Sustainable Dining at UVA

Global Sustainability Food Projects

2012-01-25T17:06:00.000-05:00

The Global Sustainability course (the foundation of the U.Va. Global Sustainability minor) has long focused on semester-long projects to connect the dots between what the students are learning via powerpoint in the classroom and what is happening in our community. They have put together a comprehensive website of all projects students have completed since the course was first offered in Fall 2007.

Screenshot of the "Food Projects" page

You can search projects by student name or by topic, and clicking on the food topic reveals the wide variety of food-focused projects that students have conducted over the past few years. Topics range from food waste audits to mapping Charlottesville's community food system. Spend some time poking around - it's neat to see the research students have done in semesters past!

Meat Free Monday Launch on January 23rd

2012-01-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

Just like the last few semesters, each main residential dining rooms will continue to observe Meat Free Mondays with a designated meat-free station every Monday throughout the spring.

Check out our revamped logo!

The stations will officially re-launch this coming Monday, January 23rd, with celebrations at Runk and O'Hill during dinner, and at Newcomb during lunch. O'Hill will be the main kick-off site at dinner (5-8pm): Green Dining, UVa Sustainability, the UVa Community Garden, and the Morven Kitchen Garden will all be on hand to share info about what they do and how to get involved. Interactive trivia games will be a part of the fun!

Look out for these dishes at all three dining rooms on Monday (MFM dishes will be consistent everywhere) - and check back here to see what will be served in the coming weeks:

Lunch: Spinach and Chickpea Curry over Roasted Sweet Potato

Dinner: Vegetable and Barley Ragout

I hope you get the chance to try these hearty and flavorful dishes on Monday!

2011 in Review

2012-01-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

Another calendar year has rolled around and a new semester is upon us!

The spring promises to be full of more fun and educational programs, but 2011 deserves a round of applause before we completely bid it farewell.

2011 Sustainable Dining highlights:
-Presented (for the 2nd year in a row) at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's annual conference; this year's presentation, in Pittsburgh, was on Dining's relationship with the Local Food Hub (October)
-Hosted a Local Food Hub farm stand on Grounds (September)
-Took a full van of students out to tour the beautiful Morven Kitchen Garden (September)
-Participated in Virginia Farm to School week, with local ingredients highlighted in residential dining's dishes (November)
-Worked with four Global Sustainability student groups to organize food waste audits around Grounds (October)
-Hosted a Meat Free Monday kick-off with a variety of student and community groups represented (August)
-Helped another Global Sustainability student group host a Local Foods Fair at the Fine Arts Cafe, featuring Twin Oaks, Farm at Red Hill, and the Local Food Hub (November)
-Installed a second hydration station on Grounds (June)
-Sponsored the 2nd Virginia Food Security Summit, that drew over 300 attendees and launched the preliminary Virginia Farm to Table Plan (December)
-Took a tour of the Local Food Hub Educational Farm (April)
-Hosted a "Logistics of Local" panel to explore how Dining is expanding its local food procurement efforts (March)
-Entered O'Hill in the EPA Green Building Challenge and competed throughout the summer (June)
-Celebrated Campus Sustainability Day by highlighting the dining hall's "Green Menu Items", and by participation in a sustainability dialogue representing education, energy, planning and transportation, and dining facets of on-Grounds conservation (October)
-Gave tours of O'Hill and its green features, especially the pulper and general composting operation, to student groups (June, November)
-Incorporated local ingredients into a series of "Healthy Bites Bars" to showcase the dining halls' healthy options (October, November)
-Celebrated Fair Trade Month with a fair trade products sampling event (October)
-Took some of our chefs out to the Local Food Hub warehouse for a tour of the facility (September)
-Participated in UVa Earth Week, including hosting a second annual Farm to Fork meal that featured local ingredients and the local producers who grow them (April)
-Celebrated National Nutrition Month and incorporated some local food into the dishes where possible, including in new recipes developed by two Green Dining students for a class project (March)
-Launched Share Your Bowl, a philanthropic partnership with Kellogg that resulted in the equivalent of nearly 11,000 servings of cereal being donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to support their after school programs (March)

Keep on visiting this blog to find out what's to come in 2012!

Waste Management: Aramark-wide Efforts

2011-12-12T17:14:00.001-05:00

Waste audits can be a popular -- and eye-opening -- way of finding out where there's room for improvement in an organization's waste management program. UVa Dining has experienced this first hand by working with a number of student groups and projects to host post-consumer food waste audits this fall, as well as in past semesters.

The Newcomb group shares their waste audit experiences during their final class presentation

Each dining room, plus the Fine Arts Cafe retail space, all hosted one waste audit over the course of the fall, and each audit served as a way of raising awareness about individuals' roles in contributing to a sizeable overall waste stream. One takeaway that students noted in their final presentations this morning was the opporunity for stressing reusable to-go containers versus the default disposable container. That's a great individual action which students can take that will add up to major reductions in waste.

Two of the groups created videos to accompany their final presentations. Check them out!

Runk waste audit video

Fine Arts Cafe audit video

Aramark as a whole has made waste management a top priority in its sustainability programming over the last few years, so we here at UVa are falling in line with what our counterparts around the country are also doing. One great example of that is at Monterey Bay Aquarium (the name may sound familiar: we try to purchase our seafood according to the renowned Monterey Bay sustainable seafood guidelines!), for which Aramark provides the food and catering. Michael Seaman is their recently hired Environmental & Purchasing Manager, and part of his job includes tracking the trash and looking at ways to divert more of it into recycling channels. For the full story, check out the Monterey Herald article about his position. It's pretty exciting to see environmental sustainability steadily becoming more established within the corporate world -- I'm sure there's lots more innovation to come!

With a rise in the number of full time positions devoted to conservation, Aramark will be able to make even more significant headway towards minimizing its overall environmental footprint.

Food Trends of 2012

2011-12-09T14:00:00.001-05:00

It seems that the USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative was a couple of years ahead of its time. "Supermarket guru" Phil Lempert has just released his annual predictions of food trends in the coming year and coming it at number 4 is his sustainability related forecast: Increased Emphasis on the 'Farm to Fork' journey. He clarifies that the face of this movement is increasingly going to be the farmer - rather than the chef - and, in particular, the emerging next generation of young farmers that are already social media savvy and well connected in their communities. Coming on the heels of what seems like a steady stream of tainted food stories, it's no wonder that the public is looking for food security via transparancy, and they're finding it directly through their community farmers. I certainly hope that this is more than a trend, though!

Take a look at the complete list of food trends here. What do you think Phil missed?

VA Food Security Summit

2011-12-07T16:25:00.001-05:00

The second Virginia Food Security Summit was a success! In total, over three hundred people from across the state came to Charlottesville for the Monday evening roundtable and Tuesday all day workshop and flash presentations. Events like this always do a great job of re-energizing attendees in their continued efforts to increase availability and access of local food to Virginians, and the Summit was no exception.

Attendees gather at the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Hall on Monday evening for a 'crystal ball' roundtable event on the state and future of food security in Virginia.

USDA's Kathleen Merrigan gives her inspiring remarks.

Tanya Denckla Cobb moderates the roundtable with some big names in the sustainable food and ag realm (Fred Kirschenmann, Ken Meter, etc)

The Catering set-up for the post-roundtable reception

Virginia oysters

The reception menu - I heard great things about the delicata squash and pear soup!

All the sponsors who made this event possible (including UVa Dining)

The breakfast spread

Tanya kicks things off with an overview of what the VA Food System Council hopes to accomplish at the Summit (namely, getting input on their recently drafted Virginia Farm-to-Table plan so that they can officially present it to the folks in Richmond)

Attendees self-identifying as producers/distributors/eaters/etc

Discussing regulatory barriers to local meat processing in one of our breakout sessions

The Virginia Farm-to-Table plan

Breaking for lunch

Spencer Neale represents the Farm Bureau at the post-lunch panel

Thanks to the conference organizers and to everyone that came out and added such enthusiasm to the entire experience! I'm excited to see the Virginia Farm-to-Table plan making its journey from draft to implementation.

Also a shout out goes to Bernice O'Brien, who was our student scholarship recipient and attended the Monday evening and Tuesday summit in its entirety. I can't wait to hear her thoughts on the take aways from the event, and how we can continue to make progress in local food procurement here on Grounds. Stay tuned for details about our first Green Dining meeting of the spring semester where you'll catch a more detailed and introspective recap!

Healthy Bites: The Recap

2011-12-01T15:34:00.001-05:00

I hope some of you readers were able to stop by a dining hall yesterday evening for a tasty bite of breakfast at dinner!

To whet your appetite for future events, check out the pictures:

First stop, Runk.

It might be stretching things to call these 'healthy', exactly, but the Carter Mountain apple cider donuts were sure scrumptious!

Local baked apple with a struesel crumble topping, and granola encrusted french toast in the background. I tried a baked apple topped with yogurt (Chef Brett mixed in frozen Local Food Hub black raspberries with plain yogurt), dried cranberries, and local honey -- needless to say, I had to hold myself back from licking my plate clean.

A jar of the Hungry Hill Farm honey (from Shipman, VA) that Runk procured via the Local Food Hub for last night's dishes.

Did you know that items are identified as organic at the Runk salad bar by being placed in white (rather than black) bins?

Next up was Newcomb.

I hope it was obvious that the apples were local here...!

Setting out the apple dish.

It's fun to see how each chef has his own take on these special menu items.

And we rounded things out with a stop in at O'Hill.

Setting the scene.

O'Hill chose to set everything (baked apples, french toast, egg-white omelet) out together in one sampler platter. That way you could try out everything in healthy portions!

As usual, the apples were local here, plus some of the ingredients in the omelet, including arugula and shitake mushrooms.

Great job to all of our chefs! Stay tuned for more events to come.

Healthy (and Sustainable) Bites Bar Tomorrow

2011-11-29T12:41:00.001-05:00

Stop by your nearest dining room at dinnertime for a taste of healthy and sustainable "Breakfast for Dinner"! Serving Baked Apples, Egg-White Omelet, Veggie Frittata, and Granola alongside your usual dinner staples.

As we did with the last Healthy Bites Bar, local food is being incorporated where possible. Here's a breakdown of what to expect:

Newcomb

Apples (Baked Apple dish)

Runk

Granny and York apples (Baked Apple dish)
Black raspberries (frozen at the height of the season, and thawed into fat free yogurt) and Mountain Laurel honey (Granola Crusted French Toast)
Arugula (Egg-White Omelet)
Arugula, broccoli, and mushroom (Veggie Frittata)

O'Hill

Apples (Baked Apple dish)
Tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and riddiccio (Egg-White Omelet)

In addition to the local fare, all of the eggs used in these dishes are cage-free, thus hitting the Humane standard on our Green Dining sustainability bull's eye. Hope you enjoy!

Local Food Fair and Farm to School Week in Review

2011-11-16T13:42:00.001-05:00

If you weren't able to make it to Dining's Healthy Bites/Farm to School celebration (at Runk, Newcomb, and O'Hill) or the Fine Arts Cafe Local Foods Fair last Wednesday evening, here are some pictures to recap the events:

The Farm at Red Hill's salsa sampling set up at the Fine Arts Cafe (photo by Dan Addison)

Students sampling the goods at the FAC (photo by Dan Addison)

Lots of people were stopping by the FAC!

And chatting with our vendors - here, Lisa from the Local Food Hub speaks with a student about the local apples and apple cider that they source from area farms

Lisa prepares more apple samples

Students from the Global Sustainability class organized this Food Show

Did you know that the Fine Arts Cafe now stocks single serving sized Farm at Red Hill hummus containers?

The student organizers put together a display about the merits of local food

Twin Oaks had an info table with delicious samples, and a display featuring the basic tofu ingredients: water and (US-grown) soybeans

Twin Oaks display

The Healthy Bites/Farm to School Week crudites bar at Newcomb

Local green beans, green peppers, apples, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, and apple cider

The cider was a big hit

Don't forget, whenever you attend events like this, be sure to share your feedback with me or dining@virginia.edu. Hearing positive comments after the fact really helps to reinforce our commitment to sustainability!

Virginia Food Security Summit Scholarship Available - Apply Now!

2011-11-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

Have you heard about the upcoming Virginia Food Security Summit taking place here on Grounds on December 5th and 6th? It's going to be a gathering of minds from around the Commonwealth, with everyone coming together to actively seek out opportunities to successfully institutionalize sustainable food and to create a Virginia farm to table five-year plan.

See the complete agenda here: Summit Agenda.

If this is making you feel inspired, you're in luck. UVa Dining is offering one Summit scholarship to a student that fills out a very brief application form. If we get a great deal of interest, we may be able to offer additional scholarships, so don't hesitate to apply if you're available on those days.

Applications are due at midnight on Sunday, November 27. Apply today!

Fine Arts Cafe's Local Food Fair

2011-11-08T13:11:00.003-05:00

If you're looking for an appetizer to preceed your dinner featuring local foods tomorrow, you should wander over to the Fine Arts Cafe and explore the Local Food Show taking place between 4 and 6pm. Students from the Global Sustainability course are hosting this event in conjunction with Dining, and it should be an excellent opportunity for some quality face time with the farmers that bring us the local food items found on Grounds. Representatives from the Farm at Red Hill, Twin Oaks, and the Local Food Hub will be on hand to talk about the food they produce and how the journey it takes to arrive on students' plates.

For a further enticement, note that the Fine Arts Cafe perennial favorite, the quesadilla (with Farm at Red Hill salsa), will be available for $1 off during the event! Hope to see you there.

Celebrate Virginia Farm to School Week

2011-11-07T17:07:00.000-05:00

Virginia is celebrating Farm to School Week again this year, starting today: November 7 - 11. U.Va. Dining is joining in the programming with a Healthy Crudites Bar this Wednesday evening (November 9, 5-8pm) at all three dining halls, featuring some scrumptious local items from the Local Food Hub.

Here are the offerings, by dining location:

Runk

Broccoli, Green Beans and Green Peppers from Critzer Family Farm in Afton, VA
Cauliflower from Singing Earth Produce in Waynesboro, VA
D'Anjou Pears from Fresh Pearspective Farm in Union, WV
Apples from Crown Orchard in Covesville, VA, and from Dickie Bros. Orchard in Roseland, VA

Newcomb

Broccoli, Green Beans, Green Peppers, and Celery from Critzer Family Farm in Afton, VA
Cauliflower from Singing Earth Produce in Waynesboro, VA
Apples from Crown Orchard in Covesville, VA, and from Dickie Bros. Orchard in Roseland, VA
Apple Cider from Morris Orchard in Amherst, VA

O'Hill

Broccoli, Green Beans, and Green Peppers from Critzer Family Farm in Afton, VA
Cauliflower from Singing Earth Produce in Waynesboro, VA
Apples from Crown Orchard in Covesville, VA, and from Dickie Bros. Orchard in Roseland, VA
Apple Cider from Morris Orchard in Amherst, VA

The Farm to School Week menu items at O'Hill last year

Tabling for VA Farm to School Week 2010

Stop by a dining hall at dinner on Wednesday and taste the difference for yourself. Happy Farm to School Week!

Behind the scenes at O'Hill

2011-11-04T15:51:00.000-04:00

A first year seminar class took a field trip to O'Hill earlier this week and got an up close look at the back of the house in all its non-stop busy-ness. This was a really fun opportunity to show students the dishroom, the pulping machine, and what actually happens to all of their food waste. Students also learned about Campus Kitchens, our partnership with the Local Food Hub, the calculations that the staff makes to order just the right amount of food, and how they can play a role in making Dining Services more sustainable (sign up for the reusable to-go container program; bring their own reusable mug to cafes around Grounds - and get a discount for it!; submit feedback, good or bad, via Text 'n Tell or in person to one of the managers or cooks in the dining halls).

We had a great afternoon with the group. Thanks to Politics Professor Paul Freedman for organizing this event!

O'Hill Manager Keith Kelleher explains how the pulping equipment works

Keith shows off O'Hill's more energy efficient hood controls

Campus Sustainability Day: Today

2011-10-26T16:31:00.002-04:00

Happy Campus Sustainability Day! To celebrate, UVa Dining is featuring dishes in its dining halls that can be deemed a "Green Menu Item". At lunch, students enjoyed dishes like eggplant parmesan (Newcomb), corn chowder soup (O'Hill), and chicken caesar salad with local Romaine lettuce (Runk). Green your menu at dinner this evening and continue the celebration!

Corn chowder at O'Hill

O'Hill salad bar - green every day!

UVa Sustainability Dialogue

2011-10-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone that came out for yesterday's Sustainability Dialogue at the Kaleidoscope Room! Paxton Marshall, Cheryl Gomez, Andrew Greene, and I all spoke about various facets of sustainability across the university and how we're tackling the UVa directive to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% of 2009 levels by 2025.

It was an informative session, with some lively discussion afterwards. To learn more about the event and the carbon commitment, take a look at this NBC29 coverage:

Video about UVa Sustainability Dialogue

Reflecting on AASHE 2011

2011-10-18T15:43:00.001-04:00

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, or AASHE, held its annual conference last month at the green (and LEED Gold certified) David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh. This year’s theme was “Creating Sustainable Campuses and Communities”, and, appropriately, many of the workshops centered around place-based education and ways for campuses and their surrounding communities to successfully collaborate.

Scenic Pittsburgh view from the convention center balcony

UVa was well represented at the conference, with six staff members, two faculty members, and five students attending (and most of us carpooling!), and a number of us presenting posters or giving presentations. I gave a presentation entitled “Fostering a Local Food Procurement System: UVa Dining’s Relationship with the Local Food Hub”, which went well and seemed to elicit a significant amount of interest from attendees. In fact, that appeared to be the case with all food-related presentations and dialogues, and reinforces what is obviously a growing trend among college and university campuses: institutions want to play a role in ensuring food security and food sustainability.

Here is a sampling of food projects that various schools and organizations shared at the conference:

• University of Florida is eradicating 100% of its Styrofoam on campus, including at national brand retail locations like Chik-fil-A
• Arizona State University has established a thriving, 27-vendor farmers market on its campus every other Tuesday throughout the academic year
• Yale is reinventing its salad bar by removing processed meats and replacing with fresh produce; also by removing all processed salad dressings and replacing with high-end olive oils and house-made dressings
• The EPA has just launched its Food Waste Recovery program, to encourage schools to reduce food waste along all tiers of the food waste recovery hierarchy
• Randolph College is designing an edible urban landscape for the green spaces on its campus
• The Marine Stewardship Council provides a 3rd party sustainability certification to wild stocks of fish around the world, and in turn colleges and universities can buy this MSC-certified fish as a way of increasing their percentage of sustainable food purchases
• Emory created a part-time Farmer Liaison position to seek out partnerships with Georgia farmers between 2007 and 2009, and has also published an Eating Sustainably booklet on its website with such sub-topics as “Health Benefits & Sustainable Eating” and “Sustainable Food and the Georgia Economy”
• Students at the University of Western Michigan are in the process of launching a student-run cooperate café on campus, called The Campus Beet

All of these discrete projects illustrate the growing momentum on campuses around the country to be part of the shift in the way that our food is grown, processed, distributed, and consumed. The variety of presentations given is particularly indicative of the great depth and breadth of this food movement: people are approaching the journey towards food and agriculture sustainability from public health, social justice, climate change, and even cultural and heritage perspectives. Food is, of course, deeply personal, and means something to everyone. It makes sense, then, that due to everyone’s vested interest in “eating as an agricultural act”, colleges and universities would rise up to pioneer sustainability innovations in this sector.

Dr. Sandra Steingraber, one of the conference’s keynote speakers, eloquently summed up higher education’s responsibilities where sustainability was concerned, when she told the crowd that we couldn’t let people be lulled into a sense of complacency by dutifully taking out their recycling, or other relatively superficial activities. Instead, it is time for institutions – and the people working, teaching, or being educated at them – to step up and do something heroic.

How can Virginia institutions step up?

Fair Trade Month: October

2011-10-13T17:43:00.001-04:00

Happy Fair Trade Month! Dining celebrated last Wednesday with a Fair Trade coffee and chocolate sampling event right outside of Crossroads, and we had a great time sharing these little bites with passersby along with a bit of education about Fair Trade certification and what it means in regards to sustainability.

Info tabling for Fair Trade Month

A few Fair Trade facts:

Economics -- Fair Trade certified businesses work cooperatively together in order to cut out the middleman and receive a living wage for their products. This ensures a sustainable business model.
Envionment -- The Fair Trade certification requires agricultural items to be grown according to specific environmental standards that prevent deforestation and erosion, and use of toxins that can harm the water supply, among other criteria. This ensures a sustainable growing environment.
Equity -- Some revenues earned through Fair Trade certification are put towards improving infrastructure, like building schools, health clinics, or libraries. Children and women in particular are empowered through these resulting opportunities. This ensures a sustainable community.

Dining is proud to carry a number of Fair Trade certified products in our retail locations - and not just during the month of October!

Fair Trade label

These are the Fair Trade certified products that Crossroads carries on any given day:

Green & Black's organic chocolate bars (Almond, Dark, White, Maya Gold, Hazelnut & Currant)
Ben & Jerry's ice cream (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Half-Baked)
Choice organic tea (Chamomile, Classic Black, and Classic Green)
Honest Tea (Black Forest Berry, Green Dragon Tea, Just Green Tea, Peach Oo-La-Long, Pearfect White Tea, Pomegranate Red Tea with Goji Berry)
Coffee

Handing out samples

Sydney and Sedia spread the word about Fair Trade Month

Fair Trade USA has also just introduced a new "Fair Trade Finder" App that allows you to easily find Fair Trade items wherever you are -- and needs people like you to help populate the database. Check out the Fair Trade website for more information.

Thanks for stopping by last week, and check out the Fair Trade products throughout the rest of the month and beyond! Remember: every purchase matters.

Local Food Hub Warehouse Tour

2011-10-03T17:21:00.001-04:00

Last week, a few of the UVa Dining chefs and I trekked out to the Local Food Hub warehouse in Ivy (a few miles west of Charlottesville and Grounds) for a tour of the space and to give the chefs an opportunity to see the Food Hub operation for themselves. Alan Moore, Head of Sales, led the tour and answered questions about partner producers, seasonal availability, and other logistics. Lisa Reeder, Farm Services staff member, set up a lovely apple and pear sampling spread for us to try out, and even sent us home with some goodie bags!

Dining is grateful to the Local Food Hub for the warm reception and for taking the time to show us around. Every dollar spent with the Local Food Hub is a dollar keeping Virginia agriculture a viable economic sector.

Alan and the chefs checking out a box of produce

The Local Food Hub warehouse

Locally Grown

Local Food Hub branding

Misty Morven

2011-09-27T15:43:00.001-04:00

A sizeable group of students braved the gloomy weather this past Friday morning to venture out to Morven Farm for the Dining sponsored garden tour. Though we all experienced our fair share of mud and rain, we had a great time -- special thanks to Marie, Michelle and Rowan for showing us around! The overcast skies made the garden pop with color and accentuate the lush greenery in production, so that it actually looked quite lovely. I think the garden may have even gotten a few more potential volunteers... :)

Introductions

Everyone learned a lot about the history - both recent and less so (Kluge versus Jefferson) - of the property, and how the garden had gotten its start in its current inception last spring. We made our way throughout the garden quadrants, taking a look at the corn, the compost pile, the chickens, the okra, the row cover, and the flowers scattered around the growing space to attract pollinators and good insects. It was an enlightening journey, particularly in our observations of the sheer quantity of produce we saw growing in just a single acre plot. It takes a lot of manpower to keep that one acre producing so abundantly, but the education and bucolic setting that goes hand in hand with the effort makes the labor more than worth it.

Observing through the umbrellas

Checking out the okra flowers

Rowan explains the "crow disco" set-up

Marie and Michelle show off their hand-built toolshed

The enthusiastic group

For more details about the tour and the garden, check out the news coverage from NBC29!

Local Food Hub Farm Stand Recap

2011-09-21T16:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Local Food Hub pop-up farm stand was a success! The morning dawned rainy and generally grey, but we went ahead and set up under our awnings and were rewarded with sunshine and climbing temperatures by midday. Emily Manley and Lisa Reeder both came on behalf of the Local Food Hub, and brought with them several bushels of apples and pears for selling and tasting.

Readying some apples for sampling

Despite the questionable weather, students and staff alike came by to sample and buy fruit, and to learn more about Dining's general sustainability programming. It was great to see so much interest from so many new faces. NBC29 even stopped by to do a quick story about the stand:

Lisa Reeder describes the differences between the apple varieties available at the stand

Supporting our local farmers

The runaway hit of the day (truly delicious - and I don't even usually like pears!)

Sampling remnants

Apple season is in full swing

The Local Food Hub motto

All in all, a fun and tasty event. Don't forget to head to O'Hill tonight for dinner or Newcomb tomorrow for lunch if you liked what you had yesterday: local apples are being featured at their autumn apple bars. And keep your eyes peeled for the "Local & Seasonal" bull's eye signage in all of the dining rooms; this identifies produce coming from the Local Food Hub and other local sources.

Autumn Apple Bar

2011-09-19T15:59:00.001-04:00

A chill is in the air, and it's time to indulge in a favorite fall treat: the apple. Each dining hall is hosting a local apple + toppings tasting bar this week:

Runk, Wednesday, September 21, lunch
O'Hill, Wednesday, September 21, dinner
Newcomb, Thursday, September 22, dinner

Give it a try!

The 2011 Community Food Awards

2011-09-16T11:42:00.000-04:00

The Local Food Hub opened its doors just two years ago, in July 2009, after local vendors and buyers alike recognized that they needed an intermediary to connect them to each other. Large buyers didn’t have the resources or time to call up producers one at a time, hoping to scrounge up enough green peppers to serve in the school cafeteria the next day, and local vendors were relegated to selling their produce at farmers markets or through Community Supported Agriculture shares due to a lack of liability and limitations in delivery capacity. The Local Food Hub connects these two seemingly disparate market shares – the small local farmer and the large institutional buyer – in a single cohesive distribution system.

On September 15, the Local Food Hub partnered with VDACS (the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) to host its first Community Food Awards presentation. The goal was to recognize and honor those vendors and buyers who have made this distribution system such a success, particularly for Virginia’s economy. The speakers and presenters each had different words of praise for the Local Food Hub, but the overarching theme was evident: the Local Food Hub has had significant impact on keeping consumer dollars in the state and on directly benefiting the agriculture industry so as to keep farming a viable enterprise today and down the road.

2011 Community Food Awards program

The crowd assembles

Party favors, Local Food Hub-style

The refrigerated delivery truck

Three farmers, or ‘partner producers’, were recognized first. The Community Mentor Award, for promoting the current and next generations of farmers through leading workshops, PVCC courses and more, went to Richard Bean of Double H Farm. The Partner Producer of the Year Award, for not merely just consistency and quality of product, but an ability and willingness to go above and beyond in delivery quantities, was presented to Jose and Adolfo Calixto of Singing Earth Produce. (I can attest to their reliability, as much of what UVa Dining purchases from the Local Food Hub originates at Singing Earth Produce.) The Agricultural Endurance Award, for longevity of farming and for carrying on despite the obstacles that may arise, went to Whitney Critzer of Critzer Family Farm.

Next, three buyers were acknowledged. The Small Business Award, for purchasing significant quantities of Local Food Hub product and for advertising it so clearly, went to Integral Yoga Natural Foods. The Trailblazer Award, for working creatively to find ways to bring local food to a sector of our population that doesn’t have easy access to it, went to Alicia Cost and Sandra Vasquez of Charlottesville City Schools Nutrition Services. And the Institutional Leader Award, for getting local products into an institutional niche (the hardest market for local producers to break into), went to the UVa Health System.

MC Terri Allard welcomes the audience

VDACS rep Robins Buck says a few words (complete with props)

Keynote speaker (and LFH Board Member) Lisa Colton makes her remarks

Marisa Vrooman hands Jose Calixto his award

The award recipients are acknowledged

It wouldn’t be an event truly celebrating local food without a sample of some of the delicacies being touted throughout the morning. The formal presentation concluded right around noon with a toast of sparkling grape juice from Oakencroft, and then a delicious buffet of local foods that had been prepared by local school chefs and their cafeteria staff. What a perfect (and beautiful – it was truly a feast for the eyes as much as it was for the taste buds) way to conclude this uplifting event! Bravo to our community for making the Local Food Hub a reality and a success.

Readying the toasts

Everyone helps themselves to the bountiful spread

Morven Kitchen Garden Tour - RSVP now!

2011-09-13T15:17:00.002-04:00

The Morven Kitchen Garden is a 1-acre plot for growing, learning, experimenting, and embracing the joys of a carrot freshly plucked from the ground. In 2001, philanthropist John W. Kluge gave this 7,379-acre property (which was once purchased by Jefferson himself) to the UVA Foundation for educational purposes. Morven is now a central hub for interdisciplinary research, seminars, retreats, and innovative UVA courses – and of course, home to the Morven Kitchen Garden.

Located on a one-acre plot which was once organically cultivated for John Kluge, the Kitchen Garden offers a hands-on learning opportunity to study food production cycles, design sustainable agriculture technologies, and develop a better understanding of the social, environmental, and economic implications of our daily food choices.

See the Morven Kitchen Garden Project for yourself on this UVa Dining-hosted tour next Friday, September 23rd. The tour van will depart from the O'Hill loading dock at 10:30 and you will return to Grounds between 12:30 and 12:45. Space is limited; RSVP to Kendall Singleton at kendall.singleton@virginia.edu.

For more information about the Project, see the garden blog at http://morvenkitchengarden.wordpress.com/.

Local Food Hub Farm Stand on Tuesday, 9/20

2011-09-12T17:12:00.000-04:00

Next Tuesday, September 20th, the Local Food Hub will be hosting a pop-up farm stand at the UVa amphitheater during lunch time (11am to 2pm), as a supplement to the food trucks Dining currently has stationed in and around the ampitheater every weekday. The Food Hub will have a sampling of fresh produce from their partner producers available for purchase, along with a wealth of information about the great services they provide to area farmers and to institutional buyers like UVa Dining.

We're in the height of the Virginia Grown season right now, so keep your eyes peeled for signs of Local Food Hub-procured food items in the dining rooms over the next few weeks.

Meat Free Kick-Off Recap

2011-09-02T12:52:00.000-04:00

Monday's Meat Free Monday kick-off event at O'Hill was a success!

Thanks to everyone that stopped by the info fair and sampled a local cherry tomato, signed up for the Green Dining mailing list, or spun the nutrition wheel and answered a question about eating a plant-based diet. I hope there were some useful takeaways, and that some of you are feeling inspired to incorporate some of those healthy eating tips into your college diet, or to get involved with some of the groups represented at the fair.

As always, get in touch with me or with UVa Dining's Nutritionist, Paula Caravati, if you have any questions about the Meat Free Monday station or other sustainability and nutrition initiatives.

Meat Free Monday: Round 2

2011-08-25T17:21:00.002-04:00

Welcome back to school, everyone!

The Meat Free Monday station is once again being launched this year, and to celebrate healthy eating on Grounds (and not just on Mondays), Dining is hosting an information fair featuring a number of groups that represent different facets of living a healthy and sustainable lifestyle at our University and in our greater community.

Where: O'Hill Dining Room
When: Monday, August 29th, 5-8pm
Who will be in attendance:
Green Dining
UVa Community Garden
Morven Kitchen Garden Project
UVa Dining Nutrition
UVa Green Challenge
N-Print Project
Local Food Hub

All are invited to attend and to learn about, and perhaps even get involved with, these various groups that all seek to promote sustainability and healthy living at UVa.

Don't forget to try the O'Hill Meat Free Monday station while you're there, too -- for dinner they'll be serving a tasty sounding Tofu Pho, which consists of Thai noodles simmered with vegetable broth, tofu, and seasoned fresh vegetables.

Morven Farm Tour & Farm Bill Discussion Tomorrow

2011-08-08T10:48:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday, August 9th (tomorrow), a group of Food & Water Watch organizers will be in Charlottesville to lead a roundtable discussion about the upcoming 2012 U.S. Farm Bill, with a pre-talk tour of UVa's very own Morven Kitchen Garden Project.

More information and registration details can be found on the Food & Water Watch event page:

Join Food & Water Watch and Morven Farm at the University of Virginia for a garden tour at Morven Farm's Kitchen Garden. We'll talk about why small-scale, organic farms are essential to rebuilding our local food infrastructure and how Virginia is redefining the landscape of local food! The tour will start at 6 pm.

Then, we'll head over to nearby Henderson Farm (2310 Monacan Trail Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903) for refreshments and to hear from more small-scale farmers and food advocates in the region. The roundtable will start at 7:30 PM.

The Morven Kitchen Garden serves as a research and teaching laboratory at the University of Virginia that provides a sustainable food source for Morven-based programs and staff. It provides UVA faculty members and students with hands-on opportunities for studying food production cycles and the impact of agriculture on community and economics.

Early seaon planting session at the Morven Kitchen Garden, mid-March

Fair Trade and the Environment

2011-08-01T15:36:00.002-04:00

Fair Trade USA is working on a brief series of mini-documentaries about Fair Trade certification and its impact on the three realms of sustainability: economics, equity, and environment. They just released the environmental video, and it's worth a watch.

As their video description says, "Fair Trade is not just about earning a higher price for the harvest, it's about learning techniques for sustainable agriculture that help protect the environment and make the world a better place for future generations. To become Fair Trade Certified, farms must adhere to a strict set of environmental standards, including but not limited to: no use of GMO's, minimal and safe use of chemicals, elimination of slash and burn techniques and responsible disposal of waste and water runoff. These standards not only ensure sustainable production practices, but also worker health and safety.

Additionally, while Fair Trade does not require organic certification, it does encourage organic conversion to further enhance environmental commitment."

Just something to keep in mind next time you stop in Crossroads and are deciding between a regular chocolate bar and a Green & Black's Maya Gold Fair Trade and Organic bar!

Save the Date: On Grounds Bike Sale August 22

2011-07-11T14:19:00.005-04:00

UVa is hosting its first ever On Grounds Bike Sale on Monday, August 22nd, the day before classes start, and you should check it out!

It's being held from 11am to 4pm over at the parking lot outside of the Student Activities Building (near the intersection of Alderman and Stadium Road, across the street from Hereford and Gooch/Dillard).

The sale will feature three of Charlottesville's premiere bike shops: Blue Ridge Cyclery, Blue Wheel Bicycles, and C'ville Bike & Tri. These vendors will have everything you need to get around Grounds. Helmets, pumps, tubes, lights, reflectors, clothing and more. Demo bikes will be on site for fitting and testing. Most major credit cards will be accepted on site.

Register to win great prizes from:
Blue Ridge Cyclery
C'ville Bike & Tri
Relay Foods
And More To Be Announced

Mark your calendars and RSVP on the Facebook event page. Hope to see you there!

Sustainable Campers

2011-07-06T15:16:00.009-04:00

Last Friday, a group of campers from Triple C Camp just south of town came to UVa for a sustainability tour of Grounds. Nina Morris, UVa Sustainability Outreach Coordinator, and I had a great time showing the students a few highlights of Dining and Facilities Management sustainability. We spent an hour with the campers and only had time to stay on the western edge of Grounds (namely O'Hill and the Recycling area) -- lots going on even in this sub-section of UVa.

Nina talks about the National Building Contest

We started in O'Hill and demonstrated the brand new hydration station outside of Crossroads, and brought the campers up to speed on our participation in the EPA National Building Competition.

Our attentive and inquisitive guests

Then we ventured upstairs and chatted about our reusable to-go container program, our new energy efficient hood fan controls, and our composting initiative. Everyone got to see the big pulping machine - though not in action - and the barrels filled with organic waste waiting to be hauled off the loading dock.

Showing off a reusable to-go container

Chef Brett explains how the new hood controls work to save energy

Once outside, we headed over to the UVa Community Garden and took a look at the bountiful produce in full production mode. It's in great shape this summer!

Admiring the beautiful student-run garden

The tour's grand finale was over at the R.O.S.E. program, where everybody loaded up on free goodies (you can never have enough folders or paper clips, right?). Thanks, Triple C, for spending some time with us and learning more about our sustainability practices!

Water Bottle Refill Station

2011-06-30T13:01:00.003-04:00

You might have seen - or used! - a water bottle filling station tucked into the far wall in the Pav sometime last year when you went in to eat. Those so-called hydration stations are an easy, motion-sensored way of refilling your reusable water bottle and cutting down on the number of plastic water bottles you would otherwise need to purchase.

A few weeks ago a second refilling station was installed over here in O'Hill, on the ground floor right next to the Crossroads entrance. I fill my own water bottle up there several times a day. It fills really quickly, at a fill rate of 3 times faster than a conventional drinking fountain, is hands-free, and offers refreshing and thirst-quenching cold water.

One cool feature of this particular station is that it tracks landfill diversion, or the equivalent number of plastic bottles that haven't been used as a result of going this reusable route. At the time of hitting 'publish post', the O'Hill refill station has diverted 1047 plastic water bottles! Be sure to bring your reusable bottle and fill on up next time you're in O'Hill (just like all the thirsty campers in these photos).

Where else would you like to see a water bottle refill station on Grounds?

UVa Power Hour

2011-06-20T14:14:00.004-04:00

...One of the energy saving variety, that is!

Tomorrow, between 2 and 3pm, employees across Grounds are being encouraged to reduce their energy consumption by powering down appliances where possible. The University is aiming to reduce electricity usage from the grid by six megawatts, or 11% of UVa's peak electrical demand.

When UVa had a similar event last summer, it reduced its draw by just under three megawatts, both by reducing demand and using generators in some cases. Both methods will be utilized tomorrow, and with more members of the University community aware of this conservation effort, it is UVa Sustainability's hope that individuals will make an even greater difference by choosing to switch off lamps and appliances that aren't in use.

For more information, check out the UVa Today article on tomorrow's power hour.

Try to switch off just one item in your work space -- maybe saving energy will become a habit. As an additional incentive, UVa Sustainability is giving away LED desk lamps to people that share their plan to reduce power on the Sustainability Facebook page or by emailing sustainability@virginia.edu. I know I'll be checking the page to see what good ideas people have in mind for tomorrow!

Update: Virginia Tech is hosting their own demand response program this Thursday from 3 to 4pm, and they have the same reduction goal as UVa. Perhaps this will spark a bit of friendly (and productive) competition...?!

EPA Building Contest Open House Recap

2011-06-03T12:44:00.009-04:00

Thanks to everyone for stopping by the O'Hill open house and reception this past Wednesday to celebrate our involvement in the EPA National Building Competition!

Libba Williams, Energy Engineer with UVa Facilities Management and project leader for the O'Hill Delta Force effort, and Armando de Leon, Facilities Management Sustainability Programs Manager, each said a few words about the building competition and the retrocommissioning that has already been done to decrease O'Hill's energy footprint.

Nina Morris, Hannah Mangum, and I set up a "Green Work Station" display area, complete with the following sustainable features:

Power strip to plug in one's laptop, printer, and lamp (so all can be turned off and disconnected from the power source with ease at the end of the work day)
Reusable mug + reusable mug punch card for all of your coffee or tea needs
Reusable water bottle so you can stay hydrated on these hot days
LED desk lamp that uses less energy than incandescent or even flourescent bulbs
Post-it notes made with 30% recycled paper
Clips, rubber bands, stamps, folders, desk organizers and more, all from the R.O.S.E. (Reusable Office Supply Exchange) Program

Dining provided tasty refreshments like local beef sliders and veggies and hummus, and people snacked and mingled for a good portion of the afternoon.

USDA's MyPlate Unveiled

2011-06-02T12:42:00.010-04:00

The longstanding government's healthy eating guide, the USDA Food Pyramid, has gotten a complete makeover as of this week. Unveiled today, the guide is no longer a pyramid, but rather a plate displaying a proportional meal with generalized food groups. Interestingly, recommendations about sugars and oils don't appear directly on the pyramid/plate configuration -- as they used to on the pyramid -- anymore. Instead those food types have been relegated to the categories of "Oils" and "Empty Calories", and can be found towards the bottom of a "Related Topics" side bar after you click on one of the foods on the MyPlate (and away from the homepage) for more information.

Perhaps most tellingly, prominent words of advice underneath the newly revealed plate include "Enjoy your food, but eat less" and "Drink water instead of sugary drinks."

What do you think about the overhauled guide? Will there be pushback from the companies that produce the foods that now fall into the "Empty Calories" category? Will Americans finally have a clear sense of what to put on their real plates, or will confusion linger?

UVa Dining's Nutritionist, Paula Caravati, has long touted a plate-based method of promoting healthy eating, in particular adapting such recommendations provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research as aiming for a meal composed of less than one-third animal protein. AICR illustrates this transition to a "New American Plate" with the following images:

We hope that UVa students and community members will keep some of these guidelines in mind when making healthy food choices!

EPA National Building Contest Kick-off Reception Tomorrow

2011-05-31T15:08:00.002-04:00

At the start of May, I announced that the O'Hill Dining Hall building had been selected to participate in the 2011 EPA National Building Competition, an energy and conservation contest between almost 250 buildings across the country. We're a month in and striving to keep the building's energy consumption down as much as possible!

To keep everyone jazzed about this effort -- after all, the contest does run for several months and may fall off the radar in the meantime -- UVa Dining and UVa Facilities Management are hosting a reception tomorrow to celebrate our conservation achievements thus far. Please join us tomorrow, June 1st, between 2 and 4pm in the West Terrace Room (on the 2nd floor of O'Hill) for refreshments, giveaways, and the chance to learn more about greening your work space on Grounds. A building tour showcasing O'Hill's green features will also take place during the event.

For more details, see the UVa Calendar event and the UVa Today article about the competition.

Local Food Hubs Webinar

2011-05-23T11:58:00.005-04:00

Summer has officially arrived on Grounds, now that graduation weekend is behind us -- congratulations to the class of 2011! Things are quieting down a bit around the Dining Admin office, so I am taking the opportunity to catch up on a webinar put on by the National Good Food Network that I missed last week.

This latest NGFN webinar is entitled "Food Hubs: Viable Regional Distribution Systems."

The webinar is full of interesting facts about food hubs' emergence as viable enterprises in the sustainable agriculture and food system, and features our community's very own Local Food Hub. UVa Dining is truly grateful to have access to this resource, and we are only reminded even more of our good fortune when it is advertised on a webinar available to a national audience! (Also note that right before minute 28, Kate Collier, Local Food Hub Director, names UVa Dining as being first on the list of their "top buyers" -- not a bad association for us to have.)

If you'd like to check out the webinar but don't have time to sit through the entire in-depth recording, NGFN has also made the presentation slides available for viewing via pdf.

Reusable Mug Punch Cards

2011-05-10T12:54:00.003-04:00

As the semester draws to a close, there's still one sustainability program in which number of you can still participate: the reusable mug punch card program.

All you have to do is take a paper-writing or exam study break as usual, but this time when you're getting your caffeine fix at Alderman/Clark/Wilsdorf/etc, make sure you have your reusable mug and punch card in hand. If you don't yet have a card, just ask the cashier and he or she will happily supply you with one. From that point forward, use your reusable mug and get your card punched eight times, and you'll be eligible for two free drop coffees or tea drinks (in your reusable mug, of course!).

If you're going to be taking classes or otherwise working on Grounds this summer, hold on to that card (or get a new one after you fill your current card during finals) and use it at any of the following locations over the summer months:
Alderman Cafe
Java City at the Bookstore
West Range Cafe
Crossroads

For a complete listing of Dining's summer operating hours, see the pdf here.

Good luck with the remaining finals -- the end is in sight and the coffee will get you through!

Reusable To-Go Container Refunds

2011-05-09T09:53:00.002-04:00

Thanks to all of you that participated in this year's Reusable To-Go program! If you'll be participating in the program again next year and feel comfortable holding on to your key cards over the summer, you're welcome to do so. If you don’t plan to participate in the program again next year (or don't want to risk losing the tags before August rolls back around), the time has come for your deposits to be refunded, as per the following instructions:

1. Dirty reusable containers must be rinsed out and returned to any of the participating Dining locations (Runk, Newcomb, Pav, O-Hill, Crossroads, The Castle, West Range Cafe, Fine Arts Cafe, and Wilsdorf) in exchange for your two key cards.

2. Key cards are to be brought back to the Dining Admin Office (ground floor of O-Hill, across the hall from the ID Office) between 9am and 4pm throughout the rest of the week and given to me or Accounting Manager Ben Koontz. Your $5 deposit will be refunded in cash. No partial refunds will be given.

3. Deposits will be refunded starting tomorrow, Wednesday, May 4th and continuing through the end of exams, Friday, May 13th. I will also be tabling during lunch in O-Hill Dining Hall for a couple of lunch periods (11am - 2pm) during exams: Monday, May 9 (today), and Wednesday, May 11; I will have a cash box for refunds and will be accepting key tags or go-to containers each of those days. Please email me if for any reason this time frame does not work for you and you need to make alternate arrangements.

Feel free to leave a comment or email me with any questions about this refund system, or any feedback -- both good or bad! -- you may have about your experience using reusable to-go containers this year. Thanks for your willingness to participate in this program and your help in shrinking UVa’s environmental footprint!

Local Food Hub Educational Farm Tour recap

2011-05-03T10:41:00.005-04:00

Dining hosted another fun tour out to the Local Food Hub Educational Farm at Maple Hill this past Friday. It was a perfect way to celebrate the (almost) end of classes!

Farm apprentice Holly showed us around the chicken coop, the greenhouse, the innoculated log section, the workshop barn, and the six acres of field. The lettuce and asparagus straight from the ground were both delicious, and the irises and beets we were all invited to take home with us were much appreciated as well.

After the tour we helped to paint signs for the Food Hub's upcoming Plant Sale (taking place this Saturday, May 7th, at the Educational Farm), did a bit of mulching amongst the tomato plants, and topped the tomato stakes with cut tennis balls to reduce the chances of the delicate row cover catching and ripping on the stakes -- something that happened just recently on the farm. It seems to be situated in just the right location to bear the brunt of some pretty serious wind!

We made it back to Grounds just in time for folks to stop by the Fine Arts Cafe for a special reception and exhibit celebrating the culminating work of Arley Arrington and Sarah Tisdale for their Indian Summer project.

Good luck to all who are about to start exams!

O'Hill Selected as Participant in the EPA National Building Competition

2011-05-02T12:05:00.003-04:00

The O'Hill building has been selected as a participant in the EPA National Building Competition: Battle of the Buildings!

It’s joining almost 250 other driven, dedicated commercial building teams in a national race to reduce energy use throughout the summer. Buildings will be judged based on the percent energy reduction (adjusted for weather and building size) demonstrated between the baseline period of 09/01/09 – 08/31/10 and the comparison period of 09/01/10 – 08/31/11. Among the finalists, the building that demonstrates the largest adjusted percent reduction in energy use intensity (EUI) across this 24-month period will be recognized by EPA as the winner. Help get O’Hill to the finals by being a responsible building occupant and keeping your energy consumption low when possible!

The competition is officially underway today, and the official Battle of the Buildings website is a great place to learn more about the contest and the individual building competitors.

This national contest is timed nicely to align with a recently approved President's Sustainability Committee plan to make a formal commitment to reduce UVa's energy footprint. Both the Student Council and the Faculty Senate have now endorsed the plan, and the next step is to gain approval for it from the Board of Visitors. The specifics of the plan call for a 25% reduction in 2009 greenhouse gas levels by 2025. For now, special events and occasions like the EPA competition will help pave the way for these potential higher standards.

Earth Week 2011 Success

2011-04-27T11:41:00.011-04:00

Here's a quick run-down of the major Earth Week events of which Dining was a part -- the highlight is the slew of photos (I took a good number of them, and Sue Collins and Amber Wilson contributed some of the Farm to Fork shots, and Caroline McCraw took all of the Green Reception pictures)!

•Monday: Sustainability Art Exhibit
The kick-off event for Earth Week was an art exhibit opening and reception at the recently renovated Student Activities Center in Newcomb Hall. UVa Dining sponsored refreshments and staffed a Sustainable Dining display, complete with a photo collage and the interactive “What’s Most Important To Me?” board. Exhibit attendees also had the opportunity to enter into the Farm to Fork Raffle for the chance to win a seat at Friday’s Farm to Fork Luncheon.

•Wednesday: Student Council Green Reception
The Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee hosted its 3rd annual Green Reception during Earth Week, which provides an opportunity for students to mingle informally with sustainability staff. Dining co-sponsored the refreshments, serving local and artisan cheeses and iced tea. CSA farmer Jamie Barrett of Bellair (and of Dining's Logistics of Local panel!) was invited to speak to those in attendance and briefly shared his experience as a producer in the regional foodshed.

•Thursday: UVa Eco-Fair
UVa Dining helped to coordinate a UVa-wide Eco-Fair on the Thursday of Earth Week, which involved several dozen UVa departments and a number of community vendors like Habitat for Humanity and the Charlottesville Area Transit Service. Dining’s booth was staffed with student Dining Educators that handed out sustainable dining brochures, Monterey Bay seafood pocket guides, reusable mug punch cards, and free samples of organic granola and fair trade chocolate (sold in one of Dining’s retail locations). Other fair highlights included a smoothie bike – people pedaled on a stationary bike that was rigged to spin a blender on the back – and a tap water taste test.

•Friday: Farm to Fork Luncheon
UVa Dining capped off the week with a Farm to Fork Luncheon, featuring a menu of entirely local foods, and the chance to learn more about Charlottesville’s local food scene with remarks by representatives from the Local Food Hub and a local grass-fed beef operation. The luncheon was attended by students, faculty and staff, who, in addition to the meal itself, received free UVa Sustainability t-shirts and first shot at signing up for the upcoming tour at the Local Food Hub educational farm.

Some feedback:
“Did I mention the food at the luncheon was incredible?! You did such a great job with that event.“ UVa Sustainability Staff member

"I felt honored to be included. The food was delicious!!” UVa Faculty member

CBS19 even showed up and covered the luncheon:

More shots of the food and guests:

Bravo to all that made this 2011 Earth Week such a success! And thanks to everyone for participating.

Local Food Hub Farm Tour this Friday

2011-04-26T11:32:00.003-04:00

UVa Dining is organizing another tour out to the Local Food Hub's Educational Farm at Maple Hill this coming Friday afternoon, departing Grounds in the Catering van at 12:30 and returning by 3:30. We'll tour the six-acre organic operation, check out the greenhouse and various pieces of equipment (wait til you see the potato sorter!), and then work on a small field project alongside the farm apprentices. It'll be a fun afternoon, and the weather looks like it's going to cooperate as well, with a forecast of partly cloudy and a high of 69 degrees.

If you are interested in partaking in this tour, email me directly ASAP at kendall.singleton@virginia.edu. I'll send final details to the participants.

Earth Week 2011

2011-04-15T09:10:00.003-04:00

Earth Week is just around the corner, kicking off next Monday with a whole week of environmentally-minded celebration. Take a look at the calendar of events:

Monday, April 18

Sustainability Art Exhibit. Newcomb Student Activities Center, 4:30 - 6:30pm. Come to the newly renovated SAC to view what happens when sustainability and creativity mix -- there will be art with a sustainability theme, art made out of discarded materials (see: a Van Gogh Starry Nights replica made out of bottle caps!), and art on virtual media (see: UVa's award-winning RecycleMania video). Refreshments will be served, and attendees will also have the opportunity to enter into the UVa Dining Farm to Fork Luncheon raffle (see below for more details). Winners will be notified on Tuesday, April 19.

Tuesday, April 19

Student Sustainability Project Competition. Rotunda Dome Room, 1:30 - 3:30pm. The President's Committee on Sustainability is sponsoring the third annual U.Va. Student Sustainability Project Competition, an event designed to showcase student-proposed and student-led efforts to achieve a sustainable future. Posters have been selected for the 2011 Project Competition. All may view this year's entries and students may vote for the Student's Choice Award recipient. Three award categories are available: Best Overall Project, Best New Idea, and the Students' Choice Award. The Students' Choice Award, sponsored by the Student Council Environmental Sustainability Committee, will be awarded to the project that receives the most student votes through the online poll.

Global Sustainability Minor Information Session. Rotunda Dome Room, 3:30 - 4pm. Stick around after the poster session to have all your burning questions about the new Sustainability Minor answered.

Wednesday, April 20

Green Career Fair. Clark Hall Mural Room, 11am - 2pm. This fair, sponsored by the Green Grounds Group, offers students an opportunity to learn about sustainable internship, volunteer and career opportunities.

StudCo Environmental Sustainability Committee Green Reception. Garden V, 4 - 6pm. Get the chance to mingle with students, staff and faculty and chat about sustainability at UVa and beyond, while enjoying local refreshments from Hamdingers and UVa Dining.

Thursday, April 21

UVa Eco-Fair. UVa Amphitheater, 11am - 2pm. Approximately 45 vendors will share information on sustainable projects, groups, products, and more from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. You don't want to miss out on the organic chocolate and granola samples at the UVa Dining booth, the chance to check out sustainable print operation A Mystery in Common, or the opportunity to create your very own bike blender smoothie at the Community Bikes Station!

UVa Community Garden Potluck. UVa Community Garden, 5 - 6pm. Bring a dish to share and enjoy springtime in the garden with fellow volunteers and garden lovers.

Friday, April 22

Farm to Fork Luncheon. Garden V, 12:30 - 2pm. Join U.Va. Dining in celebrating Earth Week at the second annual Farm to Fork Luncheon. The meal will feature locally grown food and the chance to mingle with some of the area farmers that produced it. To attend, you must enter your name in the free raffle during Monday's Sustainability Exhibit. Rain site is the Runk Green Room.

No Impact Concert. UVa Amphitheater, 6:30 - 8pm. Come out to the amphitheater to enjoy the sounds of No BS Brass in their unplugged glory. This concert will not use any energy or have an environmental footprint, hence the name no impact.

I may have missed a few events, and the source for the most up to date list of all student-organized Earth Week activities is the SustainaUnity Earth Week page. Check it out!

Finally, don't forget that the UVa Sustainability Pledge, launched on Campus Sustainability Day last October, is near completion of its goal to have 1,000 signatories by Earth Day. We're one week and 200 signatures away from meeting that goal and if you'd like to add your name to the list in the next few days, you can do so on your own personal computer or on an available laptop at each of the main Earth Week events taking place throughout next week. You can even demonstrate your commitment by having your photo taken with the pledge board:

See you next week!

This week's local food at Newcomb

2011-04-13T08:57:00.003-04:00

I'm continuing to solicit from Dining's chefs the list of local foods that our dining halls are serving, and here's the latest roundup from Chef Erin at Newcomb. Again, the local items are italicized.

Wednesday Lunch

4/13

Home Station

Greek Spinach Sauté with spinach, feta, Kalamata olives, and red onion

Local Spinach from Singing Earth Produce in Waynesboro, VA

Thursday Lunch

4/14

Home Station

Green Pea & Shitake Mushroom

Local Shitake Mushroom from Sharondale Farm in Cismont, VA

Thursday Dinner

4/14

Home Baked Chicken with Country Cabbage and Roasted Crispy Herbed Potato

Local Potato from Valley Farming in the Shenandoah Valley

Friday Lunch

4/15 Potato and Leek Soup

Local Potato from Valley Farming in the Shenandoah Valley

Hope you enjoy throughout the inaugeration week -- and Happy Founder's Day!

Tastiness at Newcomb

2011-04-07T15:54:00.004-04:00

I had been highly anticipating lunch at Newcomb yesterday, as the featured local dish was a butternut squash soup with local butternut squash and local apples (butternut squash from Valley Farming and apples from Crown Orchard, both sourced through the Local Food Hub). It did not disappoint! My bowl was bursting with flavor, and even though it actually turned out to be a warm day I still loved the comfort food mentality that came along with the soup.

Within just a few minutes my bowl looked like this: Anyone that knows me probably knows what a slow eater I am, so for me to scarf any food down that quickly must mean something! The chefs at Runk, Newcomb and OHill will continue to contact me when they have local ingredients in any of their dishes so I can keep on advertising all of that info on this blog and elsewhere. Stay tuned for more local food to make its way into the UVa dining halls.

PURSUIT Conference Registration Open

2011-04-07T12:26:00.002-04:00

If you're looking for something to do this Saturday, besides (or in addition to) going to the Bellair Farm Crop Mob workday previously mentioned in an earlier blog post, you might want to consider attending the second annual PURSUIT Conference here on Grounds. The conference was started last year to, in the words of the PURSUIT website, "bring UVa students together to increase social awareness by hosting prominent speakers and informative workshops." This year the sessions are covering a broad array of topics and concentrations, including one that I am leading on food and sustainable dining at UVa. Other workshops include:

Mental Health on College Campuses

Separation of Church and State

Why Development Didn't Work

Sex-trafficking in Southeast Asia

A Project for Peace through Girls' Education in Cairo

Food and Sustainability at UVA

Young adults in educational, social, and spiritual communities

A Personal Perspective of Depression

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: UNICEF at Work

Gender and racial stereotypes in the media

An Overview of the Revolution in Egypt

Definition of Minority at UVA

Health Care in Central America

Population growth policy in Albemarle County

Disparity in education

The conference will kick off with registration - which you can also do on the PURSUIT website - at 11:30am on Saturday on the 4th floor of Cabell Hall, on the Wilson Hall side of the building. Session 1 will take place from 12 - 1pm, and session 2 (when I'll be presenting!) is from 1:10 - 2:10.

More local food at Newcomb

2011-04-05T07:24:00.002-04:00

I hope you all enjoyed the sweet potato cake and spinach salad at Newcomb yesterday!

Now that your mouth is watering for more delicious Local Food Hub produce, here's a quick run-down of what Newcomb is serving in the next few days. The local items are italicized.

Tuesday Lunch
4/5/11
Home Station
Roasted Beef Eye Round
Local Roasted Garlic Potato from Valley Farming in the Shenandoah Valley

Tuesday Dinner
4/5/11
Home Station
Chipotle Mustard Pork
Stewed Tomato
Roasted Local Apples from Crown Orchard in Covesville, Virginia

Wednesday Lunch
04/6/11
Italia North side
Surry Country Ham, Crab, Pea Fettuccine
Feat. Local Country Ham from Edwards of Surry in Surry, Virginia

Wednesday Dinner
04/6/11
Salad Station
Spinach Salad w/ Warm Bacon Dressing
Feat. Local Spinach from Singing Earth Produce in Waynesboro, Virginia

Thursday Lunch
04/7/11
Soup /Simmer
Roasted Butternut squash and Apple Soup
Local Butternut Squash from Valley Farming in the Shenandoah Valley
Local Apples from Crown Orchard in Covesville, Virginia

Sunday Dinner
04/10/11
Home Station
Roasted BBQ Beef
Roasted Crispy Local Herbed Potato from Valley Farming in the Shenandoah Valley

Local Spinach, Mushroom, and Potato at Newcomb, Monday, April 4

2011-04-03T21:17:00.003-04:00

The title of this post tells you almost everything you need to know: the farms in Central Virginia are starting to grow and harvest the first veggies of the season, and some of that will be available tomorrow in Newcomb at lunchtime thanks as always to our partnership with the Local Food Hub. In the north room of Newcomb Dining Hall (closest to Clemons), you can find one of the more popular National Nutrition Month dishes we served just a few weeks ago -- a sweet potato cake atop a spinach salad. The potato, mushroom, and spinach in the dish are all local.

Speaking of the Local Food Hub, a group of Charlottesvillians gathered at their educational farm down near Scottsville on Saturday morning for Charlottesville's first ever Crop Mob (see photo below). The twenty or so volunteers set to work planting 600 pounds of organic potatoes, and knocked out the planting in a fraction of the time that it would have taken farm manager Steve Vargo and his new apprentices to do the same job. Bellair Farm, also in southern Albemarle County, is having another crop mob-style planting party next Saturday morning, April 9th, starting at 9am (but you're welcome to stop in anytime). Lunch will be provided for all volunteers around noon.

Campus Kitchens March Matchness

2011-04-02T16:32:00.003-04:00

The UVa chapter of the Campus Kitchens Project has been around for a little over a year, and they've already made an impressive impact on the Charlottesville community in this short time. The group has assembled a large and active network of student volunteers, as well as multiple locations from where they source unserved food (mainly UVa Dining, but also the Local Food Hub) and also serve it: the Salvation Army, Hope House, On Our Own, and The Haven.

The national Campus Kitchens organization is hosting a friendly fundraising competition between the different college chapters, and the kitchens that raise the most funds will move to a "final four" round and be eligible for additional financial assistance from CPK National.

Check out the UVa CKP donate page and consider making a donation to help this worthwhile volunteer effort. They're within sight of reaching their fundraising goal!

Crossroads Sustainable Sampling Event

2011-03-31T11:12:00.006-04:00

This past Wednesday, Dining hosted a sustainable foods tasting event in front of Crossroads, as a way of publicizing the sustainable food items we stock on a daily basis in our retail locations (Crossroads in particular). Throughout the three hour sampling session several hundred students dropped by and tasted some of the goodies, and also learned about what makes those products sustainable, as well as Dining's continued efforts to expand its sustainable purchasing. The highlighted items include:

18 Rabbits granola bars (Haute Diggety Date [with dates, almonds and coconut], Cheeky Cherry Chocolate [with organic chocolate and cranberries], Nibble A Sultana [with apricots and hazelnuts], and Funky Figs & Cherries [with organic mission figs and honey] -- not only are the bars made with organic ingredients, but the company also gives more than 1% of the granola bars they produce to kids in urban schools. They really are meeting the triple bottom line!

Green & Blacks chocolate (we featured their Maya Gold and Milk Chocolate with Almonds flavors) -- they're made with organically grown cocoa beans and both bars we sampled are Fair Trade certified.

Fair Trade and Organically Certified Java City Coffee

NBC29 even caught wind of the event and came by to capture some footage of the sampling fun!

I hope that students will show their support for Dining's retail sustainability initiative by purchasing some of the recently highlighted items, as well as other organic and fair trade products on our shelves. The Farm at Red Hill, located just down the road in North Garden, VA, also provides Dining with delicious locally grown and processed salsa and hummus that we stock in retail locations like Crossroads. Come see for yourself!

Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Kellogg Delivery

2011-03-30T16:39:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I left the office and took a sunny drive up to Verona, VA where the headquarters for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank are located. As detailed in a previous blog post, between January 26 and February 25, Kellogg and UVa Dining partnered on a food donation program called "Share Your Bowl" in which Kellogg donated an equivalent match to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank for every bowl of cereal eaten at UVa's three residential dining locations. Kellogg predicted at the start of the partnership that it would donate about 6,400 servings of cereal to the food bank; the program exceeded expectations and resulted in an impressive 10,944 servings ultimately being donated!

The cases of cereal were donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank headquarters yesterday, and I documented the delivery. It's pretty amazing to see all those boxes together and to be able to visualize the impact that this cereal is going to have on many deserving children in central Virginia. The cereal donation came in individual serving packs, which, as Food Sourcing Manager Greg Knight explained to me yesterday, will be utilized in the food bank's BackPack Program.

From a food bank brochure: "The BackPack Program ensures that children at risk of hunger have food to eat when school-based resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations. Each Friday, or the day before a school vacation, children receive backpacks full of nutritious foods to take home." The program applies to elementary schools in which more than 50% of its students receive free and reduced-price school lunches through the National School Lunch Program. This donated cereal will go directly into backpacks for those underserved schoolkids.

UVa Dining is proud to have been a part of enabling the continued success of something as worthwhile as the BackPack Program, and looks forward to continuing its partnership with both Kellogg and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank.

Upcoming Events: Lunch Line and Crop Mob

2011-03-22T13:46:00.005-04:00

Spring has officially arrived, and what better way to celebrate than to be a part of the conversation and action surrounding sustainable agriculture? There are two events coming up in the next week and a half that give you the chance to do just that:

1. Free screening of Lunch Line. Friday, March 25, 7-9pm at the Martin Luther King Performing Arts Center at Charlottesville High School.

This event is free and open to the public. Please join us for the Charlottesville premiere of Lunch Line, a documentary film that chronicles the history of school lunch in America. Find out how school lunch became what it is today — and stay for a panel discussion about what we can do to fix it.

Participants include:

Ed Bruske, DC-based chef, journalist, blogger

Alicia Cost, Charlottesville City Schools Nutrition Services Dept. Registered Dietician

Andrea Early, Director of School Nutrition Harrisonburg City Schools

Charles Green, Dir. Marketing & Development, VA Dept of Agriculture & Consumer Services (oversees VA's Farm to School program)

Matt Trowbridge, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine UVA School of Medicine

Tanya Denckla-Cobb (moderator), UVA Prof. Urban & Environmental Planning, author of "The Gardener's A-to-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food"

Special thanks to the event partners and sponsors:

A Pimento Catering

Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest

City Schoolyard Garden Project

Cville School Food Initiative

EAT!

JABA

Local Food Hub

Slow Food Albemarle-Piedmont

Univ. of Virginia Food Collaborative

VMDO Architects

Whole Foods Market Charlottesville

For more info check out the Facebook event page and the Local Food Hub's recent blog post.

2. Charlottesville Crop Mob. Saturday, April 2 (rescheduled from March 26), 10am - 1pm at the Local Food Hub's Educational Farm at Maple Hill (Scottsville, VA).

You might have heard about these modern barn-raising groups popping up around the country; Charlottesville is finally getting in on the fun with its first crop mob event on April 2nd. Get your hands dirty planting 600 lbs of organic potatoes and constructing high tunnels for early pepper plants. Finish the day with a tour and picnic on the farm.

RSVP on the Crop Mob's Facebook event page.

Celebrate National Nutrition Month with UVa Dining

2011-03-16T12:09:00.006-04:00

March is National Nutrition Month, and Dining is celebrating with a few theme meals that recognize the important role that fresh, local vegetables play in personal nutrition. As the season truly gets underway, we will be getting an increasing amount of produce from the Local Food Hub, but this month provides an opportunity to highlight such items (pending weather and other variables!) at specific meal events.

Last night Runk hosted the first such theme meal at dinner, serving whole wheat pasta with house made spinach pesto over mixed greens, and whole grain couscous with roasted vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, onion and eggplant). Pita bread and hummus was served on the side. The station proved to be a popular one, as did the Dining Nutrition table that was set up nearby, featuring a healthy food sudoku puzzle that students were prompted to complete in a certain time frame in order to win t-shirts and other prizes.

The nutrition table and healthy station are coming to OHill tomorrow, Thursday the 17th at lunch (11am - 2pm), and to Newcomb on Monday, March 21st, also at lunch.

Check out the dishes (and remember that produce items will be local as they become available via the Local Food Hub):

OHill
Butternut squash and tofu curry (tofu from Twin Oaks in Louisa, VA)
Polenta cakes and roasted vegetables featuring mixed squash and Twin Oaks feta cheese

Newcomb
Sweet potato cake with spinach salad
Vegetable pot pie with polenta crust (featuring sweet potato, turnip, various winter squashes, and oyster and shitake mushrooms)
Baked apples (with local apples and honey)

Morven Summer Institute

2011-03-14T14:49:00.003-04:00

Now that everyone's back from spring break, it's naturally time to start thinking ahead to summer vacation and how those class-free months will be filled. The beautiful Morven Farm, a 3,000 acre gift from John Kluge to UVa in 2000, is a mere 14 miles away from Grounds, but inhabits a completely different environment from the University. It is this juxtaposition of separation and unity, along with an interest in utilizing the landscape for educational purposes - particularly as a basis for sustainability-related explorations - that provided the basis for the new Morven Summer Institute that will take place at Morven from May 16 through June 9.

From the Institute's website: The Morven Summer Institute is an intensive and unique four-week (May 16 - June 9, 2011) experience held on the grounds of UVa's historic Morven Farm. Designed for undergraduates with interests in sustainability, design, food systems, and ecology, this interdisciplinary program features courses in Architecture, Interdisciplinary Food Studies, and a one-credit seminar co-taught by a multidisciplinary team of faculty from across the University. Students will arrive at Morven in the morning (transportation is provided) and return to Grounds in the early afternoon. Like Study Abroad, but in Charlottesville, students will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a distinctive learning environment for a novel environmental education. Alongside coursework, the Morven Kitchen Garden will be both a highlight and focus of the student experience at the Morven Summer Institute."

The Morven Kitchen Garden is a project underway to re-cultivate the one-acre plot that was used as a kitchen garden while John Kluge still lived on the property. The growing experience will serve as an educational tool for faculty and students, and the food itself will be provided to participants in the Summer Institute. The plot has been cleared and tilled, and Panorama Pay-Dirt has just come in and dumped 30 cubic yards of their 'black gold' onto the space (courtesy of a donation from UVa Dining), so the planting and growing will begin soon!

Along with the educational components of the kitchen garden, three courses will be taught over the four-week Institute period:

SARC 5500: The Morven V-Seminar: Ten Ways to View a Rural Virginia Landscape
STS 2500: Interdisciplinary Food Studies: History, Politics, and Technology
ARCH 5900: Adaptive Reuse: Regenerative Design at Morven

The deadline to apply for the Morven Summer Institute is April 1st. The application can be found here.

Gary Nabhan Speaking at UVa This Evening, 5pm

2011-03-03T09:39:00.003-05:00

Thanks to all that came out last night for the Logistics of Local panel at the lovely Jefferson Scholars Foundation space -- we had a great conversation with our panelists, as well as the students and community members that participated in the discussion. For more details, see today's Cavalier Daily article about the event.

If you're ready for another study break in between all those midterm papers and exams, head on over to the A-school (Campbell Hall room 160, to be exact) today at 5pm for a presentation by Gary Nabhan, acclaimed author and speaker on community food heritage, who will give a talk on "Climate Change and Place-Based Food". Stick around after his presentation for Dining-sponsored reception and book-signing in celebration of the release of his latest volume, Chasing Chiles. This is what publisher Chelsea Green has to say about Nabhan's new book: "Chasing Chiles looks at both the future of place-based foods and the effects of climate change on agriculture through the lens of the chile pepper—from the farmers who cultivate this iconic crop to the cuisines and cultural traditions in which peppers play a huge role. ... Chasing Chiles is not your archetypal book about climate change, with facts and computer models delivered by a distant narrator. On the contrary, these three dedicated chileheads look and listen, sit down to eat, and get stories and recipes from on the ground—in farmers' fields, local cafes, and the desert-scrub hillsides across North America. From the Sonoran Desert to Santa Fe and St. Augustine (the two oldest cities in the US), from the marshes of Avery Island in Cajun Louisiana to the thin limestone soils of the Yucatan, this book looks at how and why climate change will continue to affect our palates and our producers, and how it already has."

Upcoming Local Food Panel next Wednesday

2011-02-25T13:41:00.004-05:00

All are invited to this upcoming event -- read on for details.

The Logistics of Local

Wednesday, March 2nd, 7pm

Jefferson Scholars Foundation Hall, 112 Clarke Court, Charlottesville VA

If you’ve ever wondered just how local food procurement actually works in an institutional setting, this panel is not to be missed. The evening will kick off with a brief (30 minute) but inspiring documentary called Nourish, focused on the ways that we as eaters can all learn the story behind our food, and, as a result, more deeply connect to our environment, our personal health, and our communities. Three panelists will be on hand after the short film to discuss these community and health connections in light of their role in UVa Dining’s large scale local food supply chain. Jamie Barrett, farm manager of Bellair Farm and partner producer with the Local Food Hub, Alan Moore, Local Food Hub Operations and Sales Manager, and Bryan Kelly, UVa Dining Executive Chef, will all speak to the field to truck to chef’s knife journey that locally grown food makes before it reaches the plates of hungry university students. Locally produced refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public.

I was lucky enough to get out to Bellair Farm last week -- on a 70-degree day in February, no less -- to meet Jamie and get a tour of the incredible 900-acre property. The farm, originally owned by a contemporary of Jefferson's (apparently they knew each other), has been in cultivation since America was a fledgling nation, but only very recently has the owner decided to venture into sustainable production. I'm excited to learn more about Bellair's methods, along with learning about more of the logistical details that Alan and chef Bryan will have to share. Hope to see you next Wednesday!

UVa Launches Sustainability Minor

2011-02-17T10:24:00.002-05:00

The UVa Minor in Global Sustainability, a vision that's been in place for about a year and a half, is officially a reality here on Grounds. Students that meet the credit requirements will actually be able to graduate with the minor in May -- kind of makes me wish I could relive my days of undergrad academia...! UVa Today has written a comprehensive article about the program, and info is already up on the A-school website (where the minor is housed), if you'd like to learn more. The basic elements of the minor consist of taking the Global Sustainability 'foundation' course as well as credits divided amongst the three legs of the sustainability stool: equity, environment, and economy. Students' experience will culminate in a capstone course that will include a significant focus on hands-on community-based research and engagement. Congratulations to Carla Jones (UVa ARCH '10 and current Planning graduate student) and others for seeing this project to fruition.

RecycleMania is Underway

2011-02-16T12:38:00.003-05:00

RecycleMania, a two-month national college and university recycling competition, officially kicked off for 2011 on February 6th (and runs through April 2nd). To ramp up the RecycleMania enthusiasm, a group of University Sustainability Advocates put together a terrific video about UVa Recycling. Watch it here.

...Now that you've viewed the minute-long clip and been inspired, here are some more details you might find to be of interest: UVa is participating in the competition division, so it is actively competing against other participating schools (some schools choose to simply benchmark their participation), and is particularly targeting its results in the paper, corrugated cardboard, bottles and cans, and food service organics categories. This year RecycleMania has also added an e-cycling category in which UVa will benchmark its progress.

Recycling is easy at UVa! The key point to remember is that if a piece of plastic has a recycling symbol on it, no matter what the number, UVa Recycling will accept it. For more tips on recycling on Grounds, take a look at the Recycling page on the UVa Facilities Managerment website.

Fair Trade Valentine's Gift Guide

2011-02-14T16:27:00.000-05:00

In celebration of Valentine's Day, check out the Fair Trade USA guide to equitable - and romantic - Valentine's gifts. They include flowers and chocolates, of course, as well as information about fair trade textiles and also donation opportunities. What better way to share the love on this commercial holiday than by spending your money wisely and showing someone you care - about the environment and social justice, too!

Fair Trade USA also offers a number of Gifts of Fairness, which are largely intangible items that focus on improving environmental or social conditions around the world. My favorite is "Give a Hive to a Bee" - I can't wait to try some Fair Trade certified honey! Take a look here.

TEDxManhattan: Changing The Way We Eat

2011-02-09T10:55:00.003-05:00

TED talks are, as many of you know, devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. One idea certainly worth spreading is that of what a sustainable food system might look like, both globally and domestically. Perhaps you saw, as the 2010 TED prize winner, Jamie Oliver's moving speech on his wish to educate children about food and cooking. Or architect Carolyn Steel's talk on how food shapes our cities, or Mark Bittmans' presentation about what's wrong with what we eat.

TEDxManhattan, an independently organized TED event, is devoting an entire day worth of talks - a symposium, of sorts - this Saturday, February 12th, between 10am and 6pm, to this imagined sustainable food system, featuring visionaires and on-the-ground folks working to shift the US food system from an industrially-based agricultural system to one in which healthy, nutritious and safe food is available to all. The line-up looks pretty incredible -- Slow Food USA President; Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Program Director; King Corn Filmmakers; President of the Environmental Working Group, etc -- and luckily for us, even though we're hours away from Manhattan, we'll be able to watch from afar by way of their live stream feed. I encourage you all to tune in for part or all of it at http://www.livestream.com/tedx.

If you'd like to participate in what's sure to be an inspiring satellite party, Slow Food Richmond, St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and the St. Stephen's Farmers Market are co-hosting a viewing party of this unique event at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church Fellowship Hall; 6000 Grove Avenue; Richmond, VA from 10am to 6pm on Saturday, February 12th. During lunch and breaks participants will have an opportunity to join in facilitated discussions, share their own TED-like short talks, swap recipes, network, and learn about Slow Food RVa, its goals for the year and the Slow Food movement nationally and internationally. Lunch offerings will be available for purchase from a select range of local sustainably-produced food purveyors. Coffee, tea and water will be provided. Admission is free, but advanced registration is required. Please visit http://slowfoodrvachanging.eventbrite.com/ for more info.

I hope you can tune in one way or another!

Eliot Coleman to visit UVa this Sunday, February 13

2011-02-08T14:28:00.003-05:00

Don't miss this exciting opportunity to learn and be insired by Eliot Coleman this weekend at Hereford! Coleman is a widely renowned organic gardener best known for his year-round gardening techniques, as are shared in his book "Four Season Harvest". He will be giving a talk from 1-2:30 in the Runk Green Room and then a gardening demo at the Hereford MiniFarm between 3 and 4. All are welcome to both of these events.

Delta Force OHill

2011-02-07T13:37:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday, several Facilities Managers engineers and representatives met with a small group of OHill building residents, including the UVa executive chef, the retail operations manager, the manager of OHill Dining Hall, and myself. This gathering was the first in a series that the engineers - operating under the tag line Delta Force - are organizing at different buildings around Grounds in order to get building residents talking and thinking about ways to reduce the building's overall environmental impact. Delta Force has focused a good amount of attention on OHill as a whole over the past few months, with most of the work centered around making internal and back of the house energy and water conservation-geared changes. These include the installation of controls to reduce the air flow levels on the cooking hoods, replacing the outdoor lamps with LED bulbs, and modifying the AC system so that temperatures in the admin offices (Business Operations and Dining Admin) can be adjusted - say, during the weekends when admin offices are closed but the dining facilities are open - without affecting the dining areas.

Thursday's meeting was intended to bring people up to speed on these efforts thus far, but also to bestow building residents with a small sense of personal responsibility to help make changes that will continue to reduce the building's utility footprint. Lead engineering and project manager Libba Williams suggested that we consider taking actions like making sure our computers and printers were fully turned off at night (not just in sleep or hibernate mode) and even linking up to a centralized printer where possible. I keep both my printer and laptop hooked up to a power strip that I turn off at the end of every work day, and lately I have taken to unplugging my printer from the power cord except for the brief intervals in which I need to print a page or two of something (double-sided, of course!).

Bravo to the great savings that the Delta Force team has already accomplished; I'm excited to see the ripple effect as more buildings undergo their own energy/water audits and implement similar measures.

Kellogg's Share Your Bowl Program to Debut at UVa

2011-01-19T15:06:00.002-05:00

The Kellogg Company and UVa Dining have teamed up to introduce a new hunger-fighting program in Charlottesville. Called "Share Your Bowl", for every bowl of cereal that a student eats in the dining hall throughout the month of February, a matching bowl equivalent will be donated to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. UVa is the first school to partner in Kellogg with philanthropic effort, which is certainly a logical fit considering the service-oriented student body.

The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank is actually a fairly extensive network of food donation programs like soup kitchens, food pantries, and other nonprofits that serve food across 25 counties via four main distribution points: Lynchburg, Winchester, Verona, and Charlottesville. Over 145,000 Virginia residents benefit from the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank's support each year and "Share Your Bowl" will help play a role in the Food Bank's daily fight against hunger. The cereal donation program is scheduled to run for a month at Runk, Newcomb and OHill with a kick-off event planned for next Wednesday, January 26th at noon at OHill. Come on by to meet a few of the key players in this effort, including representatives from the Blue Ridge Food Bank, Kellogg, Sysco, and one familiar tiger-ish cereal mascot...[wink]! Dining hopes to see you next week, and thanks in advance for sharing your bowl.

NWF's Chill Out Contest

2011-01-03T15:15:00.005-05:00

Green Dining has submitted a video again this year for the National Wildlife Federation's annual Chill Out competition. The video is on the UVa Green Challenge, which falls into the 'Students in Action' contest category. Watch it (and my first foray into the world of amateur film producing and editing) right here!

Then, if you're feeling inspired...

1. Learn more about - and sign up for - the Green Challenge on the UVa Energy & Utilities site.

2. Log onto GoGreenTube to rate and "favorite" the video.

3. Visit the Campus Green Scene website, host of a similar video competition for which I also entered the Green Challenge video - you can use your facebook log-in info to vote for it (multiple times)!

2010 Highlights

2010-12-22T12:48:00.004-05:00

Farewell, 2010 - it's been great! Here are some quick highlights of the last twelve months:

-Expanded partnership with the Local Food Hub, culminating in the celebration of Virginia Farm to School Week (November)

-Launch of UVa Green Challenge with food featured as the first phase (August)

-Pilot Greek reusable to-go container program launched at KD (February)

-Farm to Fork dinner in celebration of Earth Day (April)

-Crossroads Fair Trade Tasting event (October)

-Creation of Dining's sustainable agriculture resource library (June)

-Newcomb's Make it a Local Lunch and Local Spirit themed meals (September)
-UVa Food Collaborative's public forum with Dining-hosted and sponsored reception (October)

-UVa compost expansion to Newcomb (March)

-UVa Dining and Housing receives E3 - Exemplary Environmental Excellence - award from the VA Department of Environmental Quality (October)

-Green Dining Open House (January)
-Grass Fed burgers for lunch at Newcomb (February)
-UVa Dining awarded 2010 Governor's Environmental Excellence Award for composting program (April)

-Completion of UVa-wide 2010 Sustainability Assessment (July)

-Local Food Hub Educational Farm tour (October)

-Mark Winne's lecture on food security and food justice (April)

-Launch of Meat Free Monday stations at all three residential dining halls (August)

-Successful wrap-up of the reusable to-go program's first year (May)

-Expanded (to include tea and soda) reusable mug punch card (January)

-Happy bEARTHday, Earth Day cupcakes destributed to students on Earth Day (April)

-Sustainability Day Fine Arts Cafe Reception featuring local producers (October)

Wow! Thanks to all involved for their hard work in making these events and accomplishments happen, and get ready for an even bigger and better 2011.

The UVa Food Collaborative's Local Food & Media Forum: Watch the follow up episode

2010-12-07T14:34:00.002-05:00

Back in October, the UVa Food Collaborative, a new sustainability group for which I am on the steering committee, hosted its first major public event: a public forum on local food and the media. Food Collaborative founder Ben Cohen moderated a panel featuring accomplished representatives from different food and media perspectives: journalist Marian Burros of the New York Times; author and professor James McWilliams of, most recently, Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly; and farmer and food editor Tom Philpott of Grist.org. With sponsorship from UVa Dining, Meet The Farmer TV recorded the panel discussion as well as interviews with the participants afterwards. Show host Michael Clark brought the video to Grounds last week for a public screening of the episode followed by some dialogue about the issues raised by the panelists.

Watch the episode now!

Compost Collection

2010-12-02T12:54:00.002-05:00

On Wednesday morning, Jess Wenger (with the UVa Office of Environmental Health & Safety, and oversee-er of UVa's composting program), Fred Leybag (undergrad student UVa Recycling employee) and I went out to Panorama Farms, the destination for Dining's organic food waste, to meet up with owner Steve Murray, check up on the progress of the composting process and to collect some samples for testing. It was windy but beautiful out there -- and the compost pile was nice and steamy. We should get the sample results back in a couple of weeks and will likely be good to move forward with the remainder of the process so that the compost can be completely turned into a nutrient-rich soil amendment.

The Season for Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T12:01:00.018-05:00

At the end of an eventful harvest season and in the spirit of the recent Thanksgiving holiday, I'd like to give thanks for the amazing food and passionate people that are moving us all towards a sustainable food system, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Here are some snapshots of those people and the events taking place to promote change.

September 17, Make it a Local Lunch, Newcomb Dining Hall

October 5, Green Dining Local Food Hub Farm Tour, Educational Farm at Maple Hill

October 7, Fair Trade Month Sampling Event, Crossroads

October 7, "What's On Your Plate: A Public Forum on Local Food & The Media", Jefferson Scholars Foundation Center

October 10 - 13, AASHE Conference and Annual Aramark Sustainability Meeting, Denver, CO

October 21 - 25, Terra Madre and Salone del Gusto, Turin, Italy

November 5, Slow Food Albemarle Piedmont Terra Madre Recap, Speak! Language Center

November 15, America Recycles Day, The Lawn

November 18, UVa Urban Planning Graduate Department's 100 Mile Thanksgiving, Westminster Church

Thanks to Flavor Magazine!

2010-11-16T15:46:00.004-05:00

I wrote in a post a few months back that I was using some sustainable dining funds to start a modest sustainable agriculture-related library -- bookshelf, really. In addition to the original titles (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; The Politics of Food; The Omnivore's Dilemma; etc) I have added several volumes that I purchased at the recent AASHE (Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) conference, including Slow Money and Growing Roots: The New Generation of Sustainable Farmers, Cooks and Food Activists.

Along with those wonderful books, I have also been collecting back issues of both Flavor and Edible Blue Ridge, two area publications that promote local products, profile area producers, and celebrate the bounty of Central Virginia all year long. Edible Blue Ridge is part of a national network of magazines devoted to local and sustainable agriculture, known as Edible Communities, and its quarterly publications can be found for free at many area shops like Revolutionary Soup, Albemarle Baking Company, The Happy Cook, Integral Yoga Natural Foods, and more.

Similarly, Flavor, though an independent bi-monthly publication, is devoted to bringing farmers, producers, and their work to the forefront of our community's consciousness. Having been distributed free of cost for close to two and a half years, Flavor has made the decision to start charging a fee per issue so that it can be stocked in larger grocery stores, and so that ultimately its message can reach a broader audience. Flavor was kind enough to donate a year subscription of its magazine to UVa Dining, so we will be receiving six issues over the next year and adding them to the sustainable ag shelf!

Please feel free to stop by the Dining Admin Office and peruse the books and magazines -- magazines may be browsed at the office and books may be checked out.

Update on VA Farm to School Week

2010-11-11T11:54:00.005-05:00

The 2nd Annual Virginia Farm to School Week is winding down but the dining halls on Grounds are still serving some local produce. Between the three residential dining rooms, you can find Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Jonathan and Black Twig apples all from Central Virginia orchards: Dickie Brothers Orchard (Nelson County), Still House Creek Orchard (Batesville) and Henley's Orchard (Crozet), to be exact. How's that for variety?!

On Monday, one of the Dining Educators, Jasmine Drake, and I tabled at OHill to publicize both the Meat Free Monday station and Virginia Farm to School Week. The original plan was to tie the two events together, as Local Food Hub veggies were being ordered for the Meat Free Monday station's Grilled Vegetable Ciabatta. Since we are well into November, though, and the temperature has been steadily dropping, it didn't come as a huge surprise to discover Monday morning that a frost at the end of last week wiped out most of those very vegetables we were hoping to serve.
Instead of coming from the Food Hub, the sandwich's squash, green peppers and zucchini came from a supplier based in North Carolina, probably close enough to be considered part of our regional food system, and not a bad compromise. This naturally might begin to raise interesting questions about the nature of seasonality and the role it plays (or should, if any) in Dining's menu development. Of course, Dining is committed to providing a variety of dishes to students, and at least for now that means that we will continue to serve those foods beyond our ability to procure the ingredients locally. It is the Local Food Hub's hope that with a combination of season extensions (high tunnels, hoop houses, row cover), our community farmers will be able to provide that food all the way into late fall/early winter.

For now, we are still getting winter squashes, potatoes, and apples -- items that all store quite well and will be available as long as supplies last in the Local Food Hub warehouse. I advertised OHill's Grilled Vegetable Ciabatta as containing regionally sourced veggies, but was still able to publicize a stuffed acorn squash dish, roasted red potatoes and apples as all coming from more local, Central Virginia sources. And that was all just during lunch on Monday!

So the next time you eat at one of the dining halls, check out the labels for each dish. You may be surprised by the amount of local signage you see. And if you have any questions or feedback about sourcing, don't hesitate to speak with the dining room manager or executive chef -- you can often find them on the floor during meal time.

Help UVa Dining Celebrate VA Farm to School Week

2010-11-05T12:35:00.005-04:00

Celebrate the 2nd Annual Virginia Farm To School Week, November 8-12, with several dishes offered at the OHill and Newcomb Meat Free Monday Station on Monday, November 8. At OHill, the lunchtime dish, a Grilled Veggie Ciabatta, will feature local squash, zucchini, and green peppers; while the Newcomb Meat Free Monday station will be host to Potato India (lunch) and Thai Tofu Curry (dinner), both featuring local green peppers and potatoes. All local items are sourced from from the Local Food Hub, (as you know) a nonprofit distribution organization that brings UVa Dining fresh local produce from within a 60 mile radius!

Virginia Farm to School Week is a program of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). As the VDACS website states, "Virginia schools currently spend more than $6 million annually on fresh produce. The Farm to School Program in Virginia will open the door for more of those dollars to stay within the state and support Virginia farmers by promoting opportunities for schools, distributors and growers to work together to increase the volume of locally grown product served in school cafeterias and dining halls. Incorporating local products into school meals also enhances the educational opportunity for students who benefit by learning about the seasonality of food products, the importance of supporting local agriculture and the benefits associated with reducing transportation cost and protecting farms and farmland in our communities." The first VA Farm to School Week, just last year, had participation from at least one school district in every region of the Commonwealth -- a great turnout and one that I'm sure we'll far outperform this year!

Lunch is served at OHill and Newcomb between 11am and 2pm, and dinner between 5 and 8pm. Come on out and give these dishes a try, while supporting Virginia's economy, agriculture and farmland, and student health all at the same time.

VEEP Award Ceremony

2010-10-18T16:20:00.005-04:00

Dining and Housing have officially received their E3 designations and awards through the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's VEEP (Virginia Environmental Excellence Program). Dining hosted an award ceremony and reception this afternoon over at the Runk Green Room, during which Amy Owens of the DEQ presented the awards (made of recycled content!) to Mark Doherty, Chief Housing Officer, and Brent Beringer, Director of Dining. In many ways, this is just the beginning of a long environmental sustainability road ahead of us, but it is always nice to revel in the successes every now and then. About forty people, including students, Housing and Dining staff, Business Operations administrators, and University administrators like Leonard Sandridge, came out to celebrate this wonderful achievement.

Don't forget to stop by the Fine Arts Cafe tomorrow afternoon between 4 and 6pm for some refreshments and the chance to meet your local producers!

Celebrate Sustainability Day With These Events

2010-10-15T16:04:00.003-04:00

There is so much to report on from the last few weeks, but things keep flying forward and a proper update will have to wait. In the meantime, several upcoming events should pique your interest!

UVa Housing and Dining VEEP Award Ceremony. Monday, October 18th, 2pm, Runk Green Room. This joint ceremony will honor Housing and Dining's induction into the Exemplary Environmental Enterprise (E3) level of the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP). The ceremony will be held next Monday, October 18th, at 2pm in the Green Room at Runk Dining Hall. A reception with refreshments provided by UVa Dining will immediately follow the ceremony.

UVa Food Collaborative Student Seminar Series. Monday, October 18th, 4-5:30pm, Newcomb Boardroom. Bart Elmore, PhD Candidate in the Department of History, presents "Turning Water into Pemberton's Wine of Coca: The Coca-Cola Company's Quest for Public Water Resources, 1886-2010."

Fine Arts Cafe Reception. Tuesday, October 19th, 4-6pm, Fine Arts Cafe. In honor of National Sustainability Day, stop by the FAC for some snacks and the chance to meet your local food producers.

FlashSem talk. Tuesday, October 19th, 5pm, Jeff Hall (Hotel C). I'll be giving a talk on the connections between UVa Dining's nutrition and sustainability programs. Sign up to attend here.

Stay tuned for pictures and accounts of last week's Fair Trade tasting event, the UVa Food Collaborative's successful panel on local food and the media, and the recent AASHE sustainability conference in Denver!

The Campus Kitchens Project at UVa

2010-10-04T13:49:00.002-04:00

NBC 29 paid a visit to Runk Dining Hall this weekend to learn more about the great work that Campus Kitchens is doing here on Grounds and, more importantly, for the Charlottesville community. Students that volunteer with the CKP are not only working on important philanthropic issues; they are also forging bonds with a segment of the Charlottesville population that doesn't often connect with UVa. At the same time they are helping to eliminate food waste on Grounds and even learning about the food preparation and cooking process that happens inside UVa Dining kitchens. Check out the great story and accompanying video here: "Campus Kitchen Cooks For Cause at UVA" -- and then sign up to volunteer with them!

What’s On Your Plate: A Public Forum on Local Food and the Media next Thursday

2010-09-30T14:53:00.002-04:00

The UVa Food Collaborative presents “What’s On Your Plate: A Public Forum on Local Food and the Media”, on Thursday, October 7th, from 4 to 6pm at the new LEED-certified Jefferson Scholars Foundation building at 112 Clarke Court, Charlottesville, VA. This free and open to the public panel will feature three of today's pre-eminent food writers and thinkers: Marian Burros, food columnist, New York Times; Tom Philpott, food editor, Grist.org; and James McWilliams, author, Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly. The panel will be moderated by Benjamin Cohen, historian, agrarian studies scholar, and Food Collaborative coordinator. Be a part of the discussion on alternative agriculture and the media forces that are shaping our perceptions of the sustainable food movement. A locally sourced reception, highlighting produce from Charlottesville area farms, will immediately follow the forum.

An award-winning cookbook author and journalist, Marian Burros writes for a number of publications, including the Times, and is covering Michelle Obama's Childhood Obesity Initiative. Find some of her recent writing at http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/marian_burros/index.html.

Tom Philpott is the food editor for Seattle-based Grist.org, and the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Maverick Farms, a sustainable-agriculture nonprofit and small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Find some of his recent writing at http://www.grist.org/people/Tom+Philpott.

James McWilliams is an associate professor of history at Texas State University and the author of four books. He has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Slate.com, and The Atlantic Monthly on-line. Find some of his recent writing at http://www.theatlantic.com/james-mcwilliams/.

The UTS Blue Route and Trolley route both stop directly in front of the building, and there are also a number of bike racks at Foundation Hall. These are the recommended access points for the event as parking is extremely limited at the Foundation building.

For directions to the Jefferson Scholars Foundation building, visit www.jeffersonscholars.org/contact-us/.
For CAT Trolley route and schedule, visit http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=2548.
For Central Grounds Garage information, visit http://www.virginia.edu/parking/facilities/central.html.
For other information, visit www.virginia.edu/foodcollaborative.

This event is graciously sponsored by U.Va. Dining; Feast!; Relay Foods; The International Residential College; Hereford Residential College, The Integrated Nitrogen Footprint Project; the U.Va. Vice Provost for Academic Programs; Adam Dean; and the U.Va. Departments of Politics; Urban & Environmental Planning; and Science, Technology & Society.

Local Food Hub Educational Farm Tour next Tuesday

2010-09-28T17:51:00.003-04:00

Here's an exciting piece of news for all you UVa foodies -- or really, anyone that has an interest in learning more about our food system and agriculture in our community -- Green Dining is sponsoring a visit out to the Local Food Hub's Educational Farm At Maple Hill next Tuesday morning (October 5th). We'll tour the fields, check out the greenhouse, examine the equipment, meet the interns, learn about day to day operations from Farm Manager Steve Vargo, learn about the Hub's outreach efforts with Outreach Coordinator Emily Manley, and then get our hands dirty with a short (to-be-determined) farming project. We'll leave UVa right around 8am to get to the farm in time, and will be back on Grounds by noon. Email me at kendall.singleton@virginia.edu if you're interested. Space is limited, so let me know soon!

Response to Cavalier Daily Lead Editorial, Monday, September 20

2010-09-21T15:35:00.002-04:00

Monday’s Cavalier Daily lead editorial focused on the growing importance of sourcing sustainable, particularly local, food in a large institutional setting – namely our Health System and our University overall. This lead editorial reflects a burgeoning interest in the sustainable food movement, which in and of itself is heartening to see: these issues are coming off the sidelines and into the mainstream student consciousness.

The article highlighted the recent partnership with area nonprofit the Local Food Hub and the University Health System, noting a new video launched on youtube and the Food Hub’s blog that describes that relationship in greater detail. The video is worth a watch, as it demonstrates the mutual benefits that come from the hospital sourcing local food and serving it to patients and visitors. These benefits include human health – customers eating fresher food tend to get more nutritional bang for the buck; environmental health – the small family farms with which the Food Hub partners grow their product in a sustainable fashion, shying away from pesticides and unnecessary antibiotics; and economic health – the farmers running these farms have an opportunity for increased market outlets by working under the umbrella of the Local Food Hub, thus making their operation more economically viable and ultimately maintaining rural land in agricultural use. The hospital is on the right track towards shaking the negative image of hospital food by buying local and supporting local farms in the process.

UVa Dining has also fully acknowledged these same benefits of purchasing sustainably produced food. In fact, sustainable purchasing has been on its agenda since the Green Dining group was initially formed in 2005, and took more concrete shape in 2007 after the group participated in a formative webinar on sustainable purchasing for higher education. This webinar, attended by students, Dining administrators, and community members, recommended that a University aiming to make sustainable purchasing part of its program first needed to create a set of sustainable purchasing priorities. Thus, the Green Dining Bull’s Eye was formed. U.Va. Dining’s highest sustainable purchasing priority is – and has been from the beginning – locally and seasonally grown, which Dining defines as grown within the Commonwealth. The remaining priorities are organically grown, humanely raised, and fairly traded.

Since those priorities were solidified three years ago UVa Dining and Green Dining have worked collaboratively to ensure that such purchasing is taking place and even increasing annually. Dining has forged partnerships with individual local operations like the Farm at Red Hill and Twin Oaks Tofu, and also, due to its size and the enormous number of students passing through its locations each day, larger distribution organizations like Cavalier Produce and the Local Food Hub. UVa Dining began conversations with the Food Hub just weeks after it first opened its doors last summer, and is currently purchasing approximately $3,000 worth of produce from them each week. Using the multiplier effect, it quickly becomes evident that Dining is having a significant effect on the Food Hub’s (and its partner producers’) operations. Executive Chef Bryan Kelly has confirmed that Dining is spending more with the Food Hub per week than any other vendor.

Aside from the day to day purchasing that is really just becoming the new standard for UVa Dining, we also host special events and special meals that specially showcase the bounty of ‘Virginia Grown’; examples include a Farm to Fork dinner last April on Earth day, featuring food sourced entirely from Relay Foods and the Local Food Hub, as well as a ‘Make it a Local Lunch’ theme station at Newcomb just last week, which again highlighted produce from the Food Hub.

There are certainly constraints on our sustainable purchasing program: seasonality not matching up to the academic schedule; distribution and logistical costs; demand far outpacing supply; and more, but UVa Dining is pleased with the progress it has made in just a few short years. With students expressing enthusiasm for more progress, we'll only improve from here.

More Local Food at Newcomb

2010-09-15T12:13:00.004-04:00

'Tis the season... for fresh, sustainably produced food grown right here in Albemarle County! To celebrate the bounty, Newcomb is hosting another locally themed meal at lunch tomorrow from 11am to 2pm.

The produce is sourced from the Local Food Hub, a nonprofit focused on strengthening our local food supply by way of ensuring economic and environmental vitality for the area's small family farmers. The Food Hub itself works with close to 45 farmers, almost all of which are located less than 60 miles from Charlottesville. (The photo is of Ronnie Crickenburger, co-owner, with his wife, of Meadow Run Gardens in Fishersville, VA.)

The menu includes:

Sage & Apple Pork Loin
Fruited Demi Glace including cherries, currants, raisins and cranberry
Sautéed Smokehouse Pepper Green beans
Roasted Autumn Vegetables including Delicata, Butternut, Acorn, and Buttercup Squash with Yukon Potatoes
Warm Dinner Rolls with Wildflower Honey

Delicious! Hope to see you there.

(In case you'd like to pass this along, the event url is https://eventcal.itc.virginia.edu/eventcal/event/display?event_id=1284561085001.)

Local Spirit Tailgate tomorrow at Newcomb

2010-09-07T15:49:00.003-04:00

Now that it's officially college football season and the height of the Virginia-grown harvest, come enjoy the best of both worlds at tomorrow's Local Spirit Tailgate for dinner at Newcomb between 5 and 8pm. The menu includes:

Chicken wings with spicy caramelized onion dipping sauce

Fried potato wedges with assorted toppings

Ravioli with a pancetta cream basic sauce

French bread pizza

Sauteed peaches and apples with vanilla ice cream and berry compote

Sounds perfect for a pre-game tailgate, and highlights some of the delicious produce currently available in central Virginia -- potatoes, peaches, apples, onions, and more!

Shot of local fruit display from last week's successful Taste of Dining event.

A reminder that tomorrow is also the first Green Dining meeting of the fall semester, taking place from 1-2pm in Hotel E (upstairs from the West Range Cafe). Please join if you're interested in getting involved with sustainable dining projects this year!

Taste of Dining tomorrow

2010-08-27T14:05:00.002-04:00

Dining is holding its 2nd annual Taste of Dining event tomorrow -- you don't want to miss it! Taking place on the grassy lawn outside of O-Hill dining hall from 5-8pm, the event will feature signature dishes from every single dining location on Grounds (that includes concessions, catering, and the Law School cafe, among the ones that everyone is probably more used to visiting), along with live music and the chance to win some nifty prizes. There will also be an entire sustainability cluster, consisting of Green Dining, the UVa Student Garden, Campus Kitchens, Meat Free Monday and the UVa Green Challenge (a project sponsored by UVa Facilities Management). Come by, listen to some tunes, eat some food, and learn about UVa sustainability efforts and ways to get involved. Bring your own travel mug and/or water bottle if you remember!

Welcome Back!

2010-08-24T13:44:00.006-04:00

And another school year begins: today is the first day of classes for the class of 2014. All the dining rooms and retail locations are up and running, including two brand new units: McLeod cafe over at the nursing school and a Starbucks on the ground floor of the South Lawn extension.

I spent several hours on the Lawn yesterday at the Student Activities Fair -- I suppose with the increasing class sizes, it actually is safe to say that it gets more crowded every year! -- speaking with students about our sustainable dining program, encouraging them to sign up for the Green Dining mailing list, and handing out a ton of reusable mug punch cards (bring your own reusable mug to on-Grounds cafes and after eight purchases you're eligible for two free coffee/tea/sodas). Green Dining meeting days haven't yet been determined, but I'll be sending out an email soon in order to determine the details via doodle poll. I'm looking forward to continuing last year's conversations.

Two major projects are being initiated this year. The first is an expansion on the already existing reusable to-go container program. For starters, this year the safety deposit is $5, instead of $7. When a student signs up to participate, she will get her two key tags (each of which is redeemable for a clean to-go container) and a frequent user punch card, modeled after the successful mug card. Card #1 allows a student to cash in for a free quesadilla from the Fine Arts Cafe after getting her meal in a reusable container ten times. When the student redeems the completely punched card for the quesadilla, the Fine Arts Cafe cashier will also hand her card #2, with a different reward waiting at the end of the card's completion. There are six cards in total, with the final completed card serving as a ticket for entry into a raffle to win a private, after hours sustainable dinner at the Fine Arts Cafe with ten invited friends.

The second project is Dining's Meat Free Monday campaign. This effort seeks to make vegetarian food more accessible in the dining halls by offering a vegan/vegetarian entree at one additional station (extra from the already 100% vegan/vegetarian station) during lunch and dinner on Mondays. There are a number of nutritional and environmental benefits to slightly reducing meat consumption, including reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity and cancer; and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, conserving our water resources, and reducing fossil fuel dependence needed for food production. Furthermore, the typical American diet contains more protein than needed on a day-to-day basis, so by choosing a meat-free alternative on Mondays, students generally need not fear not getting enough protein (or other nutrients).

Let Dining know what you think of these new programs!

ASU Sustainability Tour

2010-07-29T10:09:00.008-04:00

I just spent several jam-packed days out at Arizona State University in Tempe, another Aramark-contracted school, taking tours, notes, and photos of the highlights of their own sustainable dining program. On the whole I am mightily impressed with what they've accomplished in the past two years -- especially as the desert isn't particularly well known for bountiful vegetable production! We spent the mojority of our time (conveniently always during the lunch hours) focused on Engrained Cafe, a retail space that was designed explicitly with sustainability in mind. This is evident in the wall hangings indicating Dining's sustainability commitment; in the sustainability-savvy staff; in the furnishings made from reclaimed materials; and, most markedly, in the ever-shifting menu with its heavy emphasis on local and sustainable ingredients. Those fresh items in the dishes were noticable: the food was delicious.

The cafe shortly after lunch rush

Some of Engrained's sustainability signage

Flatbread with local squash
Lunch was finished off with a lovely strawberry shortcake

I also made my way through several of ASU's residential dining rooms, including the one affiliated with the Barrett Honors College. All of Barrett's residents must purchase a meal plan specific to the college: this dining room serves specialty foods in the vein of gluten-free, vegetarian, and organic items. Other ASU students are welcome to eat at Barrett, but must pay a premium in addition to their regular meal swipe.

Another Sun Devil Dining location of note is their recently opened E2 retail location, an "element of Engrained." It's small, combining elements of a coffee-shop and take-out, and based on the same sustainability principles that define Engrained. E2 has its own character, but is obviously an effort to expand upon the success of ASU Dining's sustainability program as begun with Engrained.

Loved the Community Board (to the left of the menu) for students to leave messages, etc

Other trip highlights include a visit to and behind-the-scenes look at the LEED-certified Phoenix Convention Center (site of last November's Green Build conference); making the rounds at the downtown Phoenix farmers market (located next door to the Phoenix Public Market, an "Urban Grocery & Wine Bar" with an assortment of sandwiches from which we chose dinner); a lunch meeting with local farmers and distributors; and learning about ASU Dining's recent environmental outreach events and its successful employee sustainability training initiative. Lots of great ideas and efforts to bring back to Charlottesville and UVa!

UVa Sustainability Assessment

2010-07-13T13:03:00.002-04:00

As UVa Today recently reported, the University is gearing up to re-assess its sustainability initiatives in several arenas across Grounds, including evaluating what has already been done as well as what's left to do (and how best to accomplish future goals). An exciting component of this ongoing review is that Dining has completed all of the goals established for its department back in 2006 -- this includes the establishment of a composting program, the organization of a sustainability committee (Green Dining), the removal of trays, and the recycling of used fryer oil among other points. It is worth pausing to recognize just how far we're come in these four years. Creating a paradigm shift within an institution is a tall order to say the least, but I'm proud that Dining has made such substantial progress. It's my hope that this success will give us momentum to continue in the right direction.

Over the coming weeks, sustainability representatives throughout UVa will be called on to complete the 2010 Sustainability Assessment in five categories: Water, Recycling and Waste, Dining Services, Governance and Culture, and Energy. This is sure to guide the University to significantly greater achievements by the time we reach 2014. To read more about the assessment process, see the recent UVa Today article as well as last night's NBC29 news story about our efforts.

The Big Green Bus comes to town

2010-06-30T12:43:00.003-04:00

This Friday, July 2nd, from 11am to 3pm, a group of twelve Dartmouth undergraduates traversing the country in a veggie oil-fueled bus will be stationed at the Newcomb Plaza to show off their sustainably run vehicle and offer advice and share tips on how to simultaneously simplify one's life and save money and resources.

From their website: "Our mission is to help create a future that sustains people, the environment, and the economy. We promote simple lifestyle changes that conserve money, energy, and resources through improving efficiency in every day activities."

If you're in the area, stop by Newcomb Plaza for what is sure to be some good, thought-provoking discussion. A few sustainability representatives from UVa, including Sustainability Outreach Coordinator Nina Morris and I, will also be on hand to share the UVa perspective.

Sustainable Agriculture Resource Library

2010-06-29T16:00:00.004-04:00

Aside from coming to see all of the lovely staff members over here in the Dining Admin Office, you now have another reason to pay a visit to the ground floor of O-Hill Dining Hall: Dining officially is home to a small but strong sustainable ag resource library! Book topics run the gamut from food justice to fast food exposes; from the locavore movement to the US reliance on government farm subsidies -- truly a fascinating range, and indicative of the myriad problems and solutions to our food system along with displaying the many angles from which sustainable food can be approached.

This library is geared towards students, of course, but is open to all members of the University community. Everyone is encouraged to stop by the Dining Admin Office and venture into the conference room to check out what's on the shelf.

Titles include:

Bringing it to the Table - Wendell Berry

Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty - Mark Winne

Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly - James McWilliams

This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader - Joan Dye Gussow

Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It - Anna Lappe

Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People that Grow It - Michael Ableman

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats - Peter Menzel and Faith D'Alusio

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health - Marion Nestle

What Are People For? - Wendell Berry

In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life - Barbara Kingsolver

The Garden and Farm Books of Thomas Jefferson - Thomas Jefferson

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - Michael Pollan

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal - Eric Schlosser

Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-Mile Diet - Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon

Having hand-picked (and read nearly) all of the titles with some helpful student input, I can assure you that working your way through this library will ensure your development into a well-educated and sophisticated foodie... and I mean that in the best possible sense. Happy reading!

Summertime in the Dining office

2010-06-17T14:24:00.003-04:00

There haven't been many events to advertise or reflect upon as of late, but despite the students' summer absence, Dining has been surprisingly busy. There is plenty of behind the scenes work going on, particularly as we are opening several new retail locations in the fall.

I paid a recent visit to the Local Food Hub warehouse and got to see what they currently had in stock -- there was a great variety of produce and other items like locally bottled water, eggs, cider, and more on the shelves. They also have these neat produce boxes that come labeled with the type of vegetable (say, broccoli) in which they can store the appropriate veggies -- speeds up the identification process in the chilly walk-in cooler! I am excited to see our relationship with them grow and develop in time for the beginning of the next academic year and the hungry appetites sure to pass through the dining halls.

The UVa Community Garden is also a lush looking spot right across the street from O-Hill dining hall. I had a short-lived but delightful near-daily strawberry foraging excursion when they were still in season. The most satisfying moment came when I spotted a couple of UVa employees looking curiously at the garden as they walked past; I called out to them and invited them over to taste the strawberries fresh off the vine. There was a look of genuine pleasure as they savored those mouthfuls of bursting-with-ripeness sweetness.

Don't forget to check out the Green Dining calendar for community food-related events happening throughout the summer -- students may be away, but the produce is coming in, and now is the time to enjoy it, be it volunteering at the Local Food Hub farm, having a local food dinner at one of your favorite area wineries, going out to one of a number of local u-pick operations, or just gardening or cooking in your own yard or kitchen.

CNE-hosted Local Food Meeting

2010-05-21T14:13:00.005-04:00

I recently received an email regarding a Summer Networking Series that the Charlottesville-based Center for Nonprofit Excellence was putting together. Their first topic, as determined "through conversations, articles, and the local drum beat," was on local food and community gardens. Upon witnessing the crowd that turned out at yesterday's meeting (held at the downtown Jefferson Madison Regional Library), all I can say is that the folks at CNE sure have their finger on the pulse of our local community -- wow! There were about 60 people in attendance, representing a myriad of community projects and interests: JABA, Local Food Hub, IRC, The Haven, UVa, QCC Farms!, Charlottesville Cooking School, several elementary school gardens, and even a woman who simply introduced herself as "an interested community member."

After a brief round of introductions, the audience was divided into smaller working groups -- community gardens, small-scale local food operations, and institutional food. As the group began to subdivide, it quickly became obvious where the need for change lay: over half of the attendees identified themselves as part of the institutional food group. We spent about 45 minutes discussing the challenges to integrating local food into an institutional setting, and then attempted to match up or identify experts that could provide solutions to those problems. Expertise is certainly abundant in this vibrant community, but the challenges were numerous, and almost seemed to multiply as we sat there conversing. The overarching theme, however, emerged as one of stronger communication and a need for accessible resources, perhaps via an aggregate website or even simply a facebook group.

The hour and a half allotted for this meeting was obviously not enough to even begin to tackle the numerous issues, but CNE staff are compiling the notes and brainstorming ideas that came out of our discussions, and I look forward to seeing them organized in some coherent and cohesive way. Certainly, having so many of us trying to come together collaboratively for such a brief time almost felt a bit like network speed-dating, but I hope it's the first of many such conversations. Thanks again to CNE for bringing everyone together to discuss an issue for which many have such passion!

Reusable To-Go Program Wrap-Up

2010-05-14T09:53:00.001-04:00

With exams signifying the end of the academic year and the end of the time frame to cash in on one's meal plan benefits, reusable to-go program participants had the chance to return their key cards in exchange for being refunded their $7 security deposit. 321 UVa community members (mostly students with a handful of faculty) participated in the reusable to-go container program's inaugural year and about a third of them returned their key cards in order to get back the $7. Hereford Residential College provided the option of free participation, as their administration agreed to underwrite the cost of unreturned containers. The final verdict is still out on this experiment, but few students took advantage of the free sign-up and even fewer returned the materials last week. This brings up an interesting facet of human psychology: "free" may catch one's attention, but the presence of a fee may prompt users to have even a slightly more vested interest in the program. My personal opinion is that a refundable deposit provides the best of both worlds.

Since students had to return their key cards to the Dining Admin Office to receive their refunds, I had the chance to briefly interact with many of them, and the general consensus on the containers were: "They were great. It was an easy way for me to make a difference and reduce my environmental impact."

Some other specific email comments I received include:

"I would just like to say thank you for the re-usable program! I have found it incredibly easy and convenient to use! I hope it can continue in the coming years."

"I think the program has come a long way since the beginning of the school year and I definitely see more people using it. "

"The containers worked great."

"I loved the program, and I will definitely be doing it again next year!"

If you didn't try out reusable to-go containers this year, you'll be able to sign up next year. The program will be very similar, but keep your eyes open for some extra incentives to sweeten the deal a bit more...

Earth Week Re-cap, Awards, and more

2010-04-28T10:53:00.011-04:00

What a month! I am finally back at my desk long enough to share some news and pictures that have accumulated over the past few weeks.

At the beginning of the month, I attended the 21st annual Environment Virginia symposium, a two-day conference open to sustainability professionals from the public and private sector from across the state. This was the first year that the conference included a "Viable and Sustainable Farms" track, among the more traditional concurrent sessions like "Land Conservation" and "Chesapeake Bay". The agriculture track was host to a varied array of sessions like wholesale distribution of local food, cultivating the next generation of Virginia's farmers, and tracking and accounting BMPs (Best Management Practices).

A number of additional UVa reps joined me in Lexington that evening for the 2010 Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards ceremony and banquet. UVa received a Silver Award for our Food Waste Composting Project; quite an honor to be recognized for that work.

Back on Grounds it was back to preparing for the sustainability world's biggest holiday: Earth Day (April 22nd, of course). This year, being the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Unity Project and other UVa student groups and departments banded together to create a truly impressive line-up of events and activities over the course of what became known as Earth Week. Check out the calendar from last week on the recently revamped UVa Sustainability website: Earth Week Calendar.

UVa Dining hosted a couple of events during this week-long celebration; namely the Earth Day bEARTHday Cookout last Monday as well as the Earth Day Prize Package Giveaway. The Cookout included some local food items (the menu consisted of local grass-fed burgers from Wolf Creek Farm, as well as potato salad made with potatoes from the Shenandoah Valley), live music by Trees on Fire, EMPSU prizes and raffles, and a display of the number of disposable to-go containers used at O-Hill in one week. The number is 4,700 (yes, in a single week!), by the way.

Dining's Prize Package was one of the culminating Earth Week events, on Earth Day itself: prize winners earned a spot for them and a friend to attend a private Dining-catered Farm to Fork dinner, chartered bus transport downtown, and tickets to the Ben Harper concert that evening at the Charlottesville Pavilion. The student winners had a great time and really liked the local dinner as well as the show. I was pleased to hear a few self-proclaimed foodies explain that though Ben Harper was a nice perk, they had entered in the raffle specifically for the chance to enjoy a local meal! With ingredients sourced from the Local Food Hub and Retail Relay, who could resist such a series of delightful spring fresh dishes?

Dining participated in several other events, like the Alternative Transportation Fair (I got to make my own bike-smoothie!), the StudCo Green Reception, Free Coffee Hour at the Fine Arts Cafe, and the Sustainability @ UVA Earth Day Extravaganza. Myself and other student volunteers manned the Green Dining info table, and in particular highlighted the unveiling of our two new frequent user punch cards: one for reusable to-go containers, and the other for reusable bags. These cards are both good through the end of the semester, so pick them up now so you can rack up punches to redeem the cards for the giveaways.

On a final note, yesterday I attended the Planning Department's Food Systems Planning Course panel on Local Food Heroes in our community. The line-up and the insight that all of the panelists shared with the audience made me realize (once again) that Charlottesville really is a hotbed of all-stars that are genuinely committed to ensuring economic vitality, farmland preservation, and access to healthy diets by way of creating a local food system. I left that panel sufficiently inspired to end the semester with a bang -- to that end, please join other students and administrators at our final Green Dining meeting of the year next Tuesday, May 4th, at 1pm in Hotel E. We'll analyze Earth Week and other events, as well as brainstorm projects to tackle next year. Hope to see you there!

Mark Winne lecture next Tuesday, April 6

2010-04-01T10:44:00.003-04:00

Consider joining members of the University and Charlottesville communities at next week's Mark Winne lecture, sponsored by the Architecture School's spring 2010 Community Food System Planning course, the Student Planning Association, and UVa Dining!

Food Rebels and Smart Cookin' Mamas: Fighting Back in the Age of Industrial Agriculture

Even while local food systems are careening into mainstream American culture, today's economic climate is also prompting a brand new segment of the American population to utilize food stamps and other measures against increasing hunger. How do we confront the obstacles to realizing a sustainable food system with fairness and sensitivity? Food insecurity expert Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap as well as former Executive Director of the Hartford Food System, will speak on these and other community food system topics including local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy. Reception to follow.

Where: Campbell Hall, Room 158

When: Tuesday, April 6, 5:30-6:30pm

UVa Compost Expansion

2010-03-29T11:08:00.003-04:00

UVa Dining is making significant strides on the waste-to-landfill reduction front, with the addition of Newcomb Dining Hall in its compost program just two weeks ago. This expansion comes after sixteen months of smooth composting operation at O-Hill; throughout that time, over 50 tons of organic waste were diverted from the Amelia County landfill. As has been the case since the program's inception in the fall of 2008, all dining food waste is run through a pulper (to remove water and increase surface area of the food - and its ability to break down) and transported by UVa Recycling to Panorama Farm in the northern part of Albemarle County. UVa Dining is grateful for the cooperative efforts of UVa Recycling, Panorama Pay-Dirt, and UVa Environmental Health & Safety Office for helping Dining significantly reduce its environmental impact. Composting at O-Hill and Newcomb combined will be diverting approximately 4.5 tons of food waste from the landfill per week!

I had the pleasure of taking this success story to a recent NACUBO Smart & Sustainable Campuses Conference and presenting a poster on our program. The conference was the perfect opportunity to share our waste reduction efforts with a higher education audience - hopefully other schools will be able to implement similar programs without too many obstacles.

Do It Yourself Gardening... With Some Help

2010-03-04T15:45:00.003-05:00

Now that the snow is finally melting and the sun is shining a little warmer every day, many of Charlottesville's green thumbed foodies are itching to get planting and to watch their spring garden take root. For those of us that may have the desire but need a bit of help getting started, no fear: this food-conscious town has given birth to not one but two organizations specifically designed to help us Charlottesville residents realize our small scale agrarian dreams.

According to their website, Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest "offers complete garden consultation, design, installation, four-season maintenance, education, and more." They can help install that garden you've always wanted, and even delve further into chicken keeping, mushroom cultivation, rain barrel installation, and the like.

Similarly, C'ville Foodscapes "designs, installs, and maintains food-producing gardens in Charlottesville, Virginia." Join them for their official launch party at Random Row Bookstore this Sunday, March 7th from 2-5pm. The gathering will feature a seed swap, raffle, garden crafts, live music, and of course food.

Bravo to Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest and C'ville Foodscapes -- I look forward to seeing the fruits of their labors!

Aramark: Sustainability in the Food Service Environment

2010-03-02T13:15:00.003-05:00

Aramark recently released a white paper on sustainability, entitled Sustainability in the Food Service Environment. Its publication is a result of a partnership with the IFMA Sustainability Committee; one initiative resulting from that committee is the creation of a series of "How-To Guides" related to sustainability issues within the facilities management realm. This particular guide takes a wide lens view on tackling environmental conservation at a food service locale, covering topics from responsible procurement - food and packaging - to energy and waste stream management. Feel free to give it a look over (click on the picture of the report to access the entire pdf) and to leave a comment with the recommendation you'd like to see UVa Dining implement!

Campus Kitchens and Greening Greeks:

2010-02-17T11:22:00.004-05:00

Two noteworthy developments to share:

For starters, after literally years of back and forth, and planning, and safety obstacles, and student interest, the UVa chapter of the Campus Kitchens Project is officially up and running with its first delivery of food to the Charlottesville Salvation Army this past Sunday. The executive team will coordinate its large network of student volunteers to receive food deliveries, prep food in Runk, and deliver it to the Salvation Army in time for lunch every Sunday. Everyone involved in the lengthy approval process deserves major kudos for sticking it out and seeing this project finally get off the ground. Despite the difficulties implementing the program, the benefits - diverting more food waste from the landfill, connecting students with the underserved members of the Charlottesville community outside of the University bubble, establishing a philanthropic relationship between UVa Dining (and eventually other food service organizations) and deserving non-profits - obviously far outweigh the potential bureacratic drawbacks. I for one am excited to see Campus Kitchens become a well established link between UVa and Charlottesville!

In other, also waste diversion, news, the student group Greening Greeks has worked with me to set up a reusable to-go box pilot program at the Kappa Delta sorority house. Fraternities and sororities use catering companies to provide their houses with dinners on weeknights, and the caterers' general protocol for those that can't make it to the meal is to package food up for them in styrofoam containers. Even if there's just an average of a dozen absent sorority or fraternity members per meal, that's multiplied by the large number of sororities and fraternities at UVa -- and that starts adding up quickly. In an effort to combat that rampant waste, I introduced fifteen reusable to-go containers to KD on Monday. For the rest of this semester, KD's catering company will use those boxes to pack up leftovers, and rather than discarding them after a single use, the girls will simply stick the boxes in the house dishwasher and catering will use them again the next day. Hopefully this will be the start of a more significant trend within UVa's Greek community to reduce its environmental impact.

Lecture today

2010-02-16T10:03:00.002-05:00

As part of the Rodman Scholars Lecture Series, I'm giving a talk today at 5pm in Jeff Hall on Personal versus Institutional Responsibility and what that means for sustainability. This will be the first in a series of lectures throughout the semester that are appropriately linked by the theme "Engineering a Sustainable World."

For more information, check out the Rodman Scholars' website: http://www.rodmanscholars.org/index.php/Engineering_a_Sustainable_World

Hope to see some of you there!

Slow Food Piedmont?

2010-02-15T09:32:00.003-05:00

This past Saturday night I had the chance to get a look inside The Haven, Charlottesville's newly opened day shelter just off the Downtown Mall. Renovations were completed on the historic structure - a former church - mid-December; the place now offers a variety of services for the homeless and underserved in town, including laundry and shower facilities, counseling, and breakfasts made with fresh and local ingredients. The kitchen space is really something, with state of the art equipment and a spacious dining area that can seat up to about 80 people. The kitchen director hosted a potluck there over the weekend as a way to introduce some of us to the facilities, as well as to guage interest in the potential creation of a Slow Food: Albemarle/Piedmont chapter here in Central Virginia. All potluck attendees seemed plenty excited at the prospect of an organization centered around good food!

I am sure there will be opportunities for this emerging chapter to connect with the Slow Food: UVa unit that just got started up this fall. Though Slow Food sometimes receives criticism for being elitist in nature (the working class simply doesn't have the luxury of making sure that this or that heirloom tomato stays on the menu of a - probably expensive - restaurant), the organization exists most fundamentally to recreate the feeling of community that stems from gathering around a table and sharing a meal with your friends and neighbors. The Haven's kitchen looks to be emerging as an ideal gathering space for accomplishing that community building.

SYFAS 2010

2010-02-12T13:43:00.003-05:00

I spent last weekend in Chapel Hill, NC attending an inspiring summit based around the challenges and rewards of creating sustainable food offerings and opportunities at college campuses throughout the Southeast. Students from around the region - Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, and even Florida - met at UNC for the Real Food Challenge Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit, a weekend of workshops and panels intended to arm students with the skills to return home and effect change on their own campus.

I helped lead one of the workshops, "Students Organizing for Real Food on Campus", in its morning and afternoon session, and was thrilled to hear about the efforts already underway elsewhere in the southeast. UNC has just opened a sustainably themed cafe; Davidson Dining has given its list of vendors to a group of students and charged them with finding suitably sustainable replacements; a student at Maryland has created her own sustainability internship with their Dining unit starting this semester; NC State has an on-campus weekly farmer's market; and the list goes on. We acknowledged that we are all a significant way off from seeing true sustainable food systems in our communities, but appreciated the chance to share best practices and to become well informed so we can better shape our respective colleges and universities.

Keynote speaker Anna Lappe put it well on Friday evening when she said that asking ourselves whether or not we were winning the battle against the conventional food system was not entirely the best question to pose; rather, we would do well to consider whether we are shaping history consciously. The group of passionate and motivated students at SYFAS 2010 are certainly doing so.

Vote for UVa's Reusable Mug Program

2010-02-03T14:48:00.002-05:00

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is sponsoring Chill Out!, a video competition amongst colleges and universities from around the country. Students have been challenged to submit a video that explains what their campus is doing to combat global warming. Thanks to Laura Moynihan, my Sustainability Intern, Green Dining has entered its video about the reusable mug program underway on Grounds. Take two minutes to watch it here, and cast your vote for it on the GoGreen website by clicking on the "Vote Now!" hyperlink directly under the UVa video on this page: http://www.gogreentube.com/watch.php?v=MTA2MzcyOQ%3D%3D

Grass-Fed Beef at Newcomb Tomorrow

2010-02-02T17:28:00.003-05:00

Come hungry to Newcomb for lunch (11am - 2pm) tomorrow; Wednesday, February 3rd! The dining hall is hosting a local burger station (where the nachos are usually located); the beef is provided by Grayson Natural Foods, which is a cattle cooperative composed of small family farms grown in and around Grayson County in Southwest Virginia. The cattle is free range and largely grass-fed -- those burgers are sure to be extremely tasty. While you're picking up your local burger, you may also want to check out the Green Dining display located at the far end of the table: new Sustainable Dining brochures, sustainable seafood pocket guides, reusable mug loyalty punch cards, and more.

See you there!

Events and Sugar Dispensers

2010-01-27T10:09:00.004-05:00

The spring semester is officially underway -- and it seems as though there are enough Dining/sustainable agriculture related events taking place to keep us all busy these days!

Green Dining hosted a small but enthusiastic group of students and current members at its Open House and reception last week in the Garden Room. We handed out the new and improved coffee discount cards, handy Monterey Bay Aquarium sustainable seafood pocket guides, and assorted resuable bags and local ag magazines. People lingered over conversations about potential places around Grounds for satellite student gardens, the speculative environmental views that the newly elected UVa president may hold, and how to mitigate the effects of the average American's energy and water-intensive meat-heavy diet. I arranged for Catering to provide a sustainable array of appetizers: Virginia grown apples, Everona Dairy cheese, Albemarle Baking Company Bread, Black & Gold's Maya Gold (fair trade and organic certified) chocolate, and local butternut squash quiche... delightful!

Last Friday, one of those local ag magazines - Flavor, to be exact - hosted a group of faculty and staff and a few students that are involved in various aspects of research or promoting sustainable food systems here at the University. That lunch meeting was the first time we had all gathered around a table as a cohesive unit, and it was a remarkably diverse group. It's exciting to be aware of how much is already happening at UVa -- and to realize just how much more can be accomplished when we join forces across disciplines.

Yesterday, Dining hosted a Winter Carnival to welcome students back to Grounds and to start building excitement about the forthcoming EMPSU program. Aside from the cotton candy, funnel cakes, prizes, and Wintergreen Resort mascot, Green Dining had a booth where Laura (Dining Sustainability Intern) and I promoted a variety of sustainability initiatives and garnered a dozen or so additional sign-ups to the Green Dining mailing list. Hopefully we'll see some fresh faces at next week's first meeting of the semester. Speaking of which, according to the trusty doodle poll, Mondays at 1pm (as always, in Hotel E) have won out again as an optimal meeting time.

Other upcoming events include a free screening of Fresh at the downtown Jefferson Madison Regional Library this Thursday (1/28) at 7pm, which includes a presentation by Joel Salatin. Next weekend, the 2nd annual Southeast Youth Food Activist Summit is taking place at UNC's campus in Chapel Hill; it seeks to bring students together from the region to have a conversation about sustainable food and, in particular, to strategize ways to bring it into college dining halls.

I'll close with a mention of another small change that's coming to dining retail locations at UVa: bulk sugar dispensers. The first few containers are already out at Alderman Cafe, and are on their way in the West Range Cafe as well. If it's smooth sailing, they'll be added elsewhere, as well. As small a gesture as it may seem, the good news is that even the little things add up quickly at a large University like this one.