It’s natural to feel nervous about choosing a college. There’s a lot to think about, like your major, your professors, your roommate – and oh yeah, you’re going to have to eat too. You may have heard some horror stories about college food; I know I did. My dad shared tales of his college days, where students held out trays to receive their nightly globs of slop, while older friends regaled me with ordeals of subsisting on ramen and candy. But at the University of Illinois, Dining Services cares about having healthy as well as environmentally sustainable choices. I got to learn about this commitment to sustainable food practices when my Environmental Writing class met with two of the people responsible for overseeing them, Matt Turino and Dawn Aubrey.

It was a cloudy, cool day when my classmates and I  drove over the gravel road leading to the Student Sustainable Farm (SSF) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  When we arrived there, the farm’s manager, Matt Turino, greeted us. He remarked that it was a “quiet day at the farm”, and indeed it was. He was dressed how you might expect a young farmer to look, wearing a battered T-shirt and jeans and earrings in both ears. He enthusiastically informed us that he had been working at the farm for three of the farm’s six years, and managing it for eight months. My professor, Rob Kanter, added that Matt was responsible for not just managing food production and the farm’s finances, but for organization and publicity for events the farm hosts that are open to the public. He explained that the farm was seven acres, three of which were used in production, within a 30 acre Woody Perennial Polyculture farm. And their main customer? The University dining halls.

After we spoke with Matt for a little while, he led us on a tour of the farm. First, he showed us something called a high tunnel, a simple version of a greenhouse, in which I was amazed to see rows and rows of tomatoes hanging from the ceiling. Matt told us that the tunnels extended the growing season by several months, and housed different plants throughout the year. This means that when you see salad greens in the dining hall in December or January, they probably came from the dining hall.

You might be wondering if the produce from SSF is organic. When asked about this, Matt told us, “I don’t think organic is the end-all, be-all”. He explained that although SSF is not organically certified due to the expense of the certification process, the farm would qualify for certification based on its practices. Actually, the farm goes above and beyond that, with Matt choosing not to use some fertilizers that are allowed on an organic farm, such as one made with copper hydroxide. In addition to food production, the farm wastes as little food as possible. When vegetables from the farm that are not sold to the dining halls and do not sell at farmer’s markets, Matt either donates it if possible or eats them himself, remarking “I eat pretty well here.” Additionally, the farm takes pre-consumer waste from the dining halls and turns it into compost.

Are you interested in being involved with SSF? The farm hosts a number of volunteer days throughout the year. Check out thefarm.illinois.edu for details.

SSF is great, but of course, it can’t produce nearly enough food for the University’s five dining halls. So where does everything else come from? To answer this question, my class met with Dr. Dawn Aubrey, whose official title is Associate Director of Housing for Dining Services, but who described herself simply as “the food lady.” I have to admit, even though I like the University’s food, I’d never imagined that someone put so much care into overseeing it as she does.  She expressed Dining Service’s desire to listen to student concerns, and explained that one of those concerns is sustainability. Following this track, she told us that 27% of the dining hall food purchases are produced within 150 miles of campus, and that their goal is to increase this amount to 40%. She even told us that she has personally visited the facilities that process meat for the dining halls to ensure they use humane practices, particularly those designed by animal scientist Temple Grandin (famous Illini alert here – she received her Ph. D. from UIUC). On top of that, like SSF, the dining halls are careful to minimize food waste. To do this, the university uses a website called nacufs.org to allow local organizations, such as homeless shelters, to give unused food to the needy.

I bet you still have lots of questions about college, but at least food won’t be a mystery. On top of that, you now know that the University cares about issues that students care about, such as sustainability. Go Illini!