Upcoming changes in the way Midd does food

Author: Lauren Armstrong

Whether you're a slave to the Proctor panini machine, a faithful Freeman International Center (FIC) goer or willing to face the masses at Ross, food is inevitably an important part of your day. With many changes occurring in Middlebury's dining services, including the construction of the new Atwater dining hall and the incorporation of more local food products into the daily menus, there are many opportunities to influence the type of food we find at the dining halls every day. Classes and workshops offered during J-term are great resources for learning to appreciate the food that we eat, and to put it in the context of the greater community and world food systems.

Many efforts have been made to include locally and sustainably produced food in the dining hall selections. Matthew Biette, director of Dining Services, estimates that 25 percent of the budget currently goes toward the purchase of local food products, such as eggs, milk, bacon, sausage, apples and seasonal vegetables. While it is clear that unless we give up everything that does not grow in Vermont during the winter - and let's face it, that includes just about everything - we will not be solely dependent on local produce. However, a large portion of the local food products used by dining services are eggs, dairy and meat, which are produced year round.

Dining Services has recently added bacon from the Farmer's Diner in Barre, Vt., a restaurant that supports local farmers by purchasing about 80 percent of their ingredients from within 50 miles of the diner, and soon plans to offer a locally grown hot cereal at breakfast. Local food is incorporated whenever it is economically feasible, and products that are not found in Vermont, such as salmon, are often obtained from sustainable sources.

There are many advantages to using as many local products as possible, from boosting the local economy to reducing the expenses and environmental impact of transporting food over long distances. There is a certain joy found in the knowledge that being conscious about what you eat can support the livelihood of the people that form the community surrounding Middlebury and make Vermont the agricultural Eden that it is.

Winter Term is a great time to expand your appreciation and knowledge of food, with workshops such as "Lebanese Cooking" with Nola Kevra, a farmer in Ripton, and "Tasting and Touring Vermont Farmstead Cheeses," led by Amy Trubeck, director of Vermont Fresh Network and Brad Koehler, director of Ross Dining Services. Classes such as "Eat Locally, Think Globally," taught by local farmer Will Stevens, and "Eat Your Words: Food, Culture and Communication," taught by Middlebury alum and Linguistics professor Shannon Finch, help introduce students to the politics surrounding food systems.

In addition to classes and workshops, there are other discussions and events going on. For example, last Wednesday's "Food for Thought" roundtable discussion about the politics of food, which brought together members of the dining staff, visiting Winter Term professors, farmers and scholars. The discussion, moderated by Scholar-in-Residence Bill McKibben, focused on various perspectives about food in different cultures and regions as well as locally and sustainably produced food.

In February, the College's Organic Garden will be hosting a symposium entitled "Golden Beets or Golden Arches: Exploring the Culture and Politics of Food," featuring Burlington farmer and member of the state legislature David Zuckerman as a keynote speaker, tours of organic farms in the area and a panel discussion on the politics of food on a local, national and international scale. Members of the Organic Garden Club have been working with the dining staff to provide some of the fresh veggies that are offered at meals, and there are plans underway to expand the amount of produce that can be supplied by the garden.

One way to reward the efforts being made by Dining Services to include local fare, such as Vermont apples, milk and vegetables in the daily meal selection, is to eat the local food. By looking for signs in the dining halls that say "local" and taking food from them, you are sending a simple message to Dining Services - I want more local food - and also supporting the farmers in our local community and in Vermont.

And as for the much anticipated Atwater dining hall - maybe we should just give up waiting for it. But seriously, it is going to open, hopefully at the beginning of spring semester. The opening of Atwater will alleviate some of the crowding at places like Ross, which sometimes handles 2,000 people for lunch, with a seating capacity of only 275. Ross plans to revamp its menu to include some of the FIC theme nights, as well as a New Orleans style dinner. Other changes will occur for better or for worse, depending on your personal taste. FIC will be closed for meals and become the new headquarters for catering, and Proctor will be closed on weekends and become the new site of Dolci operations.

The new dining hall will carry much of the staff over from FIC, but the format will be decidedly more Ross-esque, with all food prepared before your hungry eyes. This type of food preparation significantly decreases the amount of pre-consumer waste because everything is prepared only as it is needed. Unfortunately, this type of service actually increases the post-consumer waste because the food looks more appealing, so people take more than they can eat.

The amount of food that is wasted contributes to the College's rising comprehensive fee. Therefore, the argument that paying as much as we do to go here entitles us to waste food on a regular basis is illogical, since the more we waste, the more we ultimately pay. With all of the changes that are occurring with Dining Services, now is the perfect opportunity to take responsibility for what you eat and how much you waste. As we eat, we should all be mindful of where our food comes from, and the effect that we can have on the local economy by consciously eating food that is produced locally.

So the next time you go to Proctor and dive for the bin of Cap'n Crunch, at least consider the hot cereal or fresh (albeit hardboiled) local eggs. Who knows, they might even taste better.