New Guide for Making College Dining Organic
Organic on the Green, a student blog dedicated to helping campuses go organic, recently released the nation’s first guide for students who want to bring organic dining to their campus. “Taste the Change: How to Go Organic on Campus,” is published by the Organic Agriculture and Products Education Institute.
The blog started in July 2008 by author Nina Merrill, a senior at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY. “I decided to create a blog that I hoped would encourage the development of organic food programs on college campuses nationwide,” she said. “As I had hoped in the beginning, it seems that when students share the successes and pitfalls of their organic campus initiatives, others are more able to take the necessary steps to improve the quality of their campus dining. ”
A composting center at Vanderbilt processes raw food scraps from university dining centers. Photo: Vanderbilt.edu
Among its many features, the guide begins with an introduction to “organic,” including its definition, history, benefits, standards and labeling. It also presents an overview of the organizational tools needed for getting started on campus, as well as tips for working with food service, approaching issues like purchasing policy, working within budgetary constraints and building relations with organic vendors.
“There are thousands of students nationwide who are working to increase the organic offerings in our schools and build an understanding of the true definition and importance of organic,” said Merrill. “As students, we have a tremendous capacity to influence the way our society thinks about organic. We are the motivators and influencers of what we will see harvested, sold and purchased in our lifetime.”
A topic closely related to the surge in demand for organic food, composting has also been growing in popularity on college campuses. According to a recent University of Iowa study, approximately 20 universities have composting programs in North America. In the U.S., for example, schools such as Cornell University, the University of California – Berkeley and the University of Vermont have composting programs.
