This just in from our good friends at Farm to Institution New England (FINE):
FINE Webinar: Campus Dining 201: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Farm to College in New England
Wed., June 12 | 2-3 PM ET | Free
There are 200 colleges and universities with dining services in New England. FINE estimates that those campuses spend between $110 million and $115 million dollars annually on local food. What drives these local food procurement efforts and what challenges do campuses face? How can the college sector and its allies collectively increase our impact on the local food system?
Join us to learn more about local food procurement in the campus sector as we share results of FINE’s 2018 campus dining survey and hear from innovators in the farm to campus space. This webinar will highlight some of the key recommendations made in our subsequent report, Campus Dining 201: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Farm to College in New England, and then feature two examples of work already being done to address those recommendations on campuses in New England.
Our speakers will include Annie Rowell, coordinator of Sodexo’s Vermont First program, and Juli Stemaszyk, manager of regional and sustainable food systems for Boston College Dining.
Annie Rowell will highlight Vermont First’s efforts to work with distributors on transparent tracking systems. Since 2014, Sodexo has worked with farmers, distributors, processors, state government, non-profits, and supply chain players within the farm to table economy to increase the amount of local food grown and sold in the state and beyond.
Juli Stelmaszyk will share information on a joint project with Boston College, Harvard University, and Tufts University that aims to increasing the availability of local produce to these institutions year-round, while also expanding the acres of farmland in production. These institutions, in collaboration with Costa Fruit & Produce and New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, were the recipients of a 2018 Henry P. Kendall Foundation New England Food Vision Prize.
New FINE Campus Dining Report Shows New England Colleges Spend $67.7 Million on Local Food Annually
Farm to Institution New England (FINE) is pleased to announce the release of Campus Dining 201: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities for Farm to College in New England. The report summarizes the results of FINE’s 2018 survey of New England colleges and universities with dining services. The survey was a follow-up to our 2015 survey and report, which established a baseline understanding of local procurement on college campuses in New England and has informed our research and programs since its release.
Results show that 93 percent of responding colleges reported purchasing local food for their dining services. On average, responding colleges spent more than a fifth (21.5 percent) of their annual food budget on local food (spending $67.7 million on local food). Read the full report for more information on specific food items that colleges are sourcing locally and those they report are difficult to source locally; procurement goals; distributors used; self-operated colleges and food service management companies; and much more.
