A call for conversation: sustainable food at Duke

For years, students have celebrated Bon Appetit’s patronage of local vendors through its Farm-to-Fork program in the Marketplace and Great Hall. Consequently, many of us were surprised and disappointed upon reading the April 4 article, “Duke dining puts local vendors on hiatus.” This sudden “pause” on local purchasing reveals a larger issue: a lack of consistency and transparency in Duke Dining’s approach to sustainability.

We believe Duke Dining understands the social and environmental benefits of purchasing local food. As concerned consumers, we seek a more complete explanation for the change in purchasing behavior. The sudden hiatus reveals a disconnect between our University’s food operations and the realities of agricultural production. Curtailing orders so abruptly presents challenges to producers and reflects poorly on the sincerity of Duke Dining’s relationships with its vendors.

Recent events also highlight a discrepancy between Duke’s mission-driven commitment to sustainability and its current dining practices. Duke’s environmental policy, signed by President Brodhead in 2005, commits the University to demonstrate leadership in both “environmentally responsible operations” and “environmental stewardship in the community.” However, Duke still lacks a sustainability framework to guide its 33 campus eateries, which range from small, locally-owned ventures to opaque corporate franchises. While Duke Dining engages in some sustainable practices—composting food waste, for example—it lags behind well-established sustainability programs like the Duke Carbon Offset Initiative.

On behalf of student groups Food4Thought and the Duke Food Project, we invite Rick Johnson and his colleagues to an open conversation about Duke Dining and sustainability. We invite students, faculty, staff and vendors to join us in learning more about Duke Dining’s purchasing priorities and policies. We hope this meeting will open a productive dialogue between Duke Dining and its stakeholders about how to maintain an environmentally sound and ethical dining system while satisfying the needs of all parties.

This conversation will be held on Wednesday, April 17 at 3p.m. in the Center for LGBT Life. All interested parties are encouraged to attend.

Hannah Colton, Trinity '13

Emily McGinty, Trinity '13