Buying local a priority for food service providers

Students may see more root vegetables in the dining hall when universities switch to local distributors

The dining hall at the University of King's College displaying their efforts towards buying locally. Photo: Greg Weston

Two weeks ago, Agriculture Minister Mark Parent challenged Nova Scotians to buy local foods and products to help build stronger communities. Parent signed the Wolfville Farmers Market Buy Local pledge as a commitment to supporting Nova Scotia local farmers and food producers.

"Nova Scotia farmers produce some of the freshest, tastiest food," Parent said. "This challenge encourages everyone to learn more about the local food and products which are available, when foods are in season, and where they can purchase these products."

Although the pledge is only a vaguely defined challenge for Nova Scotians to assess their personal buying habits, food service departments at universities in the Halifax region have been increasing their efforts to buy locally as well.

Parent is enthusiastic about the options, but for many smaller universities the goal is tough to achieve.

Enlarge Image
Fresh produce at the University of King's College dining hall. Photo: Greg Weston

Bigger is better

Tanya Lorimer-Charles, food services director at Mount Saint Vincent University, said that although efforts have been made at the university to purchase more local foods, the small size of several Atlantic universities makes that process difficult.

"For a local farmer to make a delivery to a campus there is a minimum order requirement. We simply don't have the student population to support those purchases."

Lorimer-Charles does, however, say that although they and other smaller schools in the area may not be able to support the initiative as much as larger schools can, they can still make efforts to do business with local suppliers whenever possible.

"The biggest challenge is trying to find ways to get all the produce we need in the most supportive way we can. Bananas aren't grown in the Maritimes but we can find a local distributor who gets their produce from the tropics."

Even the big schools can't buy all their food locally, with Dalhousie purchasing only 49.5 per cent of their foods from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. during the peak season (June-September).

Derek Hines, the Aramark residence district manager and food service director for Dalhousie University, is proud of the new environmental practices that are now in place on the campus.

"We have made some incredible changes on campus in the last couple of years," Hines said.

Stressing that Nova Scotians need to work in partnership with the local farmers, Hines, like Parent, is enthusiastic about the options available to those in the Maritimes.

"Students are going to be seeing more root vegetables: turnips, parsnips, carrots and potatoes," Hines said.

Not just P.E.I. potatoes

To maintain the variety in the meal plan options, Hines says Dalhousie is looking into other ways of increasing the variety of locally grown foods.

"Obviously we are not going to grow pineapples locally. There has been talk about growing those fruits in hothouses but we have to talk about the greenhouse gas emissions of those. It's a balancing act." Hines said.

When discussing the reaction from students toward the changes to the menu, Hines says students for the most part are supportive of the decision.

"At certain times of the year, only certain apples are available in the Maritimes. Students ask for other varieties but when we explain why we can't have green apples today, but we can in a month, they usually understand."

Some students not only understand, but wholeheartedly support the push for more locally grown foods on their campuses. Students at Acadia University have created the Acadia Farm, a student operated farm that grows organic vegetables and sells them back to the campus food services.

Kelly Marie Redcliffe, manager of the Wolfville Farmers' Market, is encouraged by the enthusiasm of so many for this project.

"I think a good number of people now believe that purchasing locally produced goods makes sense from an economic, environmental and community perspective."

None of the farmers market representatives mentioned whether the current amount of support from universities was satisfactory or insufficient.

Comments on this story are now closed