Tips and Advice for Students
by Adriane Dellorco, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Make friends with everyone: College administrators, dining service managers and staff, local farmers, students...Your work will go much easier if you can win allies instead of enemies.
Do your homework before you talk to anybody in your college administration: Research as much as you can about local farms in your area and other schools with local foods programs before you meet with your college administrators. You want to be able to wow them with how much you already know so that they take you seriously. This website will hopefully be a good resource for your research.
Approach your college administrators from a research angle: College administrators are likely to be more receptive to students that approach them about the issue of local foods with meaningful questions rather than aggressively posting a list of "student grievances" on their door. Work with your college to find solutions, not just make demands.
Present examples of other schools with local foods programs to your college administrators: College administrators are not big risk-takers by nature, so showing them examples of other schools with local foods programs helps assuage their anxiety about trying something new. Check out the Links page for links to other schools with local foods programs.
Find ways to sustain your effort for the long term: Being paid by Oberlin CDS to develop their local food program gave me the fuel I needed to commit to the program for my entire college career. Try to find ways to get either money or academic credit for your work, or you may burn out sooner than you hope.
Be prepared for the long haul: Establishing a local foods program on your campus will probably take longer than your college career. Lay down the foundation for the program with plenty of documentation and try to inspire a younger classperson to carry on your work.
Find a non-profit to help you: Try to find the support of a non-profit working for sustainable agriculture to give you advice and legitimacy when negotiating with your college about local foods.
Leave a paper trail: Make a habit of typing up minutes from meetings on the computer and saving your local foods related emails. You never know when you'll want to make a local foods website!
Always follow-up with people to be sure that they do what they say they are going to do: This is especially true for dining service managers who are extremely busy and often have to communicate with a long hierarchy of people to do what you ask them to do. A friendly email or phone call reminder to the person you're depending on will help keep your work moving forward.
Don't get impatient and discouraged!: Establishing a local foods program is probably not on your college's list of highest priorities, so try to be patient with the slow pace of plowing through college bureaucracy. Be encouraged with small gains in the right direction.
Revisit the topic of local foods with college and dining service administrators regularly: It's helpful to schedule monthly meetings with college and dining service administrators to keep them updated on local foods. This ensures that local foods is not a forgotten issue and keeps you informed on any changes in the dining service, as well.
Let everyone know about local foods!: Work hard to ensure that people know that local foods are being served in your college and why it's a good thing. Try to make sure that there are visible signs during meals that say what ingredients are local. Organize local foods meals, field trips to local farms, and lectures about the wonders of local food.