Rad Dish Co-op Café offers locally sourced food

Ryan S. Brandenberg

The Rad Dish Co-op Café in Ritter Hall Annex was born out of classroom projects and is now in its second semester of operations.

The Rad Dish Co-op Café in Ritter Hall Annex, the only student-run food cooperative in Philadelphia, was born out of classroom projects and is now in its second semester of operations.

Kathleen Grady, Temple's director of sustainability and the co-op's advisor, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that students in an environmental studies class first came up with the idea of a sustainable cafe—"one that they could control, so they knew that greenwashing [labeling foods green that aren't] wasn't happening."

Recent graduate Peter Usilton has put the lessons he learned at Rad Dish to work by cofounding 2 Dirty Dudes, an urban farm in the city’s Olney section. Working at the co-op café, he told The Inquirer, allowed him to learn “everything that goes into starting a business—all the legal paperwork, the insurance, health and safety issues."

Read more in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.