Katherine Rizk
Diana and I are excited to kick off another season of recruiting restaurants to the PDXSeafood program – it’s been slow going but we’ve contributed this to our inability to make face-to-face contact with Portland restaurants. This year we wizened up and decided to dedicate an entire intern to the cause, and that’s how we met Katherin Rizk.
Katherine grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and is currently a junior at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. From a young age, she was exposed to addressing environmental issues on a local front. Growing up in a self-proclaimed “locavore” family with a mom dedicated to the local and sustainable food movement, she was inspired to pursue studies in environmental policy.
When introduced to the topic of marine policy in the beginning of her freshman year Katherine was shocked at how little she knew about the global fish crisis. Since that point she has chosen to focus her studies on marine environmental policy, specifically that of sustainable seafood. To expand her knowledge on the topic she studied abroad in Tasmania at the Australian Maritime College taking classes on fisheries biology, marine environment and society and the fishing industry and operations. During these six months she experienced many unique opportunities that immersed her in the fishing industry. One of the most impactful for Katherine was when she spent a week on an old commercial fishing vessel learning first hand the various commercial fishing techniques and learning about the side effects each one has on the marine ecosystem. Through her classes and experiences in Tasmania, Katherine realized that the sustainable seafood movement was truly where her career aspirations lie.
When she got home this past December, her family was in the process of opening a farm to table restaurant. While helping them for the few months, Katherine became acquainted with the ins and outs of running a farm to table restaurant. She traveled with her family to San Francisco to attend a food show and experience the sustainable nature of restaurants. She realized that sustainable food has become a norm on the west coast but it has little traction on the east coast, particularly in the sustainable seafood area. Though many restaurants on the east coast tout “sustainable food” Katherine soon realized this did not extend to the seafood she had become so passionate about. In an effort to bring all aspects of sustainable food into their new family restaurant Katherine started looking for internships that would allow her to learn the ropes – enter PDXWildlife. Hoping to bring the sustainable seafood trend to the east coast and combine it with her passion for sustainable seafood, Katherine is extremely excited to be our PDXSeafood Restaurant Outreach Intern this summer and experience first hand what it takes to change consumer choices in order to save the worlds last wild food.
Help us in welcoming Katherine to our program and let us know which PDX restaurants you’d love to see mark there menus with sustainable seafood options by giving us names in the comment section below – let’s get her started with a bang!
-Meg