STARKVILLE – Mississippi State University is working to expand farm-to-table options in dining halls across campus through a partnership between the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the university’s dining service partner, Aramark.
Already, campus dining halls serve milk, ice cream, cheese and eggs all produced on campus through the college. Cory Gallo, assistant dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said the department is exploring additional ways to strengthen the connection between local production and consumption.
“I think anything we could do to help connect where food is grown to where it’s consumed, especially being the College of Agriculture and Life Science, it just makes perfect sense,” Gallo said. “So we’re really happy that they’re willing to partner with us. I think we still have a lot to figure out, but we’re excited about continuing that discussion and figuring out where it’s going to go.”
The most recent milestone in this effort came two weeks ago, when MSU’s student farm celebrated its first successful harvest.
Between 150 and 300 pounds of bok choy, mustard greens and collard greens were picked, processed and packaged for serving at Perry Food Hall and Fresh Food Company.
Gallo said plans for the student farm have been in the works for about five years, though COVID-19 delayed its progress. Although it had only a few student workers in its first harvest season, the farm will provide experiential learning opportunities for students and classes beginning next semester, allowing them to manage, grow, prepare, clean and distribute food.
“It has a ton of benefits across the board for students, for community and obviously for a university that’s a land grant, for our students to go to the dining hall and see produce that’s grown here by our students, I think it’s very exciting to see that participation and direct connection from farm to table,” he said.
To determine what crops would be most beneficial, Gallo said the farm’s team worked with James Jankowski, Aramark’s resident district manager at MSU, and head chefs from the dining halls. Looking ahead, Gallo hopes to expand the offerings to include a wider variety of crops.
“This semester was really about proving that process, and so moving forward, we can then build on that success towards increasing the production, increasing the harvest, increasing the numbers of harvest days we have, and then trying to have more of a year round production for the farm,” Gallo said.
The farm occupies about two acres at North Farm, which includes a one-acre growing site, three greenhouses and a few peach trees, located next to the A.B. McKay Food Research and Enology Lab. Gallo hopes to grow the farm in the coming years, adding a deer exclusion fence, a pollinator garden and expanding the food orchard to include grapes, blueberries and other fruits for use on campus.
Abby Pennington, the farm manager and a horticulture master’s student, said that while it may not be realistic for the campus to fully sustain its own dining halls, even small contributions from homegrown food makes a difference.
“It’s really important for students to know where their food’s coming from, and know how to do it themselves if they need to,” Pennington said. “… It’s very hard for a lot of people to understand why our food might not look perfect, but it’s still really good food, and to see the efforts, the people, the support and time it takes to put into a farm to make the food for your community, I don’t think we’ll ever get to this point where we could completely give enough to fully support Perry or Fresh. There would be no way. But this gives students a little bit of insight of what it takes to feed this many students at this school.”
‘One step at a time’
While the student farm is still in its early stages, Gallo said they’ve also explored the potential to provide Aramark with beef and other meat products from the university’s animal research farm and meat muscle laboratory on South Farm, though he said all plans must be made “one step at a time.”
“I’m not sure yet what that might look like, but we’ve talked about the potential of doing it,” he said. “We’re happy to explore anything. We don’t want to compete with the private market, especially in our own community. … It’s become this sort of symbiotic relationship between us and Aramark.”
James Jankowski said he views the partnership as a long-term collaboration, and envisions further sustainability efforts. One plan is to incorporate composting from dining hall preconsumer waste back into the farm to create a “closed-loop system” of sustainability.
“We have a great opportunity on campus of having all this product that’s readily and easily available,” he said. “… I feel like it supports the university, which goes back into their classes and their department, and long term, we’d like to figure out how to support local providers as well. … We’re always looking for ways to really expand those options within the dining on campus.
“It’s baby steps,” he added. “We’ve got to start small, so that way we can make sure we can work through all the details and process, make sure it’s a successful program.”
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