Joey Lo
UWP 104
Grade: B+
Final Exam
a. Revision
For the Nocturnal and Needy: The Davis Night Market // Food for All: The Davis Night Market
Once evening falls, Davis goes quiet. Businesses close their doors. Locals filter out from downtown to
unwind at home. Even rowdy university students begin to mellow.
Amidst empty streets, the Night Market stirs awake. Its volunteers, like Artie and Sam, emerge for their
duties with an enthusiastic determination reminiscent of Robinhood vigilantes.
Clad in layers of thermal jackets and knitted beanies, the pair leaps door to door and leaves with hefty
bags filled with restaurants’ unwanted culinary treasures. Artie always greets the expectant business’
owners with a smile and makes conversation, while Sam methodically gathers the leftovers, guided by
whichever employee is helping shut down the kitchen that day.
After making all their stops, the two convene with a handful of other, fellow beanie-clad volunteers. With
an effortless efficiency developed from routine, they set about arranging all the food collected over the
evening.
Every week night, you can find the Night Market and its members posted at Central Park.
A group of UC Davis students and town locals established the Davis Night Market in 2019. Brought
together by their mutual interest in reducing food insecurity and waste, they formed an organization
dedicated to food recovery and strengthening community bonds, naming it the Night Market, since the
operation would only take place after dark. Though some of the original founders have moved or gone on
to other jobs, several volunteers, old and new, carry on their mission.
These volunteers act as the lifeblood of the organization, conducting all of its operations. Some of their
responsibilities include recruiting businesses, running social media accounts, and collecting donations.
Most of the volunteers’ work consists of recovering leftover food from the variety of local businesses a
part of the Night Market’s donor roster, such as bakeries and grocery stores, and giving it out to the
community for free.
The range of goods varies each day, depending on what each vendor has to offer. One day you’ll find
heaps of crisp baguettes and hearty sourdough loaves sprawled across Central Park’s counters. And the
next, you’ll find it packed with little brown bags full of still-warm tortilla chips and fragrant containers of
cooked rice.
“My favorite donors are Sophie’s Thai Kitchen and Upper Crust Bakery,” one volunteer says. “They
always have really good food that’s ready to eat.”
Like the wide array of cuisines offered at the Night Market, its visitors come from all sorts of
backgrounds. Recipients range from well-off local families, broke college students, young couples
looking to kill time, and to thrifty elderly people. Many of the Market’s most common frequenters include
people who struggle with homelessness and food insecurity.
“This one guy, Darell– he comes over pretty much every day,” Artie says. “He’s the sweetest dude. I love
him. [You] wouldn’t expect him to be so soft-spoken when you look at him. He’s super tall and all tough
and scary looking. But I got to know him lots– his family, rehab journey, losing his house.”
b. Appendix
Joey Lo
UWP 104C 3
765
Food For All: The Davis Night Market
In the cold dark of Davis nights, Artie and Sam resemble robinhood-esque vigilantes, donning
layers of thermal jackets and knitted beanies, as they leap from restaurant to restaurant and come
out with hefty bounties of bags filled with various foods. Artie always greets the restaurant
owners with an earnest, graciously charming smile and effortlessly strikes up conversation, while
Sam methodically gathers the leftovers of the day, guided by whichever employee is helping
close down the restaurant that day.
After making all their stops, the two convene with a handful of other, fellow beanie-clad
volunteers. With flawless coordination, they set about meticulously arranging all the food
collected over the evening. They follow this routine every night of the week, and you can find
them in Central Park volunteering at the Night Market.
The Davis Night Market was established in 2019 by a group of UC Davis students and town
locals. Brought together by their mutual interest in reducing food waste and food insecurity, they
formed an organization dedicated to food recovery and strengthening community bonds, naming
it the Night Market, since the operation would only take place after dark. Though some of the
original founders have moved or gone on to other jobs, several volunteers, old and new, carry on
their mission.
These volunteers act as the lifeblood of the organization, carrying out all of its operations. Some
of their responsibilities include recruiting businesses, running social media accounts, and
collecting donations. Most of the volunteers’ work consists of recovering leftover food from the
variety of local businesses a part of the organization, including bakeries, restaurants, and grocery
stores, and giving it out to the community for free.
The range of goods varies each day, depending on what each vendor has to offer. One day you’ll
find the counters at Central Park sprawling with heaps of crisp baguettes and hearty sourdough
loaves, and the next, you’ll find it packed with little brown bags full of still-warm tortilla chips
and fragrant containers of cooked rice.
“My favorite donors are Sophie’s Thai Kitchen and Upper Crust Bakery,” one volunteer remarks,
while handing out takeout boxes of noodles and a pack of bagels to an elderly couple, “They
always have really good food that’s ready to eat.”
If not for the Market’s volunteers, all of this food would be wasted, since restaurant protocol
demands any leftover food they cannot sell the next day must be discarded.
Most of us do not think about where our food goes once we discard it, but food waste causes real
damage worth attending to. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the United
States alone throws away nearly 40 million tons of food each year, and most of it ends up rotting
in landfills. In fact, food makes up the majority of the garbage in landfills, with it composing
22% of all municipal solid waste.
Once food is dumped into a landfill, it sits and decomposes, polluting the air and releasing
greenhouse gasses, like methane and carbon dioxide that contribute to global warming. So, food
recovery plays a key role in reducing the amount of waste that goes into landfills.
Besides cutting back on food waste, the key benefit of the Night Market comes in the aid it offers
to those struggling with food insecurity. Long-standing Night Market volunteer, Sam, explains
how they “have a lot of people that are regulars, who are food insecure, either because they deal
with homelessness, or just don’t have the money to buy food.”
The stigma surrounding food insecurity paints a largely hostile picture, especially in our culture
that prizes self-sufficiency and scorns hand-outs. Those that depend on such services often get
written off as lazy freeloaders or shady, irresponsible characters, but the volunteers of the Night
Market staunchly oppose these sentiments.
“The people who rely on the Market for their daily meals– they’ve had a lot of hardship in their
life and are remarkably strong and positive, despite all of it. They’re a part of the community
we’ve built here. Without them, we wouldn’t be here,” Sam says.
At its core, the Night Market exists for the community– to foster camaraderie and a system of
mutual support for all people. This tight-knit community includes individuals already a part of it
and those interested in joining. The organization has no requirements or limits on who can take
part; anyone can come up to the Central Market’s counters, either as a supporting volunteer, or a
visitor seeking free food. Regardless if they face food insecurity, or simply want some groceries,
everyone can walk away with something from the Night Market.
References
Food waste in America in 2022. (2021, April 20). Retrieved from
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
Rhetorical Analysis
I believe my article adequately accomplishes its purpose to detail what the Night Market is and
the value it provides to the Davis community. I believe my use of short paragraphs and vivid
descriptions to describe the organization matches the needs of my target audience, college-age
students reading the California Aggie. My audience will have a relatively short attention span, so
making the article interesting and easy to read suits their needs.
The brief history provides sufficient background information on the origins of the Night Market,
and the mentions of what restaurants donate to it help contextualize its operations, giving readers
a clearer sense of what the organization does and who participates in it.
Because my document covers a range of topics, from the history of the Night Market, what its
volunteers do, and the impact it has on the environment and on people, I believe it will be
effective in informing readers of the significance of the organization.
I feel that the fourth through seventh passages were especially successful at matching the
requirements of my audience, as they used a combination of factual reporting and sensory
imagery. In these passages, I described the duties of the Night Market’s volunteers, noting what
their daily workload was like, and I felt that the specific looks and textures of the food they give
out punctuated the actual, physical goods offered. It also adds a sense of variety to keep readers
interested in the article.
Throughout the article, I focused on making my writing more specific and brief. From the
feedback given on the first assignment, the Review article, and from my peers, I tried to
incorporate more concrete examples to illustrate my points. I received a lot of recurring
comments about how my paragraphs were too long or wordy, so I tried to make sure that my
paragraphs were shorter to add a better sense of flow. I found it difficult to pare down on my
wordiness and have a greater sense of concision without sounding overly simple, however, I tried
to use shorter phrases and vocabulary that was easier to understand.
My peers also commented they were curious about how the Night Market actually worked and
who it served, so I included more information in the middling passages and towards the
conclusion to elaborate on its operations and target demographic. I also reorganized the topics of
my paper, since I had multiple comments concerning the confusing nature of my article’s
organization. The majority of my quotes were grouped toward the end, and I discussed the
stigma surrounding food insecurity during the conclusion, so I rearranged them. Instead, I
incorporated the quotes in the middle passages of my article and touched upon the social
implications of food insecurity before my conclusion to act as a transition into it.