Campus dining straight from the farm

By Sara Agnew

COLUMBIA , Mo. – Not long ago, St. Louis farmer Dave Thies felt slighted by produce buyers who turned up their noses at his homegrown fruits and vegetables in favor of California produce.

Attitudes are changing.

Today, Thies sells produce directly to some of St. Louis’ fanciest restaurants where chefs know the best flavor comes from fruits and vegetables picked ripe and served fresh. Professionals preparing meals at University of Missouri-Columbia dining halls also have added Thies’ produce to their menus.

Beginning this semester, U.S. Foodservice/Allen Division of St. Louis agreed to deliver Thies’ produce along with other fare to MU’s five student dining halls as part of a MU Extension program to connect Missouri food producers with restaurants, grocers and other markets. The goal of the project, dubbed “Farm to MU,” is to support Missouri farmers and put money in the local economy while promoting a healthier lifestyle, said Mary Hendrickson, an MU Extension assistant professor of rural sociology.

“We are excited to have a food service distributor who is willing to pick up local produce,” she said. “All of the people in campus dining have worked hard to realize the benefits. They have been forward thinking, which has made all this possible.”

Each week, U.S. Foodservice provides MU dining services with a list of produce Thies has available. Chefs pick their produce and plan their menus. To date, MU students have enjoyed homegrown eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, green peppers and cucumbers, said Sandy Perley, purchasing manager for MU’s dining services.

“One of the biggest challenges for us was finding a distributor who could go to a farm and pick up the produce and bring it to us,” Perley said. “That’s often a piece that is missing” when trying to connect institutions such as hospitals and universities with local farmers.

Another challenge for Perely is staying within a budget. MU dining services oversees five all-you-can-eat dining halls on campus that serve more than 5,500 students. Meal tickets are sold to students in advance, so Perley has to be careful when ordering food.

“If we go over budget,” she said. “We have to absorb the cost.”

Hendrickson said the idea of serving Missouri produce in MU dining halls began in October 2005 with the delivery of locally grown apples to the Plaza 900 dining facility. There chefs already were using produce, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, from MU Bradford Research and Extension Center farm east of Columbia.

Enthusiasm for the “Farm to MU” project took root in March when MU dining halls participated in a campus-wide celebration of locally produced food. During the “Taste of Missouri” event, students sampled pork raised in the Show-Me State as well as homegrown pecans, grapes, spinach and more.

Hendrickson said that while planning the celebration, MU brokered a deal with Paul Smith, manager of U.S. Foodservice in St. Louis, to deliver produce from Thies’ farm to campus. Project organizers at MU had tried to work directly with local farmers to bring their food to campus, but Hendrickson said they recognized the need for better infrastructure.

“We wanted to streamline it and see if we could make it work,” she said.

MU joins a growing number of colleges across the country offering their students fresh choices while supporting local farmers. The Web site farmtocollege.org lists more than 100 colleges with similar programs, including Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Smith of U.S. Foodservice said a growing demand by young consumers for fresh fare has pushed more restaurants and retailers to buy locally grown produce and meat. “More and more people, especially the younger generation, are going directly to farmers for the items they want,” he said. “They want to support local farmers and give back to the local economy.”

However, supporting local farmers on a larger scale requires logistics, packaging and planning, Smith said. That’s where distributors such as U.S. Foodservice can step in and serve as middleman between big buyers and small growers. Still, some local farmers don’t have facilities to package their produce for delivery to the public or live on roads adequate for pickup by tractor trailers, Smith said.

“Sometimes, what some farmers don’t realize is we have to have things in certain boxes,” he said. “You can’t just bring your produce in a garbage bag because we have to be able to trace the food back to the grower. It’s about safety.”

Smith said problems like that could be solved with a centrally located cooperative where Missouri farmers could bring their produce to be sorted and packaged for delivery by distributors. Hendrickson is currently working with farmers to complete a feasibility study of that idea. The study could be completed by early next year, she said.

Thies, a fifth-generation Missouri farmer, couldn’t be happier about the growing interest in locally produced food.

“Years ago, homegrown was often considered second-rate” to produce grown in California and Florida, he said. “Now, people are seeking us out. It really opened our market and made it easier to make a living.”