Collaboration, community and fresh food at Durham College Harvest Dinner

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

The Durham College Centre for Food (CFF) is offering foodies of all stripes a chance to not only see the work that they do, but enjoy the fruits of their labour as well.

On Thursday, Sept. 24, the centre, in partnership with Foodland Ontario, is hosting its first Harvest Dinner, a sold out event featuring a menu of food grown, cooked and served by students at the campus.

“It’s an opportunity to get the community on campus and experience what students are doing,” says Dave Hawey, the centre’s chair. “The Centre for Food, the building itself, was intended to be a hub for the community.”

The event will involve half a dozen different Durham College programs with the ingredients grown by the food and farming students, cooked by the culinary and baking students and served by the hospitality and event planning students.

“It’s a great opportunity for the students to understand that they are in the public eye, even if they may not think that they are, and they can feel recognized,” Hawey says.

Like the CFF, which sheds light on the behind-the-scenes portions of the culinary industry (the centre has windows opening into kitchens, dish washing areas and food storage rooms), the event aims to be fully open about the menu.

“This event is going to show a lot of transparency. People can see where the food is grown, they’re sitting right next to the fields where is was grown and they’ll be wandering through the building and actually watching the students cook it before it’s being served,” Hawey explains.

Celebrity chef and CFF ambassador Jamie Kennedy will also be in attendance.

Tickets for the event are $60, with cocktails starting at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p..m.

All funds from the event will go into bursaries for students at the CFF and will be awarded during the winter semester.