ASU Sustainability Tour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...