University of Notre Dame
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

This amount includes foods that were processed locally such as milk from Rochester, Indiana, tomato products from Tipton, Indiana and eggs from Warsaw, Indiana. It also includes our Marine Stewardship Certified purchases of seafood, Fair Trade Coffee, tea, and chocolate and organically certified purchases.

We have developed a Notre Dame Food Services Sustainable Food and Department Model that addresses:
1)Sustainable Production and Procurement (Local/Regional Foods)
2)Fair Trade Certified Products, Organic Foods and Sustainable Seafood (MSC Certified)
3)Recycling
4)Eco-friendly Service Ware
5)Reducing Food Waste

The model is our guide for our sustainable program. The model outlines our program of local or regional buying to be from Indiana, or any state that borders Indiana as well as Wisconsin (closest supplier of cheese products). We are in the process of narrowing this local buying region to all of Indiana and Michigan, and a 250 mile circumference from Notre Dame. We believe that our purchasing program is a sustainable practice that greatly reduces the use of fossil fuels and limits emissions. It provides the foods that we need from our growing region and limits bringing food from the southern states or either coast. It also supports local and regional economies while contributing to a strong community infrastructure.

Due to our local definition transitioning to a smaller footprint, we are starting to loose some vendors off of our initial report. We also found that some of the companies reported their corporate headquarters to us, and we have changed these locals as well. Also, this past year salmon was removed from the MSC list, which caused a drop in our numbers as well.

Notre Dame is located in Northern Indiana, only a few miles from the Michigan border, in a region that is primarily made up of corn and soybean farming. This limits our ability to purchase fruits and vegetables that are grown in close proximity to our campus with the exception of Southwestern Michigan. We have a brief growing season in late summer when local items are in abundance from a short distance away and we take full advantage of all of the products grown. We get apples, mushrooms and potatoes locally for the entire year and tomatoes from near Indianapolis during the summer growing season all the way into October. Last year we were receiving 12 types of fresh fruits and 27 types of fresh vegetables from 123 growers in this area.

Items that we are receiving that are processed locally include bread products, dairy products including ice cream, gelato, coffee (beans imported and processed in Michigan), tomato products, cheeses, poultry, meats, assorted chips, pizza, juices, cookies, pasta, crackers, sausages, cereals, fish, nuts, bottled water, eggs, honey and some convenience foods."