Locally grown and organic foods on residence hall menu

When first-year students arrive this week, they will find residence hall menus feature food raised on Wisconsin farms and organically grown.

The university’s food service is adding four items to the dining center menu that come directly from Wisconsin farms. Students will enjoy tortilla chips made from organic blue corn grown in Janesville, apples grown in Richland Center, environmentally friendly potatoes grown in the Central Sands region, and hamburger from cows raised without synthetic hormones on Wisconsin pastures.

UW–Madison is one of several college and university food services around the country that are starting to include locally grown and organic food on their menus. Bates College in Maine, Yale University in Connecticut, and Northland College in Wisconsin are other schools that are doing the same thing. Even elementary schools are putting organic and locally grown foods into their cafeterias. In 1999, public schools in Berkeley, Calif. began serving organic fruits and vegetables from local farms.

Bob Fessenden, who leads the residence halls dining service, says student demand for organic food is growing. This reflects overall trends in the food industry, where the organic market is growing at a rate of 20 percent a year. An ABC News poll in June found that 52 percent of Americans say that they are more likely to buy foods labeled as organically grown.

After adding the apples and blue corn chips to the food service menu in spring, Fessenden decided to offer all four locally grown items this fall.

Fessenden says changes in the student population at UW–Madison influence the demand for locally grown and organic food. “Many students are coming from families where they are used to eating organic food.”

Students ask for locally grown and organic food on the menu for economic and environmental reasons, as well as freshness and taste. Students who grew up on farms say that it makes sense for the university to use its buying power to support family farmers. Students concerned about the environment want to support farming practices that decrease nutrient and pesticide runoff and encourage healthy wildlife populations. They also prefer eating locally grown food because less gasoline is used in transport.

“In Wisconsin, we are very fortunate that some of our colleges and universities support local farms by serving their products in dormitories and conference centers,” says John Hendrickson of the UW–Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, which helped connect Fessenden and food service staff with farmers who could supply the new products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program also worked with the residence halls dining service.

This fall, each of the four campus dining centers will go totally organic and locally grown for an evening in September and early October. Menus will be chosen from what local farmers can provide, emphasizing organic meats, dairy, and Wisconsin fall produce like tomatoes, eggplant and acorn squash.

Hendrickson says the decision to make these foods a permanent part of residence halls menus is a victory for Wisconsin farmers, students and the environment. “UW-Madison and the residence halls dining service staff should be applauded for their commitment to work with Wisconsin farmers. Students get fresh, delicious food, and the farmers gain new markets for their products. And, because this food is grown in environmentally friendly ways, our soil, water, and wildlife resources also benefit. In other words, everyone wins.”