Local businesses make our campus unique

The closing of Donna’s represents a concerning trend in Charles Village. We’ve lost more than that famous mac and cheese and weekend brunch. The decreasing number of small business eateries near campus detracts from the identity and health of the Hopkins community and the surrounding neighborhood.

Only a handful of restaurants — notably Carma’s Café, Tamber’s and Ajumma — remain as testaments to the area’s unique charm. Many first-time visitors to campus, including prospective students and their families, have difficulty finding a meal that is a unique Hopkins experience. Because these surviving local establishments are so few and far between, they’re often packed with customers, making it tough for a wide sector of students and other community members to give it a try. The deficiency of unique restaurants makes it difficult for students to forge meaningful connections to the University and Charles Village outside of the library.

Whether because of slightly lower prices or for the sake of convenience and familiarity, many students gravitate toward local branches of restaurant chains for dinner. Patronizing these fast food chains, such as Subway and Chipotle, hurts stand-alone local businesses, several of which have closed in the past few years. Large chains also typically do not offer many healthy choices and do not obtain their ingredients from local or organic sources. The popularity of these chains may help explain why other chains marketed as healthy options, such as Sandella’s and Freshii, were not able to maintain their Charles Village locations.

Of course, not every local eatery is what one would call “healthy”; they do, however, use less processed ingredients and have a higher degree of control over what goes into the food they serve. Larger chains often experience oversights in their quality control that pose serious health risks to their customers. The Centers for Disease Control recently linked Chipotle’s food to an outbreak of a particularly toxic strain of E. Coli, which caused 53 cases of infection and 20 hospitalizations in nine states, including Maryland. These slip-ups are nearly inevitable in the big food industry where each corporation is responsible for literally thousands of locations.

As members of the Hopkins community, it is our responsibility and prerogative to support Charles Village establishments. Eating locally has a positive impact on the health and cohesive identity of the area. Even if you’ll have to walk an extra block from your apartment or wait a few minutes longer in line at Carma’s for some of that tomato basil soup, just be patient. It’s worth the wait.