As the world and small island developing states (SIDS) in particular face global crises, sustainability has become an even more urgent goal. Recently, the American Corner at University of The Bahamas (UB) hosted a delegation of United States and United States Embassy dignitaries at the Oakes Field Campus for conversations on climate resilience, sustainability, and food security as well as developing synergies among academia and partners to advance these aims.

On Thursday, 16th February, a delegation including the Chargé d’Affaires Usha Pitts, U. S. Embassy Nassau; Acting Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Lance Posey; Trigg Talley, Senior Advisor to the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Change and Managing Director for Climate Negotiations and Programming visited the G.T.R. Campbell Small Island Sustainability Research Complex. They were hosted to a sumptuous and innovative Bahamian breakfast that exemplified sustainability in the full use of native ingredients and food preparation.

Other esteemed guests included UB Trustee Dr. Keith Russell; Senator the Hon. Dr. Erecia Hepburn, President of the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI); U.S. Expert Senior Advisor, Christina Chan; and U. S. Embassy, Nassau Public Affairs Officer, Suemayah Abu-Douleh.

Chargé d’Affaires Pitts said everything about Thursday’s “sustainable breakfast”, from the menu options to the setting and those involved in the ensuing conversations, are exactly what the U. S. Embassy envisioned when they became partners with The Bahamas’ premier institution of higher learning.

“The U. S. Embassy has been a long-time partner of the University of The Bahamas,” said Pitts. “We have our American Corner here where we hold all kinds of events, and it’s been a pleasure to come here for this meal today. It was a great, great event.”

Mr. Talley also commended UB for hosting such an amazing event.

“This is a really innovative and fantastic event which has given us the ability to eat local Bahamian food that is sustainably produced,” said Mr. Talley. “And this is the kind of thing that happens at the local level, and if it happens at the local level everywhere in the world, we will be able to carry the world forward for future generations. So, it all starts with initiatives like this.”

Celebrity Chef Simeon Hall Jr., a proud UB alum, created works of culinary art for the sustainability breakfast, and was assisted by UB students in the College of Tourism, Hospitality, Culinary Arts and Leisure Management (THe CALM). The delicious meal included Bimini bread; Kalik sour dough bread and Johnny cake biscuits; boiled fish made with Strawberry Grouper; and a new twist on the staple Bahamian dish, chicken souse. It was topped off with guava sorbet power bowls served in coconut shells garnished with love vine.

The U.S. delegation were extremely pleased with the spread Chef Simeon and the UB students put together.

“The food was fantastic,” said Chargé Pitts. “Thank you, Chef Simeon Hall. He’s an international celebrity chef, but he’s Bahamian, and he put on this terrific meal that included all the things you might expect in a fine dining experience, plus it had all of these wonderful Bahamian products, some of them I hadn’t even experienced before. So, just a really terrific experience all around.”

Chef Simeon said the breakfast’s theme—sustainability—aligned perfectly with his own mantra as a chef, which is to avoid wastage.

“It’s been my mantra as a chef for a very, very long time,” said Chef Simeon. “For chefs, it’s the simple understanding of being responsible with the products that we’re given here, and to make sure that we respect the environment and be people that are using products in their entirety. Why just take a coconut and use the coconut water and that’s it? There’s jelly, there’s husk, there’s everything inside. The same thing with fish, same thing with chicken. It’s the way where I find pleasure in making sure that I use everything that’s available.”

The culinary aspect aside, Thursday’s sustainable breakfast accomplished a number of other objectives, chief of which was to further highlight the University’s dedication to advancing, teaching, and promoting best sustainability practices.

“It’s so important that we talk to people and sensitize them to the objectives that make sustainability a hot topic in academics and with our students,” said Dr. Oriakhi. “In fact, by bringing these delegates to the campus, it allows the students to recognize that we as a university are serious about the environment and about sustainability throughout the country.”

For his part, UB President Dr. Erik Rolland said Thursday’s breakfast highlights the kinds of important partnerships that can provide UB with the means by which to outfit itself with the necessary tools and resources to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing local, regional, and international conversations surrounding climate change and sustainability.

“Our mission as we move forward—Dr. Oriakhi and myself and the University team—is really to build up those relationships, to build up new resources within the University, to build up a new college that is focused on the sustainability issues at large and doing that with our partners, and we have outstanding partners at our table working with us now that can really make a huge difference,” said Dr. Rolland.

“So, anything we can do to help collaborate, to help foster sustainability at any level, particularly in The Bahamas and the Caribbean, but anything we can do, we are here to help and we want to partner and we want to build a better world together by understanding our surroundings.”