The Princeton Review currently ranks Bowdoin's food second in the nation, and I'm pretty sure that all Bowdoin students feel that ranking is accurate. Yet, while students are exposed daily to dining hall food, few are aware of the meticulous process that the Dining Service undergoes in deciding where Bowdoin's food comes from.
So why does it matter where Bowdoin's food comes from? I admit, it's not the most important thing on my mind while eating meals in the dining hall. There's the old adage, "You are what you eat." The nutritious and not-so-nutritious contents of food directly affect our lifestyle. In "The Omnivore's Dilemma," Michael Pollan writes, "We are not only what we eat, but how we eat too."
Additionally, he argues that in order to understand what and how we eat, we must "go back to the very beginning, to follow the food chains that sustain us." What do we know about the food chains that sustain us at Bowdoin? Are these chains healthy and safe?
While at some schools food purchasing may be veiled in tight secrecy, at Bowdoin I was immediately granted an appointment with Purchasing Manager Jon Wiley and Associate Director of Dining Ken Cardone to discuss where Bowdoin's food comes from. One of the vital requirements for following a food chain is transparency. Before we even began our conversation, Mr. Wiley and Mr. Cardone made it clear that whatever questions I had, they would be willing to answer.
The first hot-button topic in the food chain is meat. As anyone who has eaten a McDonald's hamburger is aware: meat is often available in a form that looks and tastes very little like one would expect (or hope) coming directly from an animal. Yet at Bowdoin, the Dining Service strives to make the journey on the food chain as short and safe as possible. Bowdoin's primary vendor is PFG North Center in Augusta.
Beef is provided through a local farm, Luce's Farm in Skowheagan. Minimal transportation is important to meat safety, as it shortens the food chain and decreases the use of preservatives and energy. Most impressive, though, is that the College has its own meat room and does most of its processing in-house. Chicken breasts, ground beef and most chicken patties are brought in directly from farms, and Bowdoin employees prepare them in the meat room. We even make our own sausage! This shortening of the food chain combined with the culture of transparency and accountability at Bowdoin makes our meat incredibly safe.
While meat is often the most controversial food item, Bowdoin applies just as much care to meat as any other item on the menu. Procedures range from a giant salad spinner that washes all greens to blast chillers that cool food in a very short period of time, destroying all bacteria. Both management and Dining Service staff are conscious of the perils of food safety—over 90 percent of all people on staff have been through food safety training and are certified for five years.
The final and perhaps most important element of Bowdoin's purchasing policy is its commitment to sustainability and buying locally. To put a numeric value on these goals, one of Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology Phil Camill's classes calculated the total amount of miles traveled by the ingredients in a single Bowdoin meal. As environmental studies major Maina Handmaker '11 described, "It was amazing. We were expecting to have some criticism and suggestions for dining. But before we even started, dining handed us a spreadsheet of every single item that they purchase in a meal, where it comes from, and the miles it travels to get here. Bowdoin is asking the right questions and looking into the right options."
Bowdoin was one of the main forces behind creating Farm Fresh Connections in Freeport, which collects foods from local farmers in Maine, and transports it all in one truck to Bowdoin. Additionally, Bowdoin's commitment to sustainability and eating locally is communicated to all vendors, as they are required to complete a sustainability survey to ensure that their standards comply with those of Bowdoin. The Dining Service also hopes that vendors will take more independent action in these commitments; Oakhurst Dairy recently installed a large number of solar panels, and PFG NorthCenter in Augusta is now entirely powered by wind.
It is obvious that the Dining Service is taking extreme care in where our food comes from, yet what challenges does it face? I unsuccessfully attempted to undercover a scandal, finding only that Bowdoin experienced a large ice storm in 1998, in which the Dining Service had to find creative ways to supply food in the midst of power outages and transportation difficulties, before Thorne's renovation. (And yes, we do have a supply of emergency in-house food items.) In September 2009, the Sierra Club published its third annual list of "Cool Schools," assigning grades to green campuses, and rated Bowdoin 28th overall in the nation. We received a score of eight out of 10 for purchasing, and seven out of 10 for food. A 2010 report on sustainability by Claremont McKenna noted that Bowdoin was particularly strong on accountability, environmental intent and social intent.
Clearly, the Dining Service has the right intentions in providing healthy, safe and environmentally friendly food. To balance taste and cost with such concerns is no easy task. In following Bowdoin's food chain, my recommendations are similar to what the Dining Service has already begun to do. 1) Expand the Bowdoin Organic Garden. We currently only have an acre, and it could supply more in the future. 2) Continue to pursue not only local but fair trade options, when costs allow. We all know that bananas don't grow in Maine. 3) Educate staff, students and the Brunswick community. The recent Locovore Dinner is an excellent example of how Bowdoin students can understand the important decisions made in food purchasing, having the opportunity to speak directly with farmers.
Transparency, innovation, and student involvement; a commitment to perseverance and the community we live in. The Dining Service holds these values, and is an important part of the Bowdoin and Brunswick communities. As students and community members, we should applaud them and make every effort to support them in their goals. The Dining Service's commitment to local, sustainably grown, healthy food is an essential part of the character of Bowdoin, and this commitment will become all the more important in the 21st century as we face daunting health and environmental challenges.
Amanda Gartside is a member of the Class of 2012.