New York University has seven dining halls, which many of our 20,000 undergraduate students never use after the expiration of their freshman year meal plan. Until my sophomore spring, while concentrating my academics on Northeast agriculture and sustainable farming, I had no intention of getting involved with the food system at NYU. Having matriculated to the school with the hopes of avoiding a collegiate “bubble,” I saw working on school dining as a project that would cut me off from the bigger picture, even just our regional food system, which I felt demanded more immediate attention.
As any New Yorker might begrudgingly tell you, however, NYU is a sizeable part of a “bigger” picture. Not only is the University one of the largest employers in New York, as well as the owner of substantial urban property, but it happens to spend quite a substantial sum of money: on food. We purchase over 340,000 pounds of food per semester, worth about $4 million. In 2006, a group of five Gallatin students researched and developed a Sustainability Assessment of NYU, in which they recognized (among other things) the immensity of that purchasing power. The assessment pointed out that Aramark, our food service provider, “unfortunately has the worst record among national food services when it comes to purchasing local food,” although Sid Wainer, the company that provided about 12% of NYU’s produce, does deal with many local farmers. Of course, any local food supply depends upon our Northeast growing season, but as the Sustainability Assessment highlighted, NYU could consistently prioritize organic, sustainably farmed products, and also take advantage of the seasonal abundance. New York, the assessors explained, “has more farms than any other state on the Eastern seaboard.” Their survey results explained that students would strongly support a dining hall dedicated to local and organic foods, and would even pay an additional $0.75 to $1/meal to eat there. We could see the local bounty in the 46 Greenmarkets and 50 CSA sites throughout the boroughs. We just didn’t have that food in our dining halls.
In 2006, the only identifiable “sustainable” products at NYU were local apples (a percentage of the total apples). Through the efforts of student clubs, the Sustainability Task Force, and the increasingly open-minded Aramark: We now have 100% Fair Trade coffee. Our fish is bought from Wild Edibles. For the last academic year, one dining hall, Hayden, was devoted to providing as much local, organic, and/or Fair Trade food as possible. About 32% of the food purchased for Hayden fell into one or more of these categories. These changes came after considerable time at the drawing board: defining organic, defining local, prioritizing values, considering whether to set large goals or small, to resist collaboration with Aramark, or to set about working together. Increased inter-school collaboration between students, particularly among participants in the Real Food Summit last fall, has facilitated this work immensely.
The Food and Purchasing Subcommittee of the Sustainability Task Force requested purchasing data from Dining Services this Spring, and the data received (pounds purchased, dollars spent, Hayden vs. other dining hall comparisons) is now being evaluated. The F&P Committee also developed sustainable catering criteria, and Aramark is now offering an organic catering option.
Clearly, we have a ways to go before inciting a full-scale agrarian revolution at NYU. We have gardens, but no farms, local apples, but plenty of bananas, and when it comes down to it, we young farmers and farm-appreciators of the school could simply eat elsewhere. But instead we are working towards change, recognizing that our style must be rather like the tortoise: slow but steady. The steady is the most important thing to maintain, a quality rare in rotating student populations, but I have an immensely excited trust that local, organic foods will steadily increase in our dining halls, and our pace of change may even quicken in the coming years. Ever since the Real Food Summit last Fall, since the chairing of the Food and Purchasing Subcommittee by a freshman this Spring, since the launching of this website this week…it has been clear to me that students working on changing their institutional food systems are no longer alone. We have begun to help each other! We’re recognizing a big picture. We’re reaching far outside our own academic spheres. And we show no signs of retreat.
-Annie (Thoughts on the Table)
Hey Annie,
Thanks for writing such a great entry! I completely agree that it is very comforting to know that there are so many students all over the country who are partaking in similar initiatives.
When you explained that the Sustainability Assessment found Aramark to be one of the worst providers in terms of purchasing local food, I wondered if they are any better when it comes to purchasing organic? You later say that they have become more open-minded. What do you attribute that to? Can you give some examples of how they have shown improvements along organic/local/etc. lines? Do you think this has to do primarily with “corporate greenwashing” or genuine interest in eco/sustainable/organic initiatives?
Also, to everyone reading this, although this might have been discussed at the Real Food Summit, which dining service provider have you found to be the most amenable to dicsussing or providing organic options on your campus?
Nina
Nina,
Your questions are the controversial ones. As to the last query, I know Bon Appetit has done a lot of good work. Otherwise, many schools have opted to run their own dining services, and work with distributors/farmers directly.
I can’t give you statistics, but I don’t think buying organic was high on Aramark’s list of priorities either. As for their improvements, I think it has to do with both corporate greenwashing and genuine interest – in some ways, they go hand in hand, because everyone’s learning about this stuff as they go. The command might have come from higher up that the company had to “go green” (corporate greenwashing), but as the Aramark representatives and chefs at different schools learn more about the benefits of sustainably produced/sourced foods, it becomes a genuine priority. Take for example John Turenne, former Aramark chef at Yale, who helped develop the Yale Sustainable Food Initiative, and is now a consultant for sustainable food systems in institutions. He was a bit ahead of his colleagues, but Aramark has taken a lot of intiative – Wild Edibles was all their idea. And the changes in Hayden’s food and in Fair Trade coffee certainly required as much if not more work on their part as it did on ours.
Annie
Annie –
2 notes.
1. Apples, then coffee and fish . . . those were some of the major places where Princeton was first successful as well. I don’t think it’s simply an irony, nor due to the fact that our universities are both on the East Coast (well, maybe for apples. . . . ) In the process of ‘localizing’ and ‘organichizing’ and ‘greenifying’ collegiate food, it seems that these items are great entry points to improving one’s food system. Start specific, and Start small.
2. Changing over one dining hall, as opposed to all at once, brings up a really interesting point. Yale has always emphasized that starting with one dining hall was what gave them the recognition and the bargaining power to expand their efforts 0 just as NYU did with Hayden. Princeton has always taken the opposite approach – change over everything while you’re taking a specific item or idea on. I think both can be effective, but the Yale/Hayden approach is useful when you’re just starting out (testing the waters, understanding the process) AND trying to snag the attention of both students and administrators.
Congrats on such a successful year! Wow.
Katy