05/11/2024

By Brooke Coupal

Chefs at the Fox Dining Commons on East Campus served creamy mashed potatoes on plates before placing seared Statler chicken on top. Maple-glazed roasted squash accompanied the dish, complemented by a tasty mushroom sauce.

The day before, Annie Conway, Aramark’s sustainability coordinator, had driven 10 minutes from UMass Lowell to Fat Moon Farm in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, to pick up 10 pounds of mushrooms for the entrée. The squash featured in the meal was harvested at Plainville Farm in Hadley, Massachusetts.

“My goal is to introduce more local produce into the dining halls,” says Conway, who started working for Aramark, UMass Lowell’s dining partner, in August. His position, new to campus, was made possible after UMass Lowell and its partners (Aramark, Mill City Grows, Lowell Public Schools and the Asian American Center for Excellence & Engagement) won a New England Food Vision Award valued at $199,500 from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation. The award funds the Lowell Eats Local project, which aims to increase local food purchases at UMass Lowell and change Greater Lowell’s food aggregation and distribution systems by coordinating citywide food purchases.

“Annie has really stepped up since joining UMass Lowell,” says Nicole Kelly, assistant director of UML’s Office of Sustainability. “She connected hyperlocal growers with Aramark to give our students a taste of what’s grown on campus and in the surrounding communities.” »

Tasty cuisine with a local touch

Lowell-grown cilantro tacos. Chimichurri made with parsley harvested from the University Crossing rooftop garden. Pizza sauce with cherry tomatoes picked in Londonderry, New Hampshire. These are just a few of the local dining offerings students have enjoyed in the dining halls recently.

Image of the university dining room

Jeffrey Stone, Aramark District Executive Chief, who oversees University catering and University Dining at UMass Lowell, says the Food Vision Prize has helped his team increase the use of locally sourced foods. In October alone, the team saw nearly 3,500 pounds of local produce enter university kitchens.

“It’s nice to say that all of this came from across the river or a mile away,” Stone says. “We get a better local product.”

More than 40 percent of those products came from Horne Family Farms, founded by former economist Chris Horne ’14 in 2018.

“I delivered a good mix of all kinds of things, from lettuce and tomatoes to bok choy and kohlrabi,” says Horne, who partnered with University Dining after hearing about the opportunity from by Dai Kim, co-executive director of the Lowell-based nonprofit Mill City Grows, which also provided produce to the campus.

Image by Brooke Coupal

Horne, who began delivering produce to UMass Lowell in June, grows his crops in Londonderry, New Hampshire, at the large Mill City Grows farm in Lowell and at the Rist Greenhouse and Urban Agriculture Farm on the East campus.

“Sometimes I would harvest at the greenhouse and drive them to Fox Hall,” he said. “This is just the beginning of what’s possible.”

Conway recruited the Boston Food Hub, a nonprofit food distributor that connected UMass Lowell with nearly two dozen Massachusetts farms.

“It’s been really great because it’s a simple, straightforward way to introduce local produce while supporting area farmers,” she says.

Image by Brooke Coupal

When local products are used in dining halls or at catered events on campus, signs are posted to inform guests.

“Lately I’ve been trying to include more vegetables and fruits in my diet, so it’s good to know that they come here locally,” said Ruthsmarie Ogando, a first-year nursing student, while she was perusing Southern food options. Campus Dining Commons at the McGauvran Center.

Sustainability forward

UMass Lowell is already the highest-rated campus in Massachusetts for sustainability, according to the Association for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education. And this local food initiative takes things to another level.

By shopping locally, Conway says, UMass Lowell reduces its carbon footprint because products don’t need to travel as far to get to campus. The university also boosts the region’s economy by supporting local farmers.

UML Catering Dietitian Melissa Quirk adds that “getting the freshest produce maximizes its nutritional composition because these nutrients have less time to degrade between harvest and consumption.”

Image of the university dining room

Aramark introduces the campus community to plant-based foods, which emit fewer greenhouse gases than animal-based foods. Chefs prepared mushroom tacos from Fat Moon Farm for Welcome Day and Open House. In September, Conway distributed vegan ice cream from New City Microcreamery in Hudson, Massachusetts, to students on South Campus.

Most recently, Conway hosted a “Weigh the Waste” event in the university’s dining halls, during which students dumped food left on their plate into a trash can to determine how much was wasted. Erica Pen, a first-year business administration student, volunteered to help collect food waste at Fox Dining Commons.

Image by Brooke Coupal

“Dining hall events can highlight the impact of food waste, showing students methods to minimize waste, such as proper portioning, composting and recycling,” she says. “It’s a convenient way for students and faculty to learn about sustainability in an environment they frequently visit to help reduce our environmental impact.”

Conway plans to host more events that engage students in sustainability while bringing more local food to campus.

“It’s a point of pride for students to be able to say, ‘My dining hall brings local food,’” she says. “Students deserve to eat good, healthy food. »