Local Sustainable Purchasing

Dining Services began to actively seek inclusion of local and sustainable foods in 2008. Since then, the program has grown considerably. Dining Services added an exclusively local, sustainable, and organic venue, the Farms & Fields Project, located in one of our largest dining centers, Owens Food Court. It is titled "project" because our commitment to improvement is an ongoing process. Farms & Fields Project is a showcase for Dining Services’ gold standard of sustainability. Since 2008, the Dining Services sustainability coordinator has actively pursued local and sustainable foods wherever possible in all other dining units. Local special meals have now become a twice-annual tradition; meat produced and processed on campus is incorporated in most units year-round; and Dining Services’ coffee shop, Deet’s Place, purchases direct-trade coffee from a sustainable plantation in Nicaragua, which Dining Services’ leaders have personally visited. One of our most popular dining centers, West End Market, features fresh fish every day that meets the standards of Monterey Bay Seafood Watch’s "Best Choice " or "Good Alternative," in order to protect our waterways and fish populations.

One of our greatest accomplishments began as a small herb plot in 2009 at our land grant research farm, Kentland. More than tripled in size since its humble beginnings, our Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm provided thousands of pounds of sustainably-managed produce to many of our dining centers. Sweet potatoes, broccoli, mixed greens, asparagus, peppers, zucchini, and many more vegetables and herbs are grown, processed, and served within ten miles of campus. Facilitated by the sustainability coordinator, led by two students, staffed by Dining Services employees, and aided by a student volunteer program, the garden has been a thriving project for Dining Services. With over two acres and a new berry plot, the garden’s harvest will likely double in 2011, as compared with 2010.

In the future, Dining Services will be improving and expanding existing programs, as well as more actively tracking sustainable purchases to measure progress.

Our reported percentage of local foods (within 250 miles) and/or third-party sustainable certified food (ex. organic or certified humane) for the 2011 fiscal year, without double-counting items, compared to the rest of our food and beverage purchases, was 1.6 percent.

Food preservation is a key component in expanding the window of time that Dining Services can serve locally-grown food. Dining Services’ Southgate Food Processing Center has partnered with the Department of Food Science and Technology (FST) on several measures to expand its food preservation capacity. The facility plans to add a "fast freezer," which quickly chills food in order to preserve taste and nutritional quality, as well as create start-to-finish preservation plans with FST for various types of produce to ensure quality and safety.

Dining Services has partnered with the Virginia Tech Meat Science Center in purchasing and serving meats produced and processed on the Virginia Tech campus. These meats can be found at D2, West End, Shultz, Owens Food Court, and Blue Ridge Barbeque in Hokie Grill.