Organic Certification & University Dining

By Chuck Davies, Associate Director of Residental Dining, Cal Dining – University of California, Berkeley

Why would a large university dining service make the decision to “go organic”?  Does it make sense?  Isn’t it too expensive?  Are students willing to pay more for organic dining options?

These are just a few of the questions we asked ourselves, and were asked by others just over 2 years ago when we began the process of certifying the first of four residential dining halls.  “We” are Cal Dining, the self-operated dining service program at the University of California, Berkeley.  And I am Chuck Davies, Associate Director of Residential Dining — the certification initiative was my pet project but it never could have happened without the support of our Director, Shawn LaPean, and the hard work and dedication of our front line staff.

Certification may not be the right option for every college and university dining service, but in our case, it seemed the right thing to do.  First and foremost, Cal Dining is here to serve our student customers.  It’s our mission to provide a safe living and learning environment — a home away from home for Cal students.  We take our charge to be good stewards of our student’s money very seriously, and endeavor to make wise purchasing choices.  As one of the country’s largest dining service operation, we serve close to 30,000 meals a day in fourteen different locations on and off campus.  Our four residential dining halls are “all you can eat” locations — customers swipe once and can choose from any number of food court options, and have as much as they would like during any given meal period.  We receive dozens of electronic and hand-written comment cards weekly and we respond to each one.  Among those comments were requests from our diners asking for “more organic choices”!   At that time, we resonded by saying that we appreciated the suggestion and that we “would investigate the possibility of purchasing more organic products”.  And so we did!

While we never had the notion that we could ever afford to be 100% organic in all of our purchasing, after research on pricing and availability, we were able to determine that it would be possible to begin with a 100% Certified Organic Salad Bar, and move on from there.  If we were to follow through with certification, it would mean that each and every item on the salad bar (several types of greens, 16 different fresh vegetables, salad dressings, sunflower seeds, eggs, tofu,  oils, vinegars, raisins, croutons and the entire selection of composed salads such as Asian Noodle, Marinated Vegetables, Spicy Spelt, 3 Bean, Black Bean and Corn and all ingredients including spices would be required to 100% Organic!)

Based on the USDA’s National Standards, which were instituted in 2002, any producer, manufacturer or processor who makes claims regarding organic ingredients is required to undergo certification by an independent third party certifying agency.  Cal Dining’s management team felt that it was necessary to take this additional step in order to add integrity to our statement about the use of organic ingredients in our dining halls.  In addition, we felt it was a perfect educational opportunity for our staff AND our student customers.  Our experience with CCOF, our certifying agency,  (Callifornia Certified Organic Farmers) www.ccof.org couldn’t have been more positive.  They provided the template for our certification application and helpful hints along the way.  While it takes some time to gather documention and create Standard Operating Procedures for the operation being certified, it’s not an expensive process, and CCOF and other certifying agencies across the country are there to help.

Once an application is accepted, an inspection is scheduled.  Once certified, the operation is required to maintain proper records which include invoices for organic product purchases, service/production records, sanitation and pest control records, etc.  These records are audited once per year by the certifying agency.  Of course, education and training of staff who are handling and processing organic products are an essential piece of the success of any new program.  Cal Dining’s management and front line staff were informed and trained every step of the way.

Following the successful certification of our largest dining hall in April, 2006, Cal Dining proceeded with certification for its additional three residential dining halls.   The program has received wide recognition and has proven to be exceedingly with our student customers as well as faculty and staff.  In fact, it’s our contention that the Organic Certification along with numerous other quality improvement initiatives has resulted in increased meal plan sales, particularly to non-resident students.  While organic products can be more expensive than conventional products, with proper planning, bidding and contract pricing, it’s possible for college and university dining programs to afford organic ingredients.  Through such careful practices, Cal Dining has actually been able to reduce the cost per meal the past several years.  For those campuses which have a “retail” food service operation charging a la carte prices rather than one “swipe” for an all you can eat meal, the additional costs for organic ingredients may be built into the retail price.

Since our initial Organic Certification of our salad bars, Cal Dining has continued to make significant additional changes by purchasing only Organic eggs and Organic milk for our dining hall milk dispensers.  In our retail settings, we have added dozens of Organic packaged items. 

While Organic Certification may not be suitable for every campus dining operation, it’s been a very successful model for Cal Dining and the University of California, Berkeley!