Unlike in years past, missing the Hanover Farmer’s Market will no longer ruin your week. This summer, the Dartmouth Sustainability Program and Dartmouth Dining Services have teamed up to offer students an opportunity to buy fresh, local produce on campus.
Held at Collis Center on Fridays between 3 and 5 p.m., Collis’ new organic farm stand allows students to purchase seasonal produce supplied by a host of local farms, including Edgewater Farm, Blythedale Farm, Neighborly Farm and the College’s own organic farm.
The farm stand features a variety of different items including an assortment of green produce, dairy products and cured meats. Any remaining produce is later incorporated in the meals offered at the Class of 1953 Commons, DDS associate manager Don Reed said.
Rather than paying out of pocket, students are able to use their DBA to make purchases at the farm stand, which may be an option for those who prefer to cook for themselves.
Currently, there is a trial group of 30 students who have offered to allocate a portion of their DBA to purchase foods from the farm stand. The Sustainability Office will survey this sample group throughout the summer to see where it can improve and gauge whether or not the program is a viable long-term option.
The organic farm stand has been in the works for over a year now, Reed said, adding that the idea for the project was proposed last summer. Lucia Pohlman ’15, who wrote a thesis on community-supported agriculture during her senior year, was a major factor in the farm stand becoming a reality, he said.
Pohlman said that her environmental studies thesis examined agricultural systems and the benefits of involving the community in local agriculture. With the help of the sustainability office and DDS, she came up with the idea of piloting the farm stand.
“There was a good response initially from the draft that we had,” Reed said. “We tweaked it a little bit, and we decided to go for it.”
The project aims to educate students about food and bring awareness to the sustainability program at the College. Additionally, it allows local farmers to establish new markets in the Dartmouth community.
“I think that this exposes students to what the sustainability office is doing at the farm, and it exposes students to the sustainability and locovore movement broadly so, after Dartmouth, they become good consumers for our economy,” sustainability program manager Jenna Musco said.
Reaching out to some of the local farms was not as difficult thanks to the help of broadline distributors, Reed said. These intermediary companies allow local farmers to interact with consumers they are normally unable to contact. The farmers ship their produce to the company, which then in turn ships the product directly to the food service operator. Then, the food service operators sell the product to consumers.
Using the packaging codes on the products, students are able to track the origin of their food. They can scan the codes with their phones and receive information about the farm that produced their food, Reed said.
“Each of their products will have a QR code that you can scan with your phone,” Reed said. “You would then get information about the food, where it is from, a little bit about the history of the farm.”
Though it is still early in the term, the farm stand has been well-received, he said. During its first week, the stand completely sold out of some of its products, prompting the staff to increase its inventory for the upcoming weeks.
The staff intends to survey their customers later in the term to see if any other changes can be made to improve the success of the pilot.
If the pilot is successful, the farm stand may return in the fall, Musco said, although seasonal changes in available agriculture may influence which terms the farm stand will operate.