Crickets Are On The Menu As WC Celebrates Food Day

Pat Crowley is an advocate for bringing nutrient-rich insects into Western diets.

Washington College goes buggy to celebrate national Food Day on Friday, October 24, with a talk from an environmentally friendly entrepreneur who makes protein bars with cricket flour and opportunities to eat several insect-based dishes including cricket tacos, cricket energy bars and desserts made with meal worms.

Pat Crowley, founder and CEO of Chapul Bars, makers of energy and protein bars, will speak at 5:00 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. He will explain why his company incorporates cricket flour as a sustainable source of protein in its bars. Proponents such as Crowley say crickets and certain other insects are a nutrient-dense and sustainable food source that should be raised and cultivated on a large scale.

Washington College professor of anthropology William Schindler, who is helping organize Food Day events, believes entomophagy, or eating insects as food, satisfies the major key themes in healthy eating today. “They are nutrient dense, local, organic, and gluten free,” he notes. “In fact, insects provide amazing proteins and fats, and they do so in a way that is much more sustainable than traditional domesticated animals. The Food Day events at Washington College will provide an opportunity to see that insects can be healthy, sustainable, and delicious.”

In addition to offering cricket tacos and a station to try your hand at making your own cricket flour energy bars, Washington College Dining Services will focus its menus for the day on locally sourced and sustainable ingredients. The dining hall is located on the second floor of Hodson Hall Commons and is open to the public for all meals (breakfast, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., $6.40; lunch, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., $9.35; and dinner, 4:45 to 7:30 p.m., $11.40).

Thousands of Food Day events are held throughout the United States to raise awareness for healthier eating and its power to combat obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related diseases. The Washington College Food Day activities are sponsored by Dining Services, the Center for Environment and Society, and the Department of Anthropology.