Virginia Tech
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Dining Services began to actively seek inclusion of local and sustainable foods in 2008 when the department hired their first-ever sustainability coordinator. Since then, the initiative has grown considerably and successfully. Dining Services added an exclusively local, sustainable, and organic venue titled The Farms & Fields Project in 2009. Farms & Fields is located in one of our largest dining centers, Owens Food Court. It is titled “project” because our commitment to the improvement thereof is an ongoing process. The Farms & Fields Project is a showcase for Dining Services’ gold standard for sustainability. http://farmsandfields.wordpress.com Since 2008, the Sustainability Coordinator for Dining Services has pursued the inclusion of local and sustainable food wherever possible in all other dining units. Some of these items include the incorporation of Virginia Tech Meats in most dining units on a regular basis, Virginia Tech Milk, raised on Virginia Tech’s campus and processed in Goochland, Virginia, is then served in our all-you-care-to-eat facility, D2 at Dietrick Hall. The coffee at our on-campus coffee shop is procured through a fair, direct-trade relationship with a plantation in Nicaragua that grows its beans using ecological practices. One of our most popular dining centers, West End Market, features fresh fish every day that meets the standards of Monterey Bay Seafood Watch’s “Best Choice “or “Good Alternative” in order to protect our waterways and fish populations. Additionally, several local special meals have been conducted over the past few years bringing in even more items from the region. To view an article about Dining Services partnering with Virginia Tech Meat Science Center to bring local products to campus dining centers, please see: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2011/06/062411-dsa-meats.html D2 dining center in Dietrick Hall is now featuring “Virginia Tech Milk,” which is harvested from the herd of dairy cows at Virginia Tech’s Dairy Center. For more information, please see: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/01/012413-dsa-vtmilk.html