Local Food Project
In February of 2007, the EC hosted Homegrown: A Conference on Local Food. The conference brought 175 people to Fort Lewis College to discuss how to ensure everyone in La Plata County has access to healthy, affordable, sustainably-produced, and culturally appropriate food from local and regional sources. The conference featured a special dinner and lunch made almost entirely from ingredients from local farms. Rising fuel costs and growing questions about food safety have made local food an important issue across the country. The EC is working on several fronts to promote local food on campus and in the community.
The conference gave birth to the FLC Local Foods Task Force, a group that began looking at how the college can support food production through land-use decisions, purchasing policies, academic coursework, and technical assistance.
The EC’s Farm-to-College project is working with local stores and farmsand Sodexho, Inc., which provides dining services to Fort Lewis students, to integrate local food into cafeteria meals. In December of 2006, the EC worked with Sodexho to organize an All-Colorado Potato Bar and surveyed students about their willingness to pay for more local and organic food.
The Environmental Center also manages a demonstration organic garden and greenhouse that gives students hands-on experience in growing, processing, and selling organic produce. In 2008, the Environmental Center began working with the Manna Soup Kitchen, the Smiley Buildiing, and Community Connections, Inc., which provides programming and enrichment opportunities developmentally disabled clients in the region. Together we are piloting a Community Garden Collaborative in which students provide labor and enthusiasm, Community Connections provides a four-season greenhouse, and the managers of gardens at Manna Soup Kitchen and the Smiley Building provide training and expertise. In 2008-09 we hope to understand how to make this partnership self-sustaining.
The Environmental Center is also working to promote edible landscaping on campus. The EC is home for the Food for Thought program that gives students experience growing and caring for fruit trees around the county as way to boost community food security.
The Environmental Center pursues these projects in close partnership with a number of organizations working on local food issues. These include the Farm-to-School Committee of the Sustainability Alliance of Southwest Colorado, La Boca Center for Sustainability, Turtle Lake Refuge, the Garden Project of Southwest Colorado, and Healthy Lifestyles La Plata.
For more information, links, and resources on sustainable food production visit the Sustainability Resources portion of our website.
Have an idea or question about local food. E-mail ec_food@fortlewis.edu.
