Campus Dining serves local produce treats

Elizabeth Pacheco Sports Editor

Across the United States, small farms are struggling to compete with larger, industrial producers. While local farms have a limited market, industrial producers have the resources to ship globally and provide a variety of products. Here in the Hudson Valley, the increase in industrial development has raised production costs by an average of 25 percent, and has made running a farm even more expensive.

Vassar joined the Cornell University Farm-to-College Program as a pilot site in 2002. The goal of the program is to explore how New York produce can be integrated into campus dining halls. The program has continued to expand, increasing the breadth of local foods available at Vassar.

Director of Marketing Campus Dining in the Retreat Ken Oldehoff plays a key role in creating these relationships with local farmers. His job consists of finding local farmers, testing the produce for compatibility with campus dining, and arranging delivery of the products. “Vassar has a responsibility to feed so many that we must make conscious decisions in how we sell food,” said Oldehoff. “In supporting local farms, we are helping to keep the rural character of the area as well as allowing students to taste different varieties of produce.”

Local food use includes milk from Boice Brothers Dairy in nearby Kingston, New York, and tomatoes and apples from Stone Ridge Orchard, which is about 25 miles away. The Retreat also makes use of the basil and cilantro grown in campus greenhouses. The most noticeable change is probably the addition of the Farm to Local Foods station in the All-Campus Dining Center (ACDC). Here students can purchase entire meals consisting of locally grown foods.

Before introducing new foods into all of the menus, small changes are made. Generally, locally grown foods are more expensive, which increases the financial risk if the product is unsuccessful. New foods are thus usually introduced in the Retreat and then moved to ACDC. A current example is the Hudson Valley fresh milk that the College is testing. About twice as expesive as the milk served now, the Hudson Valley milk is only being used to make specialty drinks at Java City and the Kiosk. However, because of the milk’s high fat content, baristas are struggling to steam the milk. In response to these difficulties, Campus Dining decided to stop using the Hudson Valley whole milk, and began to use skim. By starting with small developments like the specialty drinks, the College has a chance to experiment with certain products with a minimal cost loss.

Many other challenges have arisen in an attempt to incorporate local foods. The most obvious of these is the changing of seasons. When the October frost hits, locally grown produce is no longer available and the College is forced to look to out-of-town suppliers. In an effort to stay local, the dining halls could decrease their produce variety, but this is unrealistic.

There are also the issues of space and delivery. The Retreat is only large enough to hold about a day’s worth of produce, and must therefore restock every morning. Unfortunately, many local farmers do not have the necessary time and resources to provide daily delivery. An initial solution to this problem was the creation of the student forager position. This Vassar student had access to a van and would go directly to the farmers and pick up the produce themselves, but student schedules made coordinating produce pickups difficult.

Besides working with local foods in the dining halls, Oldehoff is also promoting activities directly involving Vassar students. Earlier this year, Campus Dining hosted the Harvest Dinner in ACDC, the main ingredients of which came from local sources, namely Wicklow Orchards. Plans are being made for the Apple Festival in early November, which includes the second annual apple pie baking contest. Students had an opportunity to make their own pies with fresh, locally grown apples. Additionally, Oldehoff is planning to organize a panel discussion about the challenges of running an orchard in the Hudson Valley.

By educating students while serving them local foods, Vassar has shown initiative in saving local Hudson Valley farms from going out of business. Combining their efforts with other institutions will hopefully keep larger industrial producers from taking over, and may inspire others to support local farms.