For the first two terms of the 2017-2018 school year, I was lucky enough to live in one of the newly-built lofts in Colman Hall. These four lofts were completed over the summer, designed for group housing, and last year I applied to the loft occupied by Greenfire.
Greenfire is an environmentally-conscious club and co-op that centers around communal meals cooked with organic, locally-grown food. Students on the co-op divide into meal teams, which each cook for each other once a week: dinners from Monday through Thursday, and Sunday brunch. There are also weekly meetings and volunteering opportunities. And Greenfire works closely with SLUG, the Sustainable Lawrence University Garden group, in order to have the best environmental impact (and also to get the best honey for miles around).
What drew me to Greenfire initially was the opportunity to live, well, green—to live with other people who were committed to reducing their waste and carbon footprint, and to do what I could to make Lawrence a more eco-friendly place to live. Though I didn’t do as much as I wanted, I was able to witness many others in the group taking great steps in those directions, such as Greenfire’s strong efforts in a movement to increase recycling and composting in Lawrence’s dining facilities.
But although I came for the environmental impact, what I stayed for was the community. It sounds cheesy, but there’s really nothing quite like a home-cooked meal, especially when you make it with friends. Some of my favorite memories from Fall and Winter terms have been working in the kitchen—I was on the brunch team for both terms—to make smoothies and quiches and vegetable hashes. Sometimes everything went according to plan and sometimes we had to get a little creative, but I learned a lot and gained some skills that I know I’ll be using for the rest of my life, with people who taught and learned from me, too.
Through my two terms, I saw that Greenfire really offers a unique opportunity. You can live on campus and in a communal, fairly dorm-like environment (though there are only about twelve or fifteen people living in the loft), but you also are able to eat food that fits your own tastes and find a small, close-knit group. Everyone helps to wash dishes and clean up the common areas, just as everyone shares in the cooking and eating. Voting on what to buy and what kind of events to have, as well as setting out guidelines and house rules at the beginning of each term, means that the loft and co-op community truly is what its members make it.
Because of scheduling conflicts, I wasn’t able to stay in Greenfire for a third term, so now I live a floor above the loft. But I’m proud to have been a part of such a positive force on campus, and I’m looking forward to days when I’ll be able to show up to brunch again, and maybe even volunteer to help out with the cooking.