Sustainable Food in Dining Halls a Possibility
By Sinead Hunt
Contributing Writer

Across the country, colleges are integrating organic farms and foods into their campus lifestyles. Pioneer educational institutes in this regard include Princeton, Yale, Evergreen State College and Colorado College. Is there a comparable movement at the Claremont Colleges? Yes. Many great and innovative steps have been taken at Claremont McKenna’s Collins Dining Hall, steps that can and should be implemented at Pomona College.

Organic produce is grown without the use of pesticides, which can be carcinogenic to humans and can also cause birth defects. Pesticides are harmful to creatures that eat these plants, and thus the toxic chemicals are passed along the food chain. Pesticides also cause the soil in which the crops are grown to become less fertile. Furthermore, eating organic food supports smaller farmers; these farmers are struggling against the larger industrial pesticide-based farmers who receive disproportionate government subsidies.

Collins is served by Bon Appetit, now in their fourth year of providing dining food services at CMC. I met with Pam Franco, the General Manager of Collins, who gave me a tour of the dining hall. Feanco explained each food station in great detail, and described the various healthy choices and organic food that is incorporated into the dishes they serve. Their system is part of the Circle of Responsibility Program that Bon Appetit has implemented. Franco and her team aim to serve fresh food and to help raise strudents’ awareness about what kind of food they are putting into their bodies. They believe that with this information, students can make better food decisions. To this end, there is a large information display in Collins, along with an elaborate icon system. This is markedly different from the Pomona dining halls, where there is no clear and obvious information about the food we are putting into our bodies.

Collins uses an icon system that is far more informative than the three-color codes used in Pomona dining halls (red, green, and orange). This should be a clear indicator to the Pomona dining services that they are not providing enough helpful, nutritional information for students who eat in their dining halls. Collins has icons for the following: In Balance (“contains a balanced portion of whole grains, fresh vegetables and lean protein with a minimum amount of healthy fats”), Low Fat (“3 grams of fat or less for every 100 calories and entrée is less than 500 calories per serving”), Farm to Fork (“contains ingredients purchased from a local farm or artisan and that are seasonal and minimally processed”), Organic (“contains at least 95 percent organically produced ingredients [by weight] from an USDA certified source”), Vegetarian, Vegan and Seafood Watch (“contains seafood that meets the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guidelines for sustainable seafood”). Bon Appetit subscribes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, helping it to purchase sustainable seafood. The Monterey Bay Aquarium places seafood into three categories - “best choices,” “caution,” and “avoid,” based on the methods used to acquire the seafood.

The information display in Collins includes a large book which records recipes of all the food that is made from scratch on the premises, and also nutritional information on food that is consistently present at the dining hall. There are also various informational brochures, and information on the “Farmer of the Month,” which identifies who the farmer is, what his/her farm supplies Collins with, and where their farm is located, as a part of the Farm to Fork program at Collins. This openness about the origin of the food served at Collins should also be available at the Pomona dining halls, as it would help to cut down on buying practices that use larger industrial pesticide-based farmers.

Through the Farm to Fork program, Bon Appetit buys organic food from smaller farms, ideally within a 150 mile radius. This allows the produce to be regional and seasonally produced, ensuring that it is fresh and free of pesticides, hormones and anti-biotics. This practice is not incorporated 100 percent into the buying practice of Bon Appetit, but it is still a large step in the right direction and it enables Bon Appetit to invest in the regional community.

Another benefit of the Farm to Fork program is that it permits organic farms on college campuses to supply Bon Appetit on their campus. For example, Evergreen State College’s organic farm supplies the Bon Appetit Café on their campus. This is an intriguing idea for Pomona concerning the potential of our farm, although the process of organic certification is extremely stringent. The Farm to Fork station at Collins is also totally vegan, although not always wholly organic, as this depends on the freshness and availability of the organic produce at any one time. And you may still be eating a lot of organic food even if it is not labeled as such, since the definition of organic food Bon Appetit abides by is that organic food must be 95% organic by weight. Thanks to the creativity of Franco’s team, the vegan bar includes hot and cold options, and the hot options include inspired entrees. The day I met with Franco, there were tofu-stuffed mushrooms and the vegan pizza put its counterpart at Pomona to shame.

The organic food movement ranges from institution to institution in terms of how fully it is integrated into the dining hall. But it is becoming increasingly evident that introducing organic food is a financially viable option. Cost remains a factor in this decision, but it is not always true that the organic option is more expensive than conventionally farmed produce. I came across one particularly good idea being implemented at Princeton: in order to continually introduce new organic food, they have developed a percentage cap difference system. Whenever the difference in the price of the organic option drops below a set bar, currently set at 5%, the organic option will be purchased over the non-organic product. This is but one feasible suggestion that Pomona should use in its research; it could lead to a more extensive introduction of organic food in the dining halls. Of course, this is contingent upon the Pomona dining hall food service provider acknowledging the value of introducing organic foods into its dining halls.

Collins Dining Hall and other colleges demonstrate that it is possible to introduce sustainable food into a dining hall, and this is an example that the Pomona dining halls should follow.