WWU aims to serve more locally grown food

BELLINGHAM – The idea sounds simple as pie.

Administrators and student food activists at Western Washington University recently agreed to the goal of having the university spend at least 25 percent of its dining hall food budget on locally sourced, sustainable farm products by 2020.

“It’s certainly doable, and it’s going to be a lot of work,” said Rosa Rice-Pelepko, an environmental studies sophomore from Shoreline who is vice president of Students for Sustainable Foods at Western.

She was one of several students who signed the agreement April 1 with Bruce Shepard, Western’s president, and Leonard Jones, director of University Residences, reported the Bellingham Herald.

The commitment is part of a nationwide Real Food Challenge to shift $1 billion of university food budgets by 2020 to local farms that raise food in environmentally sound ways, treat workers fairly, and are humane to animals.

More than three dozen schools across the country have signed up, with commitments to shift from 20 percent to 40 percent of their food budgets. Other Washington schools on the list are The Evergreen State College (28 percent) and Gonzaga University (25 percent).

At Western, Aramark, the university’s food-service contractor, spent $5.4 million for dining hall food in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015, so each 1 percent shift equals $54,000.

Definition of ‘real’

To be counted in the “real food” percentage, food suppliers must satisfy criteria established by the Real Food Challenge about farm size and location, ownership, farming and labor practices, and treatment of animals.

According to the university, 18.3 percent of its dining hall food budget was spent on eligible “real food” as of September 2015. But recent questions about animal-handling practices by a dairy that sells milk to Western could drop the rate to about 11 percent, Rice-Pelepko said.

Kurt Willis, associate director of University Residences, said Real Food representatives were aware of Western’s food purchases for the past few years and raised no concerns, but campus administrators were recently told about the dairy.

Aramark is pursuing discussions with Real Food about criteria for dairy farms, said Stephen Wadsworth, Aramark’s resident district manager for dining services at Western.

Willis said that because of periodic “moving of the bar” by Real Food, Western’s agreement specifically refers to Real Food’s criteria used in 2015. The agreements also says Western will work to promote “community based, and regionally sourced food purchases.”

Wadsworth said food grown or raised in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia qualifies as regional food. Counting the dairy supplier, nearly 33 percent of dining service purchases at Western are already covered by Real Food criteria on community or regional sourcing, he said.

To help Western reach its food goals, an oversight committee of students, faculty and staff will be created, with half of the members to be students. Rice-Pelepko and Willis agree that as the committee does its work, spending for local sustainable food needs to take into account students’ ability to pay for their dining hall meals, along with their other college costs.

“That’s where the nuance of the challenge comes in,” Willis said. ‘Each year we go on will provide a different challenge.”