University of New Hampshire
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

http://sustainableunh.unh.edu/localharvestvendors

Through the Local Harvest Initiative, UNH Dining is committed to serving locally, regionally, and sustainably grown, produced, and manufactured items to the greatest extent possible. Many of these items are included regularly in the dining halls and campus retail outlets, and others are purchased for special events such as the annual Local Harvest Feast. The sustainability commitment of UNH Dining is part of the university’s broader Food & Society Initiative, which commits UNH to being a sustainable food community that promotes healthy food systems from farm to fork to health and nutrition outcomes.

Serving locally and regionally grown, produced, and manufactured items ensures that the food served is the freshest possible while helping to support our local economy, a vibrant regional agricultural infrastructure, and a healthy food system. We look for farms and food producers or manufacturers located within a 250 mile radius from UNH. Additional criteria that UNH Dining considers in its purchasing decisions include:

USDA Certified Organic: This certification indicates that specific production and handling practices were taken for the applicable food items. Producers must apply for certification annually, and producers' operations are inspected annually to ensure that all criteria are being met properly. Examples of USDA Certified Organic foods served on campus include vegetables from the UNH Organic Garden Club, Stonyfield Farm yogurt, and Abigail's Bakery bread.

Fair Trade Certified: Fair Trade Certified "guarantees consumers that strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product. Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla. TransFair USA licenses companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict international Fair Trade standards." (from TransFair USA) Examples of Fair Trade Certified foods served on campus include Green Mountain coffee and Omar coffee.

Certified Humane: Certified Humane means that producers meet "the Humane Animal Care Program standards, which include nutritious diet without antibiotics, or hormones, animals raised with shelter, resting areas, sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviors." (from Certified Humane) UNH serves Pete & Gerry's eggs on campus, which are Certified Humane.

Consideration is also given to other claims, including cage free, free range, grassfed, and rBST-free.

Local Harvest purchasing data are in the process of being updated to include FY10-12 information.

Interns and staff at the Sustainability Institute at UNH work with UNH Dining to collect expenditure data. Interns research the sustainability practices of the vendors through which UNH Dining purchases food and beverages to determine the percentage of purchases that are local (within a 250-mile radius), USDA Organic, Fair Trade, humane (from cage-free eggs to sustainable seafood), vegetarian-fed, hormone-free, and otherwise sustainably grown, process or harvested.

UNH created and signed on to Slow Fish principles in 2014. (See Innovation Credit 2.)

UNH Dining increased its local food purchasing from 16.7% in FY07-08 to 23% in in FY13.

In addition, UNH Dining purchases cage-free eggs from Pete and Gerry’s Eggs of Munroe, NH. All UNH dining halls offer Fair Trade Certified organic coffee, an innovative, market-based approach to sustainable development. Honey is purchased from Bee Rich Apiaries of Hudson, NH. Apples are provided by UNH’s Woodman Farm. The Organic Garden Club was founded in-part by UNH Dining, and much of the Club’s fresh produce is served in the Dining Halls. UNH Dining has worked with Farm Services for each of the past three years and they have provided UNH with winter squash. For more information on Dining Services http://www.unh.edu/dining/community/about.html.