Dining

Policies & Principles Environmental Council Environmental Studies Program Fellowships in Environmental Journalism Archives

SUMMARY:

Increasing Vegetarian Options
Middlebury students have been offered more vegetarian options in the dining halls and vegetarian entrees offered have increased to 67%. Accommodations for Vegans and Students With Allergies
Middlebury Dining Services has made great strides in providing options for students with special dietary needs. The total percentage of main entrees served at dinner and lunch that are vegan is 32%. Perpetual options on the salad bar include hummus, tabouli, baba ghannouj, tofu and beans. Breakfast always includes hot cereal and there is always a pasta option at dinner. There is an "open kitchen" policy which not only encourages students to come to the kitchen to learn more about the products prepared and build a rapport with staff, but also provides an option for students to get limited special accommodations. Students can get main courses and vegetables without sauces or dressings, and unusual items like soy milk are made available upon request. Local Products
Items that can be affordably bought locally are bought locally. About 75% of our food purchases are made through Burlington Food Service (BFS), a private distributor based in Burlington, VT. We are BFS's largest customer, and they buy from local farms when in season. We purchase about $1.5 million worth of food from BFS annually. We encourage local organic growers to work through distributors in order to establish a reliable supply. Other sources of local produce are listed below. Organics
Unfortunately, minimal organic items are purchased. This is largely due to issues of cost. Increased organics are being considered for the cash-operation "The Grille" due to open in McCullough this spring. Some herbs may even be grown on campus using the College's compost.

meals per day	3681
vegetarian entrees offered	67% (not including salad bar options)
organic food purchased	negligible (occasionally some, i.e. beets from California)
major source of food	Burlington Food Service, Burlington, VT
other local purchases	Cabot Creamery, Cabot, VT - cheese
(ALL dairy locally purchased)	Monument Farms, Weybridge, VT - milk (for 43 years)
Maple Meadow Farms, Salisbury, VT - eggs
Wilcox Icecream, Manchester, VT
Ben & Jerry's, Waterbury, VT - Ice Cream
Stonyfield yogurt (their milk source is St. Albans Co-op)
Black River Produce, Ludlow, VT - produce
Happy Valley Orchards, Cornwall, VT - apples + cider
Hillsboro Sugar Works, Starksboro, VT - organic syrup, 300 gal/yr
Bob Stowe, Ripton, VT - syrup
Green Mt. Fish and Produce, Fair Haven, VT
Koffee Kup Bakery, Burlington, VT
Putney Pasta, Putney, VT
Madhouse Munchies, Wilder, VT
events to promote VT, vegetarian and organic products	Environmental Fair dinner (local and organic menu items featured)
Guest Chef series (local restaurants & signature VT products)
Septemberfest (outdoor local VT dinner)
Earth Day vegetarian cooking demo

RECOMMENDATIONS:

1. Continue educational events and local purchasing. These have been highly successful and should be continued. Further local products should be explored as options for the dining halls. The College should consider purchasing directly from major local organic growers to increase the affordability of local organic produce. 2. Enhance vegetarian options. Further strides should be made in vegetarian meal options. Perhaps one dining hall can be designated as all-veggie that would offer several different options at mealtime, instead of just one. 3. Purchase organic when possible. Taking into account financial considerations, organic options should be made available. Even if it is only in The Grille to begin with, the College's buying power can help support many smaller local organic growers and assist the growing industry. 4. Designate at least one "visible" organic in the dining halls. While it is not necessarily economically feasible to purchase all available organics for the dining halls, it is possible to select a few items that can be profiled as organics regularly used in the dining halls. Ideally they would be common items such as coffee or tomatoes and an educational campaign would go along with their introduction about the organic growing process of the item and the company that supplies them. By making these every-day organic items the standard in the dining halls, the College will be able to support the organic industry without spending too much money.