When Andi Odjemski was a child, she always wanted to go to culinary school.
“I’ve just always really loved food,” said Odjemski, a sophomore communication studies major. “I loved making food, loved trying new food, loved taking pictures of food, even just looking at food.”
Although she did not end up at culinary school, Odjemski, along with some other students, have found a new way to share their love of food through social media.
Odjemski and her friend, Julia Ostrovsky, a sophomore advertising major, started an Instagram account called City of Fooderly Love in August to share their passion for food. Currently, they have close to 100 followers and all the photos they post are of the food they have tried just in Philadelphia. Odjemski and Ostrovsky post pictures of brunch food they’ve had in neighborhoods like Northern Liberties, Chinatown and Rittenhouse.
“I just hope that people get joy out of it,” Odjemski said. “Because that’s what food brings for me. It brings me so much joy.”
Other Instagram accounts like Temple Foodies and Spoon University – Temple, the official Temple chapter of college-based food blog Spoon University, have become popular among Temple students and have racked up thousands of followers.
Spoon University – Temple was started by junior advertising major Jamie McNulty along with her friends Sabrina Dobosh, a junior finance major, and Maxie Ehrlich, a junior advertising major. McNulty is the marketing director and Ehrlich is the editorial director of Temple’s chapter, which is one of more than 200 chapters at colleges around the country.
Just more than a year ago, McNulty, Dobosh and Ehrlich reached out to the community manager of Spoon University to start the account. They needed 325 signatures to prove the demand for a chapter at Temple.
The team has expanded its chapter to social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They now have more than 1,700 followers on Instagram.
“When people are looking for somewhere to eat, they search on Instagram because they want to see pictures,” McNulty said. “I want to capitalize on that.”
“We created a platform that unites people by showing them where to go,” McNulty said. “Temple is so large. Even though we’re only a mile from the city, it can be kind of daunting because there’s so many options, especially if you’re a freshman. You don’t know where to go.”
One of the largest Temple foodie accounts is Temple Foodies, which now has 2,000 followers. Leah Hillegas, a sophomore strategic communications major, runs the account.
“Before Temple, I used to hate trying foods. I didn’t have a great relationship with food,” she said. “But then when I got here I started to hang out with new people, and my boyfriend made me try a lot of new foods.”
“I started to like going out and I started to try more, and then I was like this would be really cool to showcase it,” she added. “It’d be cool to have [the account] be Temple themed.”
Hillegas tries to post twice a day. Half of the pictures she posts are her own and the other half are pictures her account was tagged in. She said it’s important to her to show people what Philadelphia has to offer within an affordable budget.
“There’s so much more to see,” she said. “You’re wasting your time just staying on Temple’s campus the whole time.”
“We don’t want you going to Applebee’s,” McNulty said. “Try something new, go somewhere good.”
Taylor Horn can be reached at taylor.suzanne.horn@temple.edu.
Editor’s note: Andi Odjemski previously wrote for The Temple News. She had no part in the writing or editing of this story.
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