 30 minutes to serve the many people around them.

Since their club cooks within the small kitchen in the MESA lentils as a substitute to meat for protein. Meals like this highlight their goals.

“A person really just needs a vegetable, a carb, and protein,” Ratti says. “Let’s get a group of students, cook a meal, and get more into sustainability and climate crisis.”

Similar to Ratti, Club Secretary Patrick Talavera is all about SCARF’s lessons.

“Amanda introduced me to SCARF. I really like to eat good food and sustainability,” Talavera says. Talavera is a prime example of what SCARF hopes to achieve. The stigma that surrounds sustainability derives from ineducation. With organizations like this club, people learn that the switch to better diets, and a better way of life isn’t hard. It isn’t expensive either.

Although the club is small in numbers, their impact can be huge. With the climate crisis still ongoing, SCARF can be an outlet to get educated. It’s never too late to learn, and especially eat great food.