ISU Raises Student Awareness with Real Food Picnic

Over the lunch hour on Friday, Oct. 10, there will be a different kind of picnic at Iowa State University.  Students, faculty and staff are invited to bring their lunches to the library lawn to taste local apples and savor fair trade chocolate.  They will contribute to the real food mural made by design students and enjoy the tunes of local musicians.  All of this is part of an effort to bring more awareness to the Iowa State campus about the benefits of real food.  “We want to show students that they have a voice and a choice when it comes to food,” remarked Ellen Walsh, a junior who represents Oxfam on campus. 

For the past year, ISU Dining has been tracking and increasing its purchases of local, sustainable, and organic foods as part of the Farm to ISU program.  Last year more than half a million dollars were spent on local foods-- antibiotic-free pork, honey, organic milk, seasonal produce and beef from a small meat locker.  Next year, ISU Dining plans to increase its purchases by another quarter million dollars, so that by 2012, 35% of the food purchases will have come from Iowa farms, have been sustainably grown, or have been certified organic.  There is growing interest in sustainability in the university administration (this year the university launched its “live green” campaign), but the key will continue to be student demand. “I want students to ask for these kinds of foods,” remarked Nancy Levandowski, ISU Dining director.  

The Oct. 10  event aims to engage ISU students, through tasting and discussing food issues, so they can ask ISU Dining for more real food.  Students will also learn how they can become involved in not only the consumption, but also in the creation of real food.

Iowa State University has had operated a Student Organic Farm for 12 years, though the university has moved it to different locations several times.  Undergraduate students, community members, and graduate students all volunteer on the vegetable and fruit farm, harvesting green beans, planting herbs, and digging potatoes.  It has become a place of utmost importance to those who go there, even to busy people. "Sometimes I will go to a lecture on campus and regret it, but when I decide to go to the farm for a couple hours, I am never disappointed,” remarked Tomoko Ogawa, a graduate student in Sustainable Agriculture and Sociology. 

In the past the farm sold at the local  farmer’s market, but this year students sold hundreds of pounds of green beans to a local restaurant by cooperating with a farmer and donated produce to a local youth shelter.  

Participating student clubs include Oxfam, Student Organic Farm, International Agriculture Club, and Architects for Humanity. For more information, contact Sue DeBlieck, susandeb@iastate.edu.