Vocal about local

Gus Schumacher reports.

Hyde Park, New York—Jacob Lieberman and Leonard Justin from Yeshiva University's Food Services in New York City marveled at the options for sourcing locally grown and processed kosher foods laid out by speakers at a special "Colleges Buying Local: A Farm-to-Fork Initiative" meeting at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in early April.

Hosted by the Albany, New York–based Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, nearly 100 farmers, college dining service managers, and agricultural extension leaders listened closely as speakers outlined the different ways New York's colleges and universities can develop or expand a purchasing program for locally produced and processed foods. With a truckload of fresh produce from California now costing nearly $5 to $6 per case to ship to New York (nearly $7,000 per truck), food buyers and administrators representing the 109 private colleges located in New York that altogether serve some 460,000 students daily were eager to explore regional and local sources.

The institutions were interested in saving on transportation costs, students wanted fresh, more sustainable and more diverse locally grown foods, and dining service managers and their foodservice providers such as Aramark, Bon Appetit, and Sodexho wanted to learn how other colleges located, sourced, and prepared the ingredients grown nearby. Challenges of logistics, seasonality, liability, and packaging were discussed and examples provided of business practices developed as solutions.

Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, said it's now sourcing 20 percent of its ingredients locally, dean Judy Jackson of Vassar College outlined its extensive "Buy Local, Buy Fresh" campaign featuring a Vassar Regional Food Forager and a seasonal farmers' market on campus, and Josh Viertel and Melina Shannon-DiPietro outlined the Yale Sustainable Food Project promoting locally grown and sourced organic ingredients. Local food was featured throughout the day's activities. Jim Allen of New York's Apple Association provided local apples at each table, and chef Tom Griffiths of the CIA's St. Andrew's Café prepared a lunch with local seasonal ingredients during which he introduced Paul Wigsten, a nearby Hudson Valley farmer, who has been recruited as the CIA's full-time produce buyer. In 2005, he explained, Wigsten got off to a great start by purchasing over the course of the year nearly $400,000 worth of fresh, sustainably grown produce from 20 area farmers for the CIA's training programs and four restaurants, saving on transportation and educating both students and restaurant customers on the wide variety of ingredients produced within miles of campus. In summer and fall that represents 40 percent of the CIA food procured and off-season 20 percent. Jim Trezise of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation provided an array of fine New York wines and cheeses for a closing reception.

And Lieberman and Justin? They traveled back to Yeshiva with new enthusiasm for diversifying the menu at their university with a broader array of New York produced and processed foods.