Outdoor picnic tables sit peppered with paper recipes, pots, pans and portable cooktops as students commence their culinary creations. During The Austin Meal Movement cooking socials, the front of the PCL takes on a new role: an outdoor kitchen.
“We have to bring a kitchen with us in front of the PCL because that’s where we cook,” said Brett Doyon, TAMM president. “It’s a lot, it’s kind of crazy.”
Founded in 2015, Doyon, a textiles and apparel junior, said TAMM provides a space for students to learn about the life cycle of food, from distribution to cooking to consumption. According to their LinkedIn, the organization also aims to cultivate community and serve Austin through food-based volunteer events.
Doyon said many students who join TAMM come with an interest in cooking, yet don’t feel empowered to cook independently.
“It’s a little intimidating, but (students cook) in groups with us,” Doyon said. “(They) learn some basics while cooking cool stuff. At the end of the day, you have a pretty rudimentary understanding of how cooking works.”
Doyon said TAMM hosts four types of cooking events: educational workshops, competitions, cultural competency meetings and socials. Additionally, Doyon said TAMM plans to volunteer at a Sunrise Navigation Homeless Shelter event and feature a guest speaker speaking about entrepreneurship in the food community.
Doyon said students can often feel isolated from the Austin food scene at UT, so he aims to use food as an avenue to broaden students’ perspectives through TAMM.
“I’ve tried to expand the scope so we can feel more involved in the Austin food scene,” Doyon said. “A lot of times at UT, we live in our own little city. So I’m trying to expand the scope (through) anything with food.”
For finance junior Rahul Kannam, a Halloween-themed cupcake social last year stands as his favorite TAMM event. Kannam said he enjoyed both the cupcakes and the creative talent of the members.
“Someone (decorated) an entire graveyard (on a cupcake), and I thought to myself, ‘They’re going to eat that?’” Kannam said. “People are insanely talented in decoration, and some have been baking there for a long time, too.
Psychology junior Saiteja Kommineni said he joined the organization this semester to try something out of his comfort zone. Kommineni said TAMM plays an important role in the University through its sense of community.
“Community-wise, (TAMM) is important to UT because it brings a lot of different students with different backgrounds and ethnicities together,” Kommineni said. “We had an event called ‘Rice Around the World’ and we had different ethnic foods. We could see the culture spilling over into our conversations. It was really beautiful.”
Doyon said the completely student-led organization contains about 35 to 40 members.
“Sure, it’s messy sometimes because we’re college kids who don’t really know what’s happening,” Doyon said. “But the experiential learning of it, and being able to get your hands dirty and create something for the public — it’s great.”
