CSA Shares through the Vassar Food Co-op!

Order your CSA Share by this Friday, September 12th!

You can order right here through our handy dandy online form. Payment is due at first pick-up!

For more info check out the site: http://vassarfoodcoop.blogspot.com/

or the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VassarFoodCooperative

or this nifty poster

and ORDER HERE

New Year New Look!

Our new mascot, we're still working on naming the little guy 

We hope you like the newly redesigned Slow Food Vassar site as well as our Vassar Food Cooperative site!

Keep checking back here for news and events, and head over there for information about our CSA Shares program!

We Have CSAs!

So thanks to a huge amount of work by our friends at the Vassar Food Cooperative, there’s now a CSA (community supported agriculture) program at Vassar for the last six weeks of the semester!  You pay a lump sum up front ($138 for six weeks of produce, $168 for produce plus cheese, or $42 for six weeks of just specialty cheese) from Sprout Creek Farm.  If you have four other housemates, the shares break down to be super affordable- the produce and cheese share is only $5.60 per person per week!  It gets delivered right to the college every week, and you get a ton of local food.

Here’s the catch:  we need ten more people to sign up by the end of the day today in order to break even.  We need your support!  Talk to your friends and your housemates about signing up- the first delivery day is March 28th, so you’ll get to come back from break with a house full of good local produce!  Email getoland@vassar.edu to sign up!

Would you buy ‘imperfect’ fruit?

Tonight’s article is from the Grist talking about selling ‘sub-standard’ apples for cheaper.  This is an excellent way to both cut down on food waste and to make good, fresh produce more affordable.  Food waste in America is embarrassing- one 2004 study estimates that we waste 40-50% of our food.  One of the many reasons for this lies in grocery stores’ reluctance to sell ‘imperfect’ produce- not spoiled or old, but imperfect produce- for example, peaches that are too small or apples that have a smaller than desirable proportion of red to green coloring.  Seriously.

A consequence of this perfectionist view, though, is that we’re drastically reducing the amount of food that we consider fit for grocery store consumption, where most of the country gets its fruit.  And by doing that, we’re driving up produce prices.  The company in this article works with suppliers and grocery stores to create a supply of cheaper, imperfect produce- food that’s still fit for consumption, of course, but that’s not as pretty as the standard we’ve set.

So what do you think?  Would you buy imperfect produce if it was cheaper?  Do you think this is a viable business model?  Come to the faculty commons tonight at 8:30 pm to discuss it!

Food Day 2012

Food Day was a resounding success- with soups from the Retreat and challah from Challah for Hunger, we were well fed as we talked about the food issues in and around Vassar.  We heard from Susan Grove with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, which has recently completed a survey on food security in the City of Poughkeepsie.  The results are sobering- today, one in four households in Poughkeepsie are food insecure.  So how do we go about effecting change in our own neighbourhood?  Volunteering with the PFP is an excellent way to get involved- Vassar students have the potential to be a powerful force for good in our community!

We also heard from Ken Oldehoff, the Director of Marketing and Sustainability for Campus Dining.  He’s been with the College for 32 years, and gave us a history of sustainability at campus dining through the years.  We’re lucky to have someone as experienced and knowledgeable as him working for better food at Vassar!

We then broke into focus groups to talk about what students can do- we talked about creating a CSA integrated into senior housing, making Poughkeepsie Farm Project information more accessible to students, and advocating for healthier foodservice options through our foodservice provider, Aramark.

Hopefully this won’t be the end of the discussion- we at Slow Food are looking to make sure that these collaborative efforts will continue throughout the semester and the year.  After all, it’s better when you work together- and our fellow sustainability orgs are formidable allies!

*Thanks to the Office of Sustainability for the photo

Ever think about...

...becoming a farmer?

Image courtesy of boston.com

Because despite all of these crazy subsidies for big agribusiness, and despite the fact that farming is hard (if joyful) work, there are people around the country working hard to ensure that there is a new generation of farmers that will work the land sustainably and knowledgeably.

That link takes you to an interview with a student at the University of Vermont’s Farmer Training program- it’s a six-month intensive course that provides a basic foundation for farmers just starting out.  It may just make you want to go out there and enroll yourself!  Or, at the very least, help out at the Vassar Experimental Garden for their community hours on Saturdays!

Come to Food Day!

This is a busy week for Slow Food Vassar- as you may have seen on our facebook or twitter, we’re helping to sponsor Vassar’s celebration of National Food Day!  We’re having dinner and discussion in the Faculty Commons from 5-7.  Come discuss what your vision of a sustainable food system looks like- we’re having a panel including representatives from Campus Dining and thePoughkeepsie Farm Project- over soup and challah (from Challah for Hunger)!  Then stay for the discussion about how we can take action to improve our local food system.

Later in the week, Pumpkin Patch is going to be making a pilgrimage to its namesake this weekend!  Email vassar@slowfood.org or get in contact with Evie if you’re interested.  It’s going to be a great time!