Minutes from Local Foods Committee Meeting with Oberlin College, Marriott and OSAP
March 23, 2000 Peters Hall, 3:30pm

Present:

Introductions are exchanged. I walk in late.

MG: At this meeting today I think we should focus on these questions: What kind of relationship is feasible with OSAP alone? What about our liability insurance issues? Might it work out that a consortium of local growers, which Adriane mentioned, would be better in the long run, so deliveries and costs could be spread out? This would also help with crop availibility, f one crop did not come in this would give us a broader base to work from. Adriane mentioned consultants who could help with starting growing cooperatives, but I thought OSAP would be a better place to start. What are some of the concerns, the logistical problems, that we would need to look at? What are concerns that might crop up? When we met two year ago it was basically the college’s expectation that to deal with an organization in terms of purchasing they would have to have $3million dollars liability insurance. And the other issue was that the organization would have to be annually inspected by the Ohio State Department of Agriculture(OSDA). We would need a copy of that inspection annually for Marriott.

Ken Sloane: From OSAP’s point of view, we would need to know what sort of standards they expect us to maintain and whether or not it would be feasible economically to pay the insurance.

Dave Jensen: We would have to work on that, figure out what the OSDA inspectors require.

MG: I copied articles about Bates College in Maine and their local growing cooperative. They have a program similar to the one Adriane was talking about. I feel that they speak very realistically about local foods problems in the article.

AD: We are researching more into other schools as well. If anyone wants to see it, I just wrote a paper about local foods in Lorain county and supporting the economy. Today, I am envisioning beginning open communication and starting talks with other farmers and OSAP. But I want to work specifically on a timeline and on information regarding packaging and processing of food.

KS: Maintaining an adequate supply when the college needs it is also going to be a problem. Our peak growing season is different from the college’s peak buying season. We can work around this, plant more crops in fall, more greens. But for us to do that involves restructuring our program. There has to be a lot of planning. We need concrete information.

MG: First we need to go over insurance and beauracratic problems. Then we will look at food and food quantities. We do not want to be less than supportive of OSAP’s ability to grow and change but, in the short term, we can come up with some sort of guarantee for next fall if you can tell us the amounts you can give us. You know that we’re ready to buy what you have and we’ll also continue to buy from our regular sources to supplement our need. We need a lot.

DJ: We can tell you exactly what our demand for food will be in mid August, after we figure it out. However, we use a very large quantity of food and we will be willing to buy whatever you can offer but we will, I expect, still need to buy more. Currently we have produce deliveries every day except Sunday.

MG: We are not expecting daily delivery. We will figure out how much we need for, say, a week and if you can deliver it on several days, that would be great. If not, that is ok, too.

GG: There is one problem: I’m a one man show. Last year I was delivering produce to OSCA and Cleveland and the markets. OSAP doesn’t have the money to hire more people. I’m working 80hrs a week now, harvesting, cleaning, delivering. The only way OSAP can do this is if OSAP can afford to hire more people to work with me.

KS: OSAP has a lot of restructuring to do if the college makes this work, if the college really wants to buy from us.

AD: A solution to this is the farmers cooperative. This can be more evenly distributed through several farms, taking the burden off of OSAP. We need to find out if we treated this cooperative as one entity, could they pay the insurance as one?

BM: Many farmers do this... Ocean spray is an example of a large growers cooperative. Lorain County could do this, but we need to get enough producers together to make this feasible economically. We could have enough supply for the college if we worked this way, too.

DJ: Supply is important to keep us from buying from usual vendors. We use a lot of food.

MG: Mark Frey mentioned that two years ago. What we would like to do is in one or two years have an area in Stevenson that will always have a local product/s a few times a week. In the long run, we would like to be able to feature this more frequently. It may never be possible to have all of our produce local and organic, but we would like to start.

BM: In the short term, it looks like a bit of OSAP’s produce next year in CDS. This will take a lot of work this year and we have to do serious planning early this summer. The long term goals is a consortium, a local farmering cooperative. This could also supply processing facility, say for tomato sauce, if we want to think really big. Do we want to do anything this year?

KS: This year I don’t think it is economically feasible for OSAP. A consortium could be worked on this summer, say by August. If you are flexible enough to be able to say, by mid August, you need tomatoes, we might be able to work something out.

DJ: We can take whatever you have to offer, especially when you have a bumper crop.

KS: You really want to do this?

DJ: Yes. We want to customize the menu.

KS: Are you really serious about buying local from OSAP? Last time, it did not seem so obvious!!!

MG: Last time, I was nervous. I wasn’t sure about some the issues and OSAP seemed much more unstable at the time. Now, I’ve done homework and it is do-able.

KS: If we have time this summer to work this out and not pressure Gerry, then this is a lot more possible. Also, it is $3 million liability insurance, which is less.

Joan Boettcer: Assuming a 5-10 million dollar revenue, for the first million it is 1500.

KS: This sounds about right, but it might be a little more because we have a truck now.

DJ: For you having to pay thousand in liability insurance, we will make it worth your while. We will buy everything, you can’t supply enough for us.

AD: In the Environment and Society 101, my group project is working on the idea of this farmers co-op. I would like Gerry to be our liason.

DJ: About 4 yrs ago farmers were backing away from this idea. They did not want to do a consortium, for whatever reason, possibly because of the difference in growing season and our buying season. What they were saying was that they wanted to do all soybeans, or all of one kind of crop. We wanted more variety. But if you put enough of those kinds of farmers together, then it becomes an economy of scale. If they can speak to each other, that would guarantee more variety. We will still buy more products to supplement our we need if we had to, though.

HS: OSCA is able to get all kinds of varieties of local foods. CDS can, too.

MG: We have different buying restrictions, and I don’t mean to hurt your point, but no one OSCA bought from could afford the insurance. Not a single person.

KS: We need to work on this over the summer. Since the market season starts in May we can begin to talk about the consortium then. Most of the talks will be about organizing the farmers.

BM: Jay Pickering is a pumpkin farmer who asked about a consortium and did surveys of farmers in Lorain county a bit ago. Talk to him

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KS: I ride my bike all around here and I’ve noticed the farmers aren’t the best of friends; that could make it hard to work with them. They might not want to cooperate it could take a lot of work on their behalf.

GG: Most farmers around here work from stands and sell retail because it is the only way to survive financially. The biggest produce grower just shut down. It is real hard.

KS: Do you find the farmers won’t work together?

BM: There was a high interest in a consortium because of prices lowering in markets in Cleveland, making it harder for them to sell their slightly more expensive produce.

AD: Are we in agreement that we want to start with a farmers growing cooperative?

GG: I have been thinking about it and I have potential to farm a lot more. Last year, I farmed only 2.5 acres and sold $45,000. That was without any real equipment. Now we have more equipment and I’ll have summer interns in June, so I’ll have help. Also, an exco class will be available and there are lots of very committed students. There is great potential for help. I could increase production by a 1/3 over last year. This would cover the cost of additional help. We need another person to help harvest/deliver. The other thing is that we rent the land, so we don’t have structures to work in. We work outside, the food is cleaned and delivered immediately.

DJ: Freshest product is good.

GG: We don’t have storage anyway.

DJ: Not a problem.

AD: Is there a possibility for a work-study position for CDS/Local foods person?

BM: It is my experience that any work study positions we want, we can get as long as a small amount of funding is available. We could do that.

GG: Then, yes, can we look into food increase for this year.

DJ: What are we talking about in the way of food?

GG: Tomatoes, peppers, brassica family (kale,etc.), beets, cool weather plants, swiss chard. Hot peppers. Squash. Things that require little attention compared to, say, lettuce. I don’t know how much we had, but we stored a ton of squash in Keep over the summer and OSCA bought most of it.

DJ: If we can buy and place it into the menu infrequently, that is great. How many pounds of squash is in a bushel?

GG: Oh, I would guess 50 lbs in one bushel.

AD: Are there storage facilities?

DJ: Possibly. If we are not getting out normal deliveries ...

MG: We will still need to supplement our food supply with normal deliveries. Where are we going to put squash?

DJ: South coolers.

KS: The squash last summer kept forever and it wasn’t even refrigerated. It just needs a cool, dry room. Without any critters; Keep had barred windows, I think.

GG: Around 55 degrees.

MG: We will attempt to buy it, but if we don’t have the storage space..... I think we need to focus more on buying and using fresh produce.

GG: Rats love squash.

KS: This fall semester we will talk to people about the cooperative growers association. For OSAP we will look into growing more squash, and tomatoes. Let us come up with a proposal for the long term as well, for next year. The short term, let’s come up with a proposal by June about what OSAP can do to supply food for August, for this fall.

BM: I have to leave. Before I go, if any of the students want to talk about work-study, we should. One other thing: does raw produce have the same liability as produced goods?

MG: Yes, any company that you establish a relationship with where you buy food has the same legal stature. However, I do feel more comfortable with buying raw foods.

DJ: We can’t look into canning or producing food yet. We can’t even use alfalfa sprouts.

GG: I did not mention OSAP growing lettuce because of the e.coli risks.

MG: If the consortium ever works in canning or the like, that is a whole different ball of wax. We would have to take a completely different approach, especially from health standpoints.

KS: What is up with OSCA canning food this summer?

AD: It is very small scale, OSCA is canning a little bit this summer with two interns. Things like tomato sauce, that are easier to deal with health-wise.

BM: This is relative to the Clark farm project, where e are at the very beginning of planning what kinds of crops OSAP will be farming, how the land will be laid out. We are looking into creating facilities to work with processing.

DJ: As you think about what you are planning, if we could talk about those crops, I could work out things.

GG: You and I need to communicate, so I can figure out whether or not to plant those tomato seeds that are sitting in the back of my truck.

DJ: Well, some of the things you listed are harder to use: kale, etc. Some students don’t like those things. But we can take things like cabbage.

KS: Peppers? What about hot peppers?

DJ: We can use peppers, probably some hot peppers, too.

KS: What about beets?

DJ (making a nasty face): Beets?

GG: Organically grown is so much better.

AD & HS: OSCA loves beets. The beets are really good.

SY: Miso and garlic will make kale taste wonderful.

DJ: Maybe the beets.

KS: The carrots we grew did not last as long as storebought.ones but tasted much better.

DJ: Carrots? Can we get carrots?

GG: Hrm, maybe problems with carrots and potatoes and onions. Things like that are more tempermental. I’m learning how to plant in the clay. It is an exact science, but I think I’ve got it down.

DJ: Eggplants?

GG: No, I don’t think so. I grew 1 out of 1500 I planted last year.

KS: But {some farmer’s name I did not catch} grew a large crop and they were gorgeous.

DJ: What about things like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, onions, and tomatoes? In the future, If someone else does a better job in a consortium, we could use theirs...

GG: Yes, to most of that, OSAP can do it.

DJ: What about garlic? Can we get garlic?

GG: Last year I had a bumper crop.

KS: You two need to get together and decided what is feasible to grow. Then we will look at insurance costs and make sure this is feasible. And into hiring extra help.

GG: There is a list of good people who want to work.

DJ: We will work together to start factoring in how much we need and will buy. Then, OSAP can figure that out with the insurance, labor and transportation cost. Just looking at it as money lost on insurance, for a thousand dollars, trust me: we’ll make it worth your while.

MG: Just to mention something that was brought up at the last meeting: I feel that the students are interested in supporting local growers, even if the prices are a little higher, so -

KS: You want higher prices? Oh, that is *fine*. We can work that. :)

MG: It is worth our while to buy local foods. But in the summer, we feed six year olds, they don’t care. However, if we need to buy in the summer to show our support to OSAP, I am willing to look into that. Money isn’t the bottom line when it comes to students.

KS: Without a cheap labor resource, we can’t be quite as competitive price wise, but I guarantee we can give you better product.

DJ: We can sell it as organic in the de café as raw product, so those pieces can be picked up as well.

AD: In the short term, OSAP will work to sell certain items next fall in CDS. In the long term, the farmers cooperative will be looked at, and local farmers contacted to see if they are interested.

KS: Perhaps next spring with the farmers cooperative will be more likely.

MG: David & Gerry Gross need to speak and they need to make sure that all the agreements are finalized. We need this carved down on paper to make sure there is continuity if someone leaves. Not that I want to be doom and gloom, but we need consistency.

GG: Yes, that is a really important point.

MG: That is about it. If you think that we need another meeting, we can work on another one having another one.

AD: Well, next week is spring break, so.... if we decide another meeting is needed, we will email you. Yeah! Thanks! Yeah! Thanks!

*Everyone cheers for local foods!!!!!!!!!*
The End