Farms and Fields

Elena Dulys-Nusbaum, President of the Environmental Coalition and active member of the Sustainable Food Corps at VT, has organized an appreciation event to celebrate the addition of Homestead Creamery ice cream on campus! Join other students who care about local and sustainable foods at Deets Place this Thursday, November 5th at 9 p.m. to show your support for this important step forward. Choose Homestead Creamery ice cream at Virginia Tech!

Check out the event on Facebook.

We are pleased to introduce selections of  local Homestead Creamery Ice Cream at Deets Place and West End Market for Sustainability Week 2009! Don’t worry; the ice cream will not disappear at the end of the week. It will be a permanent fixture in these dining centers!

Not only is this ice cream locally produced, it is FANTASTIC! Homestead Creamery offers a variety of flavors including Vanilla, Chocolate, Black Raspberry, Strawberry, Peach, Orange Pineapple, Cookies-n-Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Espresso, Banana, Butter Pecan, Chocolate Pecan, Double Dark Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Lemon Crunch, Peanut Butter, Cherry Vanilla, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Oatmeal Cookie. Visit these dining centers frequently to try them all!

Also look for local products in dining centers throughout the week in honor of Sustainability Week 2009.

It’s that time of year again! Virginia Tech, Sustainable Blacksburg, and the Town of Blacksburg have a wonderful schedule of events focused on environmental sustainability lined up for next week. Here are some of particular interest students:

All Week: No Impact Man at  The Lyric Theatre, 135 College Avenue

Check out the program and registration below for a wonderful, regional farm-to-college conference opportunity this week:

Cultivating Sustainability Conference

Successes and Challenges of Three Food Systems:

K-12 Schools, Hospitals, and Universities

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

9:15 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Washington & Lee University

Lexington, Virginia

School nutrition and food service personnel, school and university officials, local legislators, administrators, farmers and producers, and those involved in food system development are invited to attend. The conference will offer strategic directions for scaling up a regional food system, discuss the critical role institutions can play in the development of a regional food system, and practical tracks for food service personnel to learn to source locally for their institutions.

On Saturday, September 12 during the VT vs. Marshall football game, Dining Services began composting food waste from Lane Stadium’s suites and indoor concession stands. Approximately 300 lbs of food waste was diverted from the landfill! Dining Services will continue to compost at the stadium for the remainder of the football season.

Composting is a huge step forward for environmental sustainability in food service. When food and other organic waste enters a landfill, it not only takes up valuable space, but it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. In fact, methane is approximately 20 times more potent than CO2—72 times more potent when measured over a 20 year time span (Stop Trashing the Climate, 2008). This methane release is avoided by composting organic waste instead of disposing of it in a landfill.  Composting is doubly helpful for the environment as the finished product can be used to promote healthy soil and avoidance of petrochemicals.

Windrow Composting at PME

The New River Valley is lucky to have a recently permitted, nearby commercial compost facility in Riner, VA: Poplar Manor Enterprises, LLC (PME). PME is managed by Calin & Mindy Farley, a young, local couple and grads of VT and Radford University, respectively. PME provides an excellent service to the community, being he first food waste collection service of its kind in Virginia.

Compost Carts at Southgate

VT Dining Services began composting pre-consumer food waste with PME at the  Southgate Center in January 2009. Since then, we have diverted over 50 tons of organic waste from the landfill! PME reports, “VT has really set the bar for future composters.”

The next step for composting here on campus is to expand to post-consumer waste in the Dining Centers. Stay tuned for upcoming progress!

As part of an effort to increase the use of local products in Dining Services, planning for a school herb garden began last semester. The garden is located at the College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Kentland Farm.

Planting Basil Summer '09

Dining Services’ plots were located and planned courtesy of Brinkley Benson, Research Associate in the Department of Horticulture. Brinkley worked with staff to plant herbs to be used primarily in the Farms and Fields shop at Owens Food Court. Current crops include sage, thyme, dill, parsley, chives, and several varieties of basil. Though not USDA Certified Organic at the moment, these crops are managed in that manner.

Now that the garden is up and running, student involvement will be key to its continued success. What better way to get directly involved with the food you eat on campus than by growing it yourself? It doesn’t get much more local than this! Students demonstrated this involvement last week; sixteen volunteers turned out for the afternoon. Volunteers weeded beds and harvested herbs.

Students Harvesting Herbs

It truly was inspiring to witness their positive reactions to being so connected to their food (a first time experience for most). These students provided a great service, learned about sustainable food issues, and had fun in the process! Most have expressed interest in continued involvement with the garden. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Plans for the garden for the upcoming year include regular student volunteer contributions, increased involvement with focused student projects, and increased production to include other crops in addition to herbs.

Want to get involved with the garden? The next volunteer time is scheduled for the afternoon of Monday, September 14th. All volunteers will receive a free meal pass for use in on-campus Dining Centers.  Please contact me at rbudowle@vt.edu or 231-1139 if you are interested in joining us!

Though this event focuses more on K-12 Farm to School issues, it is a local event that will provide a great opportunity to learn more and get to know others interested in similar things:

Join us and enjoy local potluck food and fun!

We’ll be dining picnic-style: please bring your blanket, your

plateware and a dish of your favorite recipe to share!

Real Food in Schools!

Monday, September 7^th, 2009

Labor Day

5:00 – 7:00 PM

Margaret Beeks Elementary School

(located at Country Club Drive and Airport Road, behind the South Main Kroger)

This community potluck dinner is part of a larger National Day of

Action for the Slow Food USA “Time for Lunch” campaign.

We will be joining people across the country in public potlucks to

encourage healthy, local food for children in school lunch

programs, Farm to School & school garden programs.

For more information about the Eat-In, email NRV@virginia.usa.com or call (540) 818-9296.

To learn more about the Slow Food organization or the National Eat-In, visit www.slowfoodusa.org

As we begin to settle into this academic year, I wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. My name is Rachael Budowle, and I’m the new Sustainability Coordinator for Dining Services. I’ll be handling most of the posts for this site.

I come most recently from the Town of Blacksburg as the Community Programs Coordinator in the Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling. I’m very interested in continuing the waste reduction and diversion projects started last year via composting, food donations, reusable materials, and recycling. Look for upcoming posts on what Dining Services is doing with these issues.

My background also lends itself to the local and sustainable food initiatives that I’ll be working on here. I received my M.S. in Animals & Public Policy from Tufts University. While in Massachusetts, I worked and taught programs for the public on two small, sustainable farms.

In addition to my position  in Dining Services, I also currently teach in the Earth Sustainability Core Course Series here at VT. This is a fantastic program that fosters a great deal of student involvement in sustainability issues. I have other experience in environmental education from the time I spent as the Director of Operations for a small environmental education company for children and families as well. I hope that this site and the things I do here will promote education about sustainability initiatives in Dining Services.

In fact, the main purpose of the new and improved Farms and Fields site is to let you know what’s going on right here, right now! As a Virginia Tech alumna, I feel strongly connected to the progress we make here, as well as to identifying areas for improvement and ways to move forward in the future. My posts will focus mainly on initiatives in Dining Services, but please also look for information on related events and programs in the campus and regional community.

I am incredibly excited to be a part of the Dining Services team! I look forward to continuing the many projects started here last year and furthering sustainability initiatives in a positive and productive way. Please let me know if you have feedback and suggestions!