Williams Fostering Campus Food Culture

[Northern Berkshire Transition]

Institutional food reform means unpacking the economic, social and environmental concerns of industrial food production. A college must investigate and know what food it eats, where its food comes from, and how this food is produced. Williams College, like many other campuses nationwide, has decided to undergo the arduous, and necessary, transition to food sustainability. The common thread that ties this work together is the decision to take responsibility for campus health, which includes the healthy daily diets (and future dietary positions) of over 2000 students, the health of regional food producers that supply the dining halls, and the health of the greater commons.

Harnessing institutional purchasing is one of the most powerful tools available for shifting patterns of food production and consumption in a more sustainable direction. Similar to the way an ecosystem is supported by primary producers, a college depends upon countless smaller systems, like dining programs, in order to run. How the college wields its resource regulates demand and dictates supply. Through purchasing decisions, college dining services have a tremendous ripple effect; influencing the products used by hundreds or even thousands of individuals. Directing the purchasing power toward local, sustainable food producers is the way of the future.

Williams College is a strong example of progress towards food sustainability. Like their counterparts nationwide, a growing number of current and prospective Williams College students are incredibly passionate and devoted to promoting organic and sustainable food. Williams spends around 10% of its food budget in the local economy through buying directly from local farms. It recently opted to forego Sysco and contract two smaller family-run distributors. Williams currently composts over 90% of its food waste. A student-run organic garden thrives on campus. Williams has eliminated non-biodegradable food containers and utensils from its dining halls.

Food sustainability in any community is, in a large part, about the realistic triangulation of supply, demand and logistics. This includes often invisible infrastructural changes that allow food to travel from field to plate. This is the often unspectacular, operational side of institutional food reform – refrigerated trucks, compost, slaughterhouses, spreadsheets and 5-year plans.

Dining services and purchasing development, though critical, are not enough. Successful food reform also includes altering food culture. The future of sustainable campus food systems, therefore, depends upon building educated sustainable campus food cultures. If we continue to understand our relationship with food as separate from our relationship with our culture, then we will fail to achieve sustainable food systems on our campuses or beyond. In order for our hard work towards food sustainability to have meaning, we must first realize that food is not disconnected from people, their communities and their daily routines.

‘Sustainable Food’ cannot be solely the duty of a college’s ‘sustainability department’; interest in and commitment to food must be a coordinated and integrated effort across campuses. Fostering a cohesive, responsible food culture must united diverse strengths from many programs across a campus, usually bringing together people whose jobs have never previously overlapped. Sustainability must be more than a catchphrase, a program or set of goals. Sustainability must become the set of shared attitudes, values, principles and practices that characterizes a collective. Institutions of higher education will become leaders in food sustainability when there exist across campus consistent voices that advocate returning food to the center of our intellectual inquiries as well increasing attention to our daily practices. A successful food culture somehow threads together all voices into a collective, under the common banner of knowing and telling our food story with pride.

April 30, 2010 by sfrydenlund organiconthegreen.wordpress.com

Katharine Millonzi
Manager, Sustainable Food Program, Williams College

http://organiconthegreen.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/fostering-campus-food-culture/