Sustainable Food Laboratory

May 8-9, Emory University, Atlanta GA – Sustainable Food Lab (SFL) members drew a diverse and interested crowd at Emory University earlier this month, when they visited to speak about creating comprehensive changes to integrate fresh, local and sustainable foods into institutional food services.

SFL Food for Health (F4H) initiative members included John Turenne, founder of Sustainable Food Systems and former executive chef at Yale University, Peggy Sechrist, Texas Farmer/President, Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and Don Seville, Project Leader, Sustainability Institute.

Emory is a leading university in public heath and medical research and would like to be a leader in creating a campus that promotes wellness. They have recently articulated an overall sustainability vision that includes a goal of adapting the dining facilities to provide and encourage healthy food choices and to procure 75% of ingredients from local or sustainably grown sources by 2015.

The F4H initiative is in the initial phase of exploring how SFL could help Emory in meeting these goals. With over 10,000 students, a significant heath care research facility, and a working hospital, Emory has the opportunity to create a significant market for healthy, local, and sustainable foods which can help drive the creation of a local food market in the Atlanta area and could be broadened over time to the wider community. In addition, working with Emory’s nationally recognized school of public health and health research community provides an important opportunity to bring together goals for healthy foods and sustainable foods into an organized voice for change.

The meeting with F4H members was scheduled in the middle of finals week, an hour later than a usual seminars and organizers expected 10-15 people. Instead the event filled the room and drew a diverse crowd of 32 people with some folks demanding to be included at the last minute. “That’s simply not normal for Emory University,” said Peggy Barlett, Professor of Anthropology and host of the meeting. Barlett is also founder of the Piedmont Project at Emory, a program that helps faculty incorporate sustainability and environmental issues into their teaching. Barlett will be joining the F4H initiative of the Food Lab in New Orleans.

The gathering included representatives from the current food service contractor (Sodexho) and their primary food supplier (SYSCO) as well as prominent faculty from the School of Medicine, colleagues from public health, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), social scientists, students and friends from the Atlanta community and local food initiative. “It isn't easy to find language or ways to talk about these issues that such a broad group can relate to,” Barlett said to the SFL representatives afterwards, “but you managed it.”

During the meeting, Turenne shared the story of what happened at Yale under his directorship to transform the food system to a model of sustainability. He emphasized three aspects of the story he considers central to its success:

Creating seasonal menus so that more and more ingredients can be sourced locally overtime as local supply infrastructures build up.

Reducing the number of choices in order to free up both time and money to focus on food quality. Referring to “food courts” common in many institutional settings Turenne said, “over time the need to add variety and diversity to our menus, while simultaneously leveling or reducing labor costs has left us with only one option – prefabricated, ready to serve processed food often laden with ingredients unhealthy to body, mind and environment.” If institutional food service staff members are going to cook again from fresh ingredients they must focus on a smaller number of options.

Engaging the food service staff fully with direct farm experiences to build enthusiasm  for cooking local fresh food.

Emory personnel found the specific information and the opportunity to ask questions valuable but according to Barlett, that wasn’t all, “most important is I think some intangible way in which your coming to advise us made real the existence of the Yale initiative and the Food Lab itself, and allowed a very diverse group of Emory people--older faculty, younger students, CDC affiliates, concerned staff--to acknowledge their excitement about sustainable food and to come forward to express interest and offer to help. There is a magic in this work that people long for, and your visit gave us an excuse to step forward and embrace that magic,” she said.