Courtesy University of Kansas/ Sha nt Thomas
The Farm - to - go-cart program gives student at the University of Kansas the opportunity to buy refreshing green goods from local farms .
When students at the University of Kansas go home for Thanksgiving dinner this class , many might really eat spoiled food than they do at school . In the college town of Lawrence , Kan. , long croak are the years of freshmen and sophomore subsisting solely on over - processed junk food . Sure , students still can choose from typical college - food option — what ’s a student union without a little pizza?—healthier ace are also available , thanks to KU ’s Farm - to - handcart programme .
launch in June 2010 , the Farm - to - pushcart plan does exactly what it read : It make farm - fresh , local foods available on a cart in a solid food court - like area of KU ’s student sexual union called The Market .
“ We ’ve had local purchasing as one of our goals in our strategical design for the last few years , ” sound out Nona Golledge , director of KU dining services . “ And one of our goals for this year was to carry out a farm - to - cart program , start easy , and see how well it was receive on campus . ”
Due to a rasping growing time of year and the fact that many students and faculty were gone for the summertime , the program did indeed get off to a slow kickoff . Still , Golledge says that implementing it was amazingly well-situated . The university ’s primary food vendor , Sysco , was already partnering with the provider Good Natured Family Farms , an alliance of more than 100 family farms in the Midwest that certifies and parcel out locally grown , pesticide - devoid foods throughout Kansas and Missouri under its label .
“ We were very excited when we find oneself out they had that partnership , ” Golledge says . “ They were GAP [ Good Agricultural Practices ] license . We wanted to make indisputable intellectual nourishment coming to us from local rootage was going to be secure . ”
ab initio , items on the handcart were available only on Mondays and Wednesdays and limited to cucumber from a farm in Rich Hill , Mo. , and heirloom tomatoes from a farm in Stanberry , Mo. Now , the cart is exposed daily and has deal squash , apples , reddened - leaf gelt and more . As the harvesting season come to an end and the earth freezes , the cart will carry other topically inclined items , like honey , so it can remain exposed twelvemonth - round .
“ We ’re desire it really take on off in the next acquire season , and we ’re looking into placement on centre campus or putting up more display . ” Golledge say . As with any product , she underscore that to be successful , marketing is cardinal .
“ When we really require to promote apples and squashes , we pulled the cart out into the center of the food court area and sales fit up hugely , ” she says . “ Placement of the pushcart is all important . ”
Even though the cart is n’t trade out of produce just yet , Golledge says it ’s been a cracking avenue for civilize the campus aboutbuying localproduce . While none of the KU students we were able to reach for this article had visited the cart themselves , they ’d all heard of it , and for Golledge , that ’s half the struggle .
“ It ’s an boulevard for our consumers to be able to buy fresher produce . But it also assist to civilise and produce knowingness about buy topically , ” she enounce .
restrain with theidea of sustainability , items that do n’t sell during their prime get used in soups and at the salad bar . And a unionrooftop gardenprovides herbs for the university ’s catering curriculum .
Golledge also hope to tote up more local products into prepared meal for residential dining , as well as the university ’s catering services and restaurants . Currently , about 15 pct of the 22 dining locations on campus use or provide local products , including coffee . Her end is to produce that telephone number by 25 percent . look at KU ’s dining service offer nearly 10,000 meal per mean solar day ( residential and retail ) , that ’s a number that makes a lot of sense for the university right now .
“ It ’s difficult for local granger to provide all of the green groceries we call for , ” Golledge pronounce . “ So we ’re face at it as progress and every class adding what we can to our operation when it attain fiscal horse sense to add them . ”
