Events and Sugar Dispensers

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.

New and Improved

Happy New Year! While Grounds has mostly gone into hibernation over this long and cold break, Dining has stayed busy prepping for the spring semester.

To kick things off, Green Dining is hosting an Open House on Tuesday, January 19th, from 7-8:30pm in the Garden Room (directly above the West Range Cafe). This'll be in part a chance for Dining to express thanks to the group members that attended meetings and lent valuable insight to sustainable dining issues throughout the fall. This will also provide an opportunity for curious students/staff/faculty to learn about the work Green Dining does in a more informal setting. It'll be entertaining and informative! Light refreshments will be provided.

That evening will also coincide with the release of Dining's new (and very brief) reusable to-go container survey. The survey can be filled out by both participating or non-participating students, in-person or online at a forthcoming url. The survey responses will give Dining important feedback ways to improve the current program.

There are a couple of updated promotional materials that will be ready in time for the spring semester: the Sustainable Dining brochure has been edited to reflect some of the recent changes to our program. Copies of the brochure will start appearing around Grounds in the next week or so. Additionally, due to popular demand, Dining has expanded the coffee mug discount card program to include hot tea and soda. Now your Reusable Mug Loyalty Card can be punched for coffee, tea, or soda. The same concept still applies: purchase eight (of the aforementioned types of) drinks with your reusable mug, get two refills free. Pick up the new discount card at all UVa Dining locations.

Though there are quite a few other projects coming down the pipe, I am waiting to announce them once they've been confirmed more concretely or implemented. Stay tuned for further developments...

Farms, History, and Homemade Bread

With the semester winding down and students immersed in final papers and exams over the last couple of weeks, I have had a little extra time on my hands to leave Grounds and continue my exploration of the Charlottesville foodshed.

On Monday, December 9th, head chef Bryan Kelly and I ventured up to the northern part of Albemarle County to tour Currituck Farm. This cattle farm is notable for a few reasons: it is a potentially hyper-local source of grass-fed beef, arriving at UVa Dining halls from just twenty minutes away (processing takes place in-state, as well); supporting this local farm would also mean supporting our own county's economy; and Currituck happens to be owned and operated by one of Albemarle County's very own Supervisors, Ann Mallek.

Currituck is a beautiful farm, and even from a brief visit it was evident that every cow in the small herd is healthy and contented. Students (hopefully) will be fortunate indeed to get a taste of beef raised and processed in such a sustainable way.

At the end of the same week, I traveled down to Raphine, VA, near Lexington, for a visit to the historic Wade's Mill; a still-functioning mill that has been in operation since 1750. I had the chance to poke around the historic structure and learn more about its workings from owners Jim and Georgie Young.

After a delightful local lunch at Jim and Georgie's lovely farmhouse, I mused aloud at the likelihood of Thomas Jefferson himself ever eating something containing flour ground at Wade's Mill. Georgie explained that mills were rather commonplace in the 18th century, and Thomas Jefferson probably consumed flour ground closer to home. This doesn't rule out the possibility, she admitted, of Jefferson's travels to Poplar Forest or to Lexington taking him perhaps right past Wade's Mill, or even along the same road as the mill. Regardless of how close the two ever actually came, there's something compelling about the thought of Jefferson being a contemporary of this steadfast building - and the fact that his writings and ideas continue to nourish our minds, just as the mill still grinds out a product that continues to nourish our bodies.

Over this past weekend, while trapped inside my house thanks to the Blizzard of 2009, I had plenty of time to try my hand at making bread from scratch, using - what else? - Wade's Mill flour. The bread turned out perfectly, and the time and care I put into crafting it, combined with my gratitude for the miller's work, made the eating quite a pleasurable experience. There is certainly a satisfying symmetry to it all.

Wendell Berry: Essayist, Poet, Novelist and Inspirationalist

Last week, UVa was incredibly fortunate to host acclaimed writer Wendell Berry as the latest visiting scholar in the Brown College Environmental Writes and Scholars Lecture Series. He gave a poetry reading from his latest collection, Leavings, on Wednesday, December 2nd in the Rotunda Dome Room, and also gave a talk on sustainable agriculture the following evening, December 3rd, in the Harrison/Special Collections Auditorium. The auditorium was filled to capacity nearly an hour in advance of Berry's lecture -- clearly, there's a genuine and pressing interest within the UVa community to understand this topic more deeply.

If you weren't able to attend the lecture (or couldn't get in), you can download the podcast by visiting the UVa Podcast site and clicking on "Take Me to UVa iTunesU" on the right-hand side of the page. Wendell Berry's lecture is podcast number 63.

I associate Wendell Berry - especially his poetry - with sitting around the kitchen table at Waterpenny Farm, eating a dinner of food grown by our own hands after a long day of working in the field with that same produce, and listening to a fellow intern and English Master's student read aloud to us all Berry's Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. I think Mr. Berry would approve.

Sustainability in the News

Two articles have come out this week regarding University (and Dining) sustainability efforts. The first article comes to us by way of the Cavalier Daily, and it's essentially a review of the sustainability work that took place on Grounds this past semester, with a look forward to the spring. Read the article here: "University departments review green initiatives."

The second article comes from UVa Today, with a focus on tips from University-wide sustainability staff regarding how to sustainably celebrate the holidays. Read here: "Dreaming of a Green Christmas? Holidays Can Be Sustainable."

As a bonus, the University of Virginia Magazine recently produced a segment on the most recent sustainable Dining goings on. Watch here: "Green Dining at U.Va."

Aramark Sustainability Stewards Conference, 11/2-11/4

This is dated information, but I have been remiss in not posting about the Aramark Sustainability Stewards Meeting that we hosted here at UVa last month. Sustainability Stewards and Coordinators from around the country (Arizona, Minnesota, Vermont, Texas, Idaho, Florida, headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and more) gathered in Charlottesville for an intense three-day meeting in which we covered the Green Thread pillars (Aramark's Sustainability initiative), visited local farms, and a lot in between. Every account - not to mention region - is in a very different place than the others, meaning that most of what we dealt with was very top-level and broadly applying to Aramark Higher Education. Consistency is important, but it's also worth noting that some of those differences between accounts are very valuable (Florida's local growing season in comparison to ours, for example) and not to be overlooked.

While figuring out how to strike that balance during the conference, I was fortunate enough to meet the many creative thinkers that make up the Higher Ed sustainability team: I have sent nearly countless emails to some of them in the past month, and appreciate just how important collaboration is in our line of work.

Enjoy a few photos of our time together:

The Armark Sustainability Stewards team

At one of our brainstorming sessions

Touring the Monticello visitor's center with Monticello Garden Director Peter Hatch

Dinner at the lovely Colonnade Club

Panorama PayDirt owner Steve Murray explains his composting operation

The team learns about the composting process

Wolf Creek Farms owner John Whiteside chats with me about his cattle operation

Part of the Wolf Creek herd

Perfect Flavor sorbet at our last conference lunch

UVA Department of Urban & Environmental Planning: Local Thanksgiving

A local Thanksgiving meal brings to mind one word: Yum! Last Friday's dinner -- graciously hosted by UVA's Urban Planning Department -- lived up to expectations and then some, and anyone that argues that local food limits one's diet should have seen the spectacular array of dishes at St. Paul's: - breads, biscuits, cheeses, salads, casseroles, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash (of all varieties), stuffing, gravy, applesauce, raspberry ice cream, pumpkin spice cake, and of course Polyface turkey. How amazing to think that each of those food items had been grown and processed within Virginia, and ultimately prepared here in Charlottesville. The only item missing from a regular Thanksgiving feast was the cranberry sauce, but I didn't even notice it wasn't an option until halfway through my meal. I'll happily trade that cranberry sauce for everything else that was on my plate!


On a flattering note, the Planning Department identified a few of us in attendance as VIFs: Very Important Foodies. I'm reminded of all the work still cut out for me, but am driven to continue such work by the palpable sense of community present that night in response to our fundamental need for food -- not only in a survival sense, but also in a social sense. Sure food production is work, but it's also an opportunity to celebrate and build relationships every time we eat. I'll certainly keep that in mind as I gather with my family for Thanksgiving on Thursday.



For more information about eating locally, look to the 100 Mile Diet website (the inspiration for the Planning Department's first Local Thanksgiving feast four years ago). Happy local eating!