Valentine Dining Hall began projects over this summer to increase local produce sourcing and sustainability. One such project involves increasing the dining hall’s partnership with Amherst’s Book & Plow Farm.
“Last year was the birth of the Book & Plow Farm’s conjunction with Valentine and Dining Services,” said Head Chef Jeremy Roush. “This year, what’s been very good is that we’ve doubled or close to doubled our usage.”
The partnership allows Valentine to increase use of local produce and to collaborate with the farm to create new dishes. Kale and chorizo soup and butternut squash ravioli are two such creations.
Valentine has also sought contributions from the student community, including collaborations on specific student-led initiatives for responsible food sourcing and sustainability.
Julie Xia ’17 worked on “The Real Food Challenge” campaign this summer to reduce food waste and encourage sustainable food measures.
“The Real Food Challenge” is “a nation-wide student-led movement to get more local, humane, ecologically sound, and fair food into college and university dining halls,” Xia said in an email. She used invoices to calculate how much of Valentine’s food could potentially come from a sustainable source.
Xia became interested in food sustainability after “watching how much food gets thrown out every day,” she said.
“Yes, we do compost, and that’s a victory in itself,” Xia said. “But composting-manufactured or highly processed food is still an incredibly inefficient use of natural resources.”
For its part, Valentine is looking at finding higher quality food products that are healthier for students.
“Although I can’t say how much of this is in response to my project, I’ve seen several changes already this fall,” Xia said.
Visibility and awareness of locally sourced food has increased, as “locally sourced food is advertised as such,” Xia said.
Xia also emphasized the switch to sustainably produced bananas.
“[This] is an incredible leap because in food justice movements, industrial banana production is infamous, being a particularly cruel industry,” Xia said.
Xia pointed out other possible areas of improvement, including making the entire poultry line and not only the eggs cage-free.
“Changing student behavior is hard, but a campaign to reduce food waste would definitely be worth our time,” Xia said.
Xia’s collaboration is one example of Valentine’s efforts to improve based on feedback from students and other members of the community.
Roush, who is now entering his fifth year with the college, said that Valentine has made substantial changes in terms of greater variation in meal offerings, social engagement opportunities (such as Late Night Val) and greater guidance for its service staff and the student body.
“Over the last four years or so, dining services has done a lot of inward looking, and there has been quite an evolution to our dining program. We’ve started making changes in a lot of different areas over the years, moving to a much fresher product,” said Director of Dining Services Charlie Thompson.
Responding to student comments, Valentine has changed the color of its dining plates and salad bowls from purple to white. Diversifying its line of fish products and including pork-alternative breakfast items such as turkey and chicken products has helped to accommodate a wider range of dietary choices in the student community.
In response to students’ requests for low-fat Greek yogurt, the college identified a supplier who plans to collaborate with Val on the product within the next few months. The salad bar and fruit stand also features in-season produce such as sun-ripened cherry tomatoes, peaches and plums.
“Many changes have come from listening to our customers,” Thompson said, from comment card submissions to online suggestions.
“We can’t promise folks that we can give them everything that they ask for, but what we do and what we’ve always promised is that we do look and do consider every single comment,” Thompson said.
