There are many reasons juniors Anna Hall and Ian Kline offer to explain their enthusiasm for The Bowdoin Co-op. The student club, which gathers weekly to share a meal made from scratch, endorses an environmentally sustainable diet. The volunteer student cooks try to use as many local, organic vegetables, fruits, beans, dairy products and grains as they can. By eating local products, club members are supporting small farmers and the local economy, while also reducing their carbon footprint. After making and sharing many meals together, the co-op members have become close. It is “a home for me on campus,” Kline says.

Hall, a visual arts and earth and oceanographic major, and Kline, a biochemistry major, are presidents of the club, which manages to achieve all of the above on a weekly budget of just $70 a week (except for Thanksgiving, when the College gives the club $100).