Exeter, NH (February 22, 2006)—These days the watchword in the Dining Services program at Phillips Exeter Academy is sustainability. And to director David Davidson and his staff that means more organic and locally grown or produced foods. In 1992, the Earth Summit first defined environmental sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” For Exeter’s Dining Services program, buying local food can mean delivery trucks that travel shorter distances and emit fewer exhaust fumes. It can also mean having fresher products arrive on campus faster.
The shift toward sustainable dining is something Davidson has been working on since he arrived at Exeter 18 months ago. Exeter, a coed, grades 9-12 boarding school located in southern New Hampshire, is among a growing number of prep schools, colleges and universities now going the organic and local food route, according to the National Association of Colleges and Universities. For some, this trend is a response to globalization; for others, it’s a way to improve community relations by supporting local farmers. For most, it’s a way to improve the taste of dining hall food.
Davidson admits that serving organic food takes a lot more legwork on the purchasing side and a lot more managing. Nor are the costs negligible, and he sought additional funding to cover the added expense of locally grown and/or organically produced spinach, flour, milk, yogurt, granola, whole eggs, honey and herbs. Each day cooks in Exeter’s dining halls make fresh bread using the organic flour and eggs. Davidson is also investigating the availability of organic meats such as free-range beef and chicken, hopefully raised in New England.
Davidson’s plan to do business with fewer food companies means purchasing more products—usually at lower prices—from larger food distributors who’ve begun to carry local and/or organic foods, including Costa Fruit & Produce Company, Oakhurst Dairy and Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs. Each relationship demonstrates the benefits to doing business with local farmers.
Jim Molisse, an account executive with Boston-based Costa Fruit & Produce, says his company’s new relationship with PEA is a win-win arrangement. As Costa finds and develops relationships with many local organic vendors—many of whom PEA previously did business with—it is now able to sell local organic produce at a more competitive price to many more customers. “Our first priority is to find and sell local, organic produce to our customers,” Molisse says. “And in the last five to 10 years since we’ve been selling organic, it has become much more reasonably priced.”
Already, two of the hottest organic food items on the Dining Services menu, organic baby spinach and baby carrots, are comparable in cost to regular spinach and baby carrots, says Molisse.
Even though their business relationship is less than three months old, Costa is now selling more than 100 produce items to Exeter, most of them locally grown and/or organic: fingerling potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, sprouts, greens and a large variety of fresh fruits.
The school is also experimenting with dairy products. Organic Valley, a cooperative of family dairy-farm owners based out of LaFarge, WI, has a two-month-old relationship with Exeter, and now supplies the school with close to 40 gallons of organic milk a week. John Morrissey, a division sales manager with Organic Valley, says their relationship with Exeter originates through the dairy distributor Oakhurst, of Portland, ME.
Both Oakhurst and Organic Valley are working to overcome a shortage of organic milk caused by tougher federal regulations and higher costs associated with raising cows on organically grown feed. Morrissey says the demand for organic milk has increased by as much as 30 percent over the last few years, an increase that has squeezed independent organic dairy manufacturers while helping larger dairy corporations.
Given this increased nationwide demand, Morrissey explains that it’s unusual that Exeter would be able to offer organic milk to its students and faculty. “It’s kind of amazing that Organic Valley is selling its product to Exeter, given the shortage. But we were just so impressed with PEA’s philosophy of buying local organic products, that we made getting our product to them a priority,” he says. “Exeter’s philosophy is identical to Organic Valley’s mission.”
Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, students come from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds. The diverse student body comes from approximately 46 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 25 foreign countries.
Contact: Julie Quinn Famebridge Witherspoon
(603) 777-3450 (603) 777-3450
jquinn@exeter.edu fwitherspoon@exeter.edu
