Using School Lunch As a Tool To Fight Climate Change
Meet environmental studies–political science major Hayden Hendersen ’20.
Major: Environmental studies–political science
Hometown: Raymond, Wisconsin
Thesis advisor: Prof. Chris Koski
Thesis: Implementation Strategies for a Plant-Based School Lunch Program Policy as a Climate Change Mitigation Effort
What it’s about: Eating more plant-based food can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How could a school start serving vegan meals to reduce its food-print? Funding, menu design, sampling, kitchen equipment, and even super-cool lunch ladies would need to be some of the implementation tools.
What it’s really about: How do you get schools to serve plants and kids to eat them?
In high school: My “senior superlatives” were “biggest overachiever” and “worst dancer,” so I worked a bit too hard at the expense of letting loose. Even then, I respected that my fulfillment and fun come from a deep dedication to learning and making change.
Influential professors and classes: Ontological Politics with Prof. LaShandra Sullivan [anthropology] and Decentering the Human with Prof. Christian Kroll [Spanish]. Both classes and professors legitimized my interests in conceptualizing interspecies relationships as meaningful academic study.
Influential book: How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology beyond the Human by Eduardo Kohn.
Concept that blew my mind: The interconnectedness of each so-called individual and species, and subject and object, and machine and human, dissipates boundaries and creates cultures and worlds.
Cool stuff: I cocreated the 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ Recycling Center, served on the Sustainability Committee, and helped establish a full-time sustainability coordinator role. I helped establish the pollinator garden in the orchard, cooked for 40+ students for five different semesters while hosting the Cascade Climate Network conference. I perfected a veggie burger recipe, which I regularly grilled up for 200+ students in the canyon, on the Great Lawn, or in the Quad. I taught third graders to make mac and cheese from potatoes, carrots, and nutritional yeast, lived in the Farm House, was a Greenboard leader, and Infoshop manager.
Awards, fellowships, grants: I received the Environmental Studies Summer Experience Fellowship to write a 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ climate action plan and was in the final round of interviews for the Bon Appetit Sustainability Fellowship. (The hiring was paused due to COVID-19.)
Challenges I faced: I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, endometriosis, IBS, and migraines while at 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ. I’ve had to manage all my appointments, recover from surgeries and procedures, and have time to feel sick, sleep, and take care of myself, all while working on- and off-campus jobs AND doing 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ.
How 91²ÝÝ®ÊÓƵ changed me: My own health journey has taught me how to be a better and more empathetic advocate, whether for myself or the planet. I have learned to ask for help and be simultaneously direct and polite when working with others towards change, and listen much more than talk in class.
What’s next: I am attending Portland State University for a master’s degree in Leadership for Sustainability Education and a master’s certificate in Sustainable Food Systems to prepare for a career in sustainable school garden and management.