By Adriane Dellorco (article for OSAP newsletter)

This semester marked the first semester in over thirty years that students in Oberlin College Campus Dining Service (CDS) could eat locally grown produce in their cafeteria meals. After two years of planning and negotiations (not to mention a crucial change in dining company from Sodhexo Marriott to the current Bon Apetit), OSAP has helped to open the door for the purchase of local foods in CDS.

Last year, Oberlin College purchased a $5,000 institutional share in OSAP to be spent in the Fall semester of 2001. It was anticipated that with the tremendous volume of produce purchased by CDS on a daily basis (CDS serves over 2.000 students daily) that the share would be used up in a matter of weeks and that an additional $10,000 could be sold. Additional labor was budgeted for to aid in the extra production. I have served as the liaison between CDS and OSAP this semester and have facilitated ordering and other logistical issues.

As we approach the end of the semester, CDS is just now on the brink of using up all of their $5000 share. There were many other unforeseen issues that made it difficult for CDS to purchase more from OSAP: 1) The quality and cleanliness of OSAP’s produce was not to the standard that CDS was accustomed; 2) CDS does not use many of the types of produce OSAP grows; 3) Due to the transition to the new dining company, CDS managers were often too busy to plan out local foods orders; 4) Due to a labor shortage within CDS, Bon Apetit has not been able to live up to their promise of using only fresh ingredients that are often more labor intensive to prepare; 5) OSAP grew some items for CDS that were not timed for harvesting during the academic school year, e.g. tomatoes.

We have been creative in finding solutions to the above obstacles. We negotiated a regular order to CDS of lettuce and mesclun every week so that the managers do not have to order it weekly. CDS has allowed OSAP to use a set of sinks and a walk-in cooler in their bakery to wash produce for them. Another CDS recycler has been helping to wash mesclun mix and lettuce and deliver it to the dining halls to relieve Gerry of the extra work.

Our first shot at incorporating local foods into CDS has been a combination of successes and failures, encouragement and discouragement. In many ways it is a miracle we’ve come this far and that CDS has been very willing to work to bring local organic food to their students, despite the difficult logistics it brings. I have loved to go into the Lord Saunders kitchen and hear about how Joan has prepared scrumptious tomato sauce with OSAP tomatoes and hear Rance, the maintenance man, rave about how gorgeous our red kale is. Other days I get annoyed messages from distraught managers wondering when their order is coming and hear the kitchen staff grumble about how much more work it is too pick through our mesclun mix. Now that we have opened the door for local foods in CDS, Millers Orchard now supplies many of CDS’ apple needs and other local farmers have been calling CDS ready to make a deal. We still have a long ways to go and a lot to learn, but this semester’s local foods program in CDS is a seed that will only grow bigger.