Pressure from students and two recent sustainability data projects have prompted Dartmouth Dining Services to increase their focus on and pursuit of local and sustainable food sources.
The largest ongoing sustainability initiative in which DDS is currently involved is the Real Food Challenge, which aims to increase the number of food items that qualify as “real” foods — foods that are local and community-based, produced in ways fair to workers, humane and ecologically sound.. The student-run project was initiated by a member of the Class of 2012 who was unable to finish before she graduated. Maya Wilcher ’16 resurrected the project last summer when DDS’s main food vendor provided money to the College for a sustainability intern. Wilcher later recruited Nina Dewees ’16 to help her.
On Thursday, the two finished the project’s first stage, which involved inputting all information about the food that DDS purchased for the Class of 1953 Commons for both April 2014 and October 2013, two months representative of a full year, Wilcher said. They loaded the names, location and prices of all the food items into the Real Food Calculator online. The next step of the project will be to research all of the food and calculate the amount of “real” food.
Once there is baseline information, future steps will include making suggestions to DDS about food sources and later reevaluating the food. Wilcher and Dewees hope younger students will be able to help with these steps. Dewees noted that since sustainably sourcing food can cost more money, the two are researching potential cost-effective options as well.
Wilcher said she has wanted to work on a project with food for some time, but that it can be difficult to find tangible projects to pursue. She knew the sustainability office has had food interns in past and sought out work there.
“Both of us are really interested in food, local food and sustainable cooking and eating,” Wilcher said. “The point of ‘Real Food’ is to have the numbers and data to see where we’re at, to be able to improve for there.”
One thing that both the pair and DDS are interested in is increasing transparency about where DDS food is sourced from, Dewees said. Although DDS has taken steps in this direction, such as putting up signs in Collis about locally sourced food, a lot of the food served by DDS still doesn’t have a clear origin, and the Real Food Project will work to change that, she said.
Associate director of DDS Donald Reed stressed that while he is the facilitator of the project, it is completely student-run.
“I’m anxious to see what our base numbers are [and] how we can work on improving our [Real Food] score from there,” he said.
He said that while DDS has always wanted to support local or regional growers and has worked for years with the Dartmouth organic farm, the College’s renewed efforts in meeting the Real Food Challenge has made DDS further committed to sustainability efforts.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
On Tuesday, Reed attended a spring food show for DDS’s primary vendor. Part of the show was dedicated to “smaller planet” products, which are fair trade, organic or regional. He said the show provided a good opportunity to talk to these vendors and see what they have to offer, as DDS is trying to increase the amount of regional food — grown within a 250 mile radius — it purchases.
On May 28, DDS will host an event called Food Forward for local food providers, such as cafeterias within schools and hospitals. The purpose of the event is to market plant-based foods and offer healthy alternatives to professionals who are interested in healthy diets and how they can incorporate new menu ideas, Reed said. This is the first time Dartmouth has hosted an event like this.
An increase in student interest could be another motivation behind the upward trend in DDS’s sustainability efforts, Wilcher said.
“They love when students are involved,” Wilcher said. “They love hearing from students.”
Office of sustainability director Rosalie Kerr said she thinks DDS is hearing an increased student demand for healthy, local food, and that students are coming into Dartmouth with an increased awareness of this issue in general. Because of this, she said that DDS is increasingly turning to the sustainability office with ideas and asking for help implementing their own ideas.
One new program that the two are partnering on is hosting a local DDS farmers market during the summer in the Collis Center, where students will be able to purchase mostly raw food from vendors each Friday with their Declining Balance Account.
Kerr acknowledged the challenging situation that DDS has to work within — they need to provide a massive quantity of meals every day, which means they need food that has been washed, chopped or slightly processed in some other way.
Often, local farmers are selling their foods completely unprocessed, Kerr said. Food services, including dining halls, in general have evolved to meet industrial needs and now are trying to disconnect a bit and revert to local products.
“They’re not going to replace everything with local food right away,” she said. “The food system is going to adapt and evolve.”
Kerr added that DDS has an interest in increasing the amount of local food to meet the wants and needs of students.
“People underestimate how much DDS thinks about this while also trying to meet basic industrial needs that are pretty big,” Kerr said.
Another impediment to this move is the difficulty in obtaning locally-grown food from New Hampshire in the winter. To counteract this, Kerr said Dartmouth can help the local food system build the infrastructure needed to flash freeze produce from the summer while also finding creative methods to grow foods in the winter. One project in the works in the construction of greenhouses on top of landfills which then use the waste heat to grow winter greens.
The College has participated in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System for the past three years. STARS is a self-reporting framework for colleges and universities that helps them measure their sustainability performance. A portion of this report focuses on dining services.
This report, according to Sustainability Fellow Denielle Harrison, has allowed DDS to get a better sense of in what areas to work.
“They have improved significantly by offering more sustainable and third-party verified options,” she said.
Of the current 236 participants, slighly over half were awarded either platinum, gold, silver or bronze. Dartmouth as a whole — not just DDS — was not recognized in any of these categories.
Harrison emphasized, however, that DDS has improved sustainability because they want to, not solely because of the report.
“They’ve put in the time and effort, made it happen, partnered with students,” Harrison said. “They really care about it.”
