Campus Dining Services

Social Responsibility & Environmental Sustainability Information
The dining halls at Oberlin College do more than feed students and staff. Through progressive procurement policies, including an extensive Farm to Fork program, sustainable seafood principles, animal proteins free of human-therapeutic growth hormones and antibiotics, socially-aligned coffee choices and cage-free eggs, Oberlin College and Bon Appétit Management Company provide nutritious meals that invest in nearby farms, dairies, ranches and aquaculture operations, preserve the bounty of our oceans, lakes and fields so they can feed future generations, and provide sufficient incomes to food producers so they can live with dignity.

Oberlin Student Cooperative Association Dining Halls

The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) is a student-run housing and dining cooperative system that has been in existence since 1950. It has about 640 members in total and currently operates 9 cooperative dining halls and 4 cooperative housing programs. OSCA has an extensive local foods program that supports many small local farms. OSCA works with a few vendors who will deliver local foods and also has a few farms that will deliver to OSCA dining halls in farm-owned trucks. OSCA also owns its own truck and, at least once a week, a team of OSCA members from each of the different co-ops drive out to small farms around the county and make purchases directly from Amish farmers who would not easily be able to deliver food. Co-ops tend to purchase organic food when possible, but in many cases local food is preferred to certified organic food. As OSCA membership changes semester to semester, so does food policy, but OSCA has maintained a serious commitment to buying local foods since the program began in the early 1990’s.