Your institution has committed to sourcing local food, but can you tell how much of your food is actually from a local source? Do you feel confident that anything called “local” really is? If you are unsure, you are not alone! We know from FINE’s Campus Dining Survey that nearly all responding colleges and universities in New England plan to increase their local food purchases. Despite this, a surprising number of those campuses – nearly one third of them – did not report using a tracking system. Those institutions that are tracking local and regional food procurement use a variety of systems, tools, and indicators to get the information they need.
Join Farm to Institution New England (FINE) and the New England Farm & Sea to Campus Network (FSCN) for a one-hour webinar to talk about food tracking trade-offs, best practices, and continued challenges. In this forum, Michael Leviton of Region FoodWorks will share findings from a new report on data management systems, produced by FINE and the FSCN. Speakers Jamie Moore of Eat N’ Park Hospitality Group (which provides food service management for colleges and universities across the country) and Garett DiStefano of University of Massachusetts Amherst will present on how and why they track local food and share how they use the information they collect to meet food procurement goals. Speakers and attendees will discuss opportunities and challenges they encounter in their tracking efforts, as well as tools and best practices available to meet our shared goals of increasing institutional local food procurement.
FINE’s Farm & Sea to Campus webinar series creates peer-to-peer learning opportunities for dining program directors, chefs, foodservice operators, and other community partners who are engaged in procuring and promoting New England food.
Speakers
Jamie Moore
Director of Sourcing and Sustainability, Eat N’ Park Hospitality Group
Garett DiStefano
Director of Residential Dining Service, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Michael Leviton
CEO, Region FoodWorks and Co-Chair of the New England Farm & Sea to Campus Network’s Evaluation & Tracking Working Group
MODERATOR
Tania Taranovski
Director of Programs, Farm to Institution New England