The Pathway to Sustainable Campus Food Systems UCSC Case Study

1
The Pathway to Sustainable Campus Food
SystemsUCSC Case Study
2
UC Santa Cruz

• Establishing a Collaborative Working Group
• Building Campus Community Bridges
• Supporting Community Food System Networks
• Moving Towards a Sustainable campus Dining
  Service

3
Why is the purchase of sustainable food a
priority

• To provide students with healthier, fresher food
• To support and strengthen local economies
• To reduce the use of fossil fuels and CO2
  emission
• To reduce local use of chemical fertilizers and
  pesticides
• To support socially responsible treatment of
  farmworkers
• To support producer cooperatives in the global
  south through purchase of Fair Trade goods

4
How did we get here?

• Forces
• The purchase of sustainable food reflects
  changes in American food preferences and values
  and is an emerging trend on college and
  university campuses across the United States
• Opportunities
• After a six month student campaign to dump
  Sodexho, the administration ended its 30-year
  contract with the corporation in June 2004,
  allowing Dining Services to contract directly
  with suppliers for the first time. This
  transition to an in-house service structure
  allowed sustainable agriculture and social
  justice advocates an in-road to working with the
  UC administration to design a more sustainable
  food system.

5
How did we get here?

• Resources
• UC Santa Cruz is a world-renowned academic leader
  in sustainable food systems, and the home of the
  Farm, a training and research center for
  Agroecology.
• Many students and faculty had previously worked
  on sustainable food system issues and were
  anxious to use their knowledge to bring
  sustainable food to the campus.
• The proximity of UC Santa Cruz to organic farms
  that grow a variety of produce year-round ensures
  an abundant supply of local organic produce and
  the support of local organic farmers.
• Processes
• Collaboration, student organizing and outreach,
  and ongoing student education facilitated
  acceptance and support of sustainable food by
  both Dining Services and students.

6
The Campus Food System Working Group

• CFSWG is one of many active groups that arose
  out of the 2004 Campus Earth Summit
• Its members include environmental and social
  justice activists, students, faculty, staff,
  administration, and community members
• Prior to the Earth Summit, some of its members
  had already been working to lay the ground work
  for a more sustainable campus food system
• The groups goal is to bring local organic food
  produced by socially responsible operations to
  UCSC dining halls and to create a sustainable
  campus food system

7
Food Systems Working Group Structure
8
Food Systems Working Group Make-up

• Advisory Board Members
• Jim Leap, CASFS Farm Manager
• Brett Melone, ALBA Organics, MBOFC
• Melanie Dupuis, Faculty, Sociology
• Phil Howard, CASFS, Researcher
• Jan Perez, CASFS, Researcher
• Candy Berlin, CUHS
• Yvonne Macon, Purchasing
• Julie Guthman, Faculty, CMMU
• Marisol Assetta, BFBL Coordinator, CAFF
• Terrence Welch, Pinnacle Brand, MBOFC

• Participating Organizations
• Center for Agroecology Sustainable Food Systems
  
• Program In Community Agroecology
• Students for Organic Solutions
• Friends of the Farm Garden
• Community Agroecology Network
• Santa Cruz Food Systems Network
• UCSC Dining Services
• UCSC Purchasing
• Education for Sustainable Living Program
• CSSC UC Foods
• Monterey Bay Organic Farmers Consortium
• Community Alliance for Family Farmers

9
FSWG Priorities

• The top priorities that emerged from the 2004
  2005
• Campus Earth Summit were
• To develop guidelines for purchase of socially
  just, organic food by campus dining services
• To educate and organize students to demand
  socially just, organic food in the dining halls

10
What Were Some of FSWGs Activities in 2004/05 ?

• Holding farmer/ chef meetings to encourage
  dialogue and introduce food production managers
  to the seasonal available locally.
• Holding meetings with Purchasing and Dining
  Services to discuss purchasing from local farmers
• Setting up meetings with local farmers to
  establish an entity that could meet Purchasings
  contractual requirements.
• Helping to facilitate large-scale local organic
  College dinner nights
• Assisting student organizations with outreach and
  educational events around local and organic food
  
• Engaging in the Santa Cruz Food Forum and Food
  Policy Working Group for the County

11
Guidelines

• In May 2004, CFSWG drafted preference guidelines
  and goals to guide Dining Services in bringing
  sustainable food to campus dining halls.
• Buy local local food is grown within a 250-mile
  radius of Santa Cruz.
• Buy seasonal seasonal produce is produced
  locally during a given time of the year.
• Buy certified organic chemical residues on
  non-organic food may be harmful to human health.
• Buy humanely produced animal products humanely
  produced animal products are cage free, range
  fed, and anti-biotic free.
• Buy direct cultivating closer relationships
  between producer and consumer helps to eliminate
  middlemen, deliver more income at the farm level,
  and empower producers.
• Buy certified fair trade certified fair trade
  products are produced according to an established
  set of social criteria.
• Buy worker supportive food products worker
  supportive products are purchased from companies
  that incorporate one or more of the following 1)
  have a unionized work force 2) have a
  orientation towards social justice 3) actively
  seek to build the capacity of their workers

12
Features of a Sole Source Contract with Local
Organic Farmers

• One entity Alba Organics representing the
  Monterey Bay Organic Farming Consortium (MBOFC)
• All growers in the consortium are certified
  organic (documented chain of custody allows
  produce to be tracked back to the field source)
• All produce offered is grown within 250 miles of
  Santa Cruz, primarily in the Monterey Bay Area
• All 7 farms in MBOFC have agreed to a cooperative
  research relationship with the University.

13
Where are we now?

• Last year Direct Fair Trade coffee and a few
  organic produce items were offered in the dining
  halls.
• This year locally grown organic produce,
  including apples, green beans, beets, broccoli,
  carrots, chard, onions, peas, and heirloom
  tomatoes will be served.
• A sole source contract with a local farmers
  collaborative we created has been delivering to
  campus
• Biodegradable cutlery and materials are being
  used
• A pulper machine was introduced to one of our
  dining halls
• With energy retrofitting Dining Services was
  awarded thirteen thousand dollars last summer
• FSWG sponsors many educational outreach events on
  campus
• We assist with the Annual County Food Forum and
  other community events

14
Education Outreach

• College Nights
• Organic Taste tests
• Speakers/Field trips
• Innovative academic curriculum programs

15
College Nights

• Linking Farmer to Chef Meetings with Dining
  Service Events
• Working with College Activity and Program Offices
• Planning Fun and Engaging Programs!

16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Organic Taste TestsAt Cowell College 8

• Tactile Engagement
• Working with Dining Halls and Activity Offices
• Fun and Light-hearted

23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
Curricular Enrichment

• Courses
• ESLP ART
• College 8 Core Course Sustainability Service
  Projects
• Center for Teaching Excellence Grant

28
Education for Sustainable Living Program

• Lecture class of 225 with 9 Action Research Teams
  (ARTs)
• 16 Students in the Food System ART
• Funding through the Campus Sustainability Council
  and FSWG

29
Course Foci

• We Learned about
• The conventional agrifood system
• Issues of pesticide drift and exposure in
  agriculture
• The Organic Movement
• And the larger Alternative Agro-food system
  movement

30
Activities of the ART Section

• Organic College Nights
• Strawberry Taste Tests
• Farm tours Blue Heron Swanton Berry
• Food System Working Group Meetings
• Student Food Oriented Group Meetings

31
Campus Food Systems Assessment
32
Project Areas of Focus

• Pastlabor, purchasing, waste reduction
• Presentpurchasing/labor, student perspective,
  waste reduction
• FutureWhat staff and students would like to
  see..
• Resourcefunding for future sustainability
  efforts.

33
C8 Sustainability Service Projects

• 355 Freshman participants
• 4 Projects to select from based on the food
  system
• Building the capacity for food citizenship

34
Food Citizenship Initiative
35
Food System Network for Santa Cruz

• Food Forum
• Funding Support
• a) Food Forum
• b) Santa Cruz County Food System Network
  Website www.scfoodsystem.org

36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
What we learned

• Collaboration, organizing, outreach, and
  education were successful strategies
• Ongoing education of students and Dining Services
  is critical
• Communication with all stakeholders is a
  difficult process that must be constructively
  addressed
• Securing funding has been helpful in expanding
  our action steps and educational events

40
Next steps

• Securing UCOP support for purchase of socially
  just food and a statewide policy for purchasing,
  Waste reduction, and green facility standards for
  campus dining systems (CSSC-UC Foods).
• Continuing to educate meal plan holders
• Addressing the costs of purchasing more
  sustainably produced food
• Continuing to work with local farmers
  collaborative, MBOFC
• Following through with our commitment to secure
  direct marketing relationships with local dairies
  and other sustainable food suppliers with Dining
  Services
• Cultivating a steady rise in sustainable
  purchasing each year as student demand for
  sustainable food and the capacity of local
  farmers to supply the University grow
• Looking at how we can work with campus groups who
  will focus on the outputs of the dining halls

41
Resources

• UC Santa Cruz Dining Services http//www.housing.u
  csc.edu/housing/Dining_Main.html
• UCSC Food Systems Working Group
  http//www.ucscsec.org/blueprint_and_summit/FSWG.h
  tml

42
PowerPoint produced byLinda Wallace, UCSC Food
Systems Working Group Sociology Graduate Student
( Sustainable Development) Contact info
lindalwallace_at_earthlink.net Tim Galarneau, UCSC
Food Systems Working Group CSSC Statewide
Sustainable Food Systems AdvisorContact info
solseeker3_at_aol.com