Update on VA Farm to School Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!