Recovered Food Community-Supported Agriculture initiative
Students can now buy a bag of produce on the campus for cheap by purchasing food that farms typically leave behind.
Recovered Food Community-Supported Agriculture initiative, or CSA, is a new student-operated project on the campus aimed at selling students the produce that some farms don’t want in order to make a positive impact on food sustainability. At $5 for 5 pounds, the fruits and vegetables are available at different locations across the campus on Mondays.
Evan Lutz, earned income coordinator of Food Recovery Network — a national organization that works to reduce waste and hunger — does everything for CSA from working the cash register to keeping hundreds of pounds of produce in his car. The senior business major said Ben Simon, a 2013 university graduate and public policy graduate student, brought Lutz into CSA; Simon helped found the network.
As a new initiative of the network, Recovered Food CSA — piloted last semester before officially starting Feb. 3 — aims to minimize food waste by selling locally grown food that would otherwise be left to rot, Lutz said. The network receives produce from farms that don’t want them, Lutz said, usually when it is bruised or when stores have more than they can sell.
“We want to prove that produce that’s recovered is still delicious,” Lutz said.
The organization sells produce at several changing locations on Mondays from 12 p.m. to 5. So far, they have set up in the Annapolis Hall multipurpose room, in the Maryland Food Co-op in Stamp Student Union and at South Campus Commons, CSA student employees said.
CSA has partnered with Mid-Atlantic Gleaning Network, or MAGNET, which collects fruits and vegetables left over after harvests in a process called gleaning, which is used to clear out fields and collect as much of the crop as possible, Lutz said. Because of either a surplus or deterrents such as bruises on the fruit, retailers do not buy all of the produce that farmers grow; MAGNET then gathers this unwanted produce. The organization rarely pays for the produce — usually the farmers give it away for free, Lutz said.
MAGNET also brings half the total food it collects to soup kitchens in Washington, Lutz said, and occasionally distributes the produce from its own trucks. CSA collects about 600 pounds of produce per week, said Siona Slepoy, a CSA employee, who hopes that number will increase with student demand.
“For every bag someone buys here, a bag goes to a hungry family,” Lutz said.
With produce available in the dining halls, in shops on the campus and at local farmers markets, students have other options when it comes to buying produce; but CSA workers think the social impact of Recovered Food CSA sets it apart. Slepoy, a sophomore accounting major, said that buying from the CSA “makes a big difference” in helping the environment and the community in an easy and direct way.
Students can buy a minimum of 5 pounds of produce for $5 and pay a dollar per pound after that. They can also buy a semester subscription for $75 and pick up five pounds each week, Slepoy said.
“You’re not gonna beat the price,” she said.
Proceeds are split between the Food Recovery Network and MAGNET, both of which are nonprofits, Lutz said.
Although she is excited about the program, Allison Lilly, Sustainability and Wellness coordinator for Dining Services, had some reservations.
“Using food that would otherwise go to waste is a great concept, and supporting and feeding those in need is a great concept,” Lilly said, but she expressed concern about where the products were coming from, whether CSA has approval for sale on the campus and if the food is up to health department regulations.
“They have to make sure they are able to share that information with anybody before they purchase their products,” she said.
Lutz said he is working to address these concerns and is confident they will be settled in the coming weeks. He is working on a partnership with the Resident Hall Association for permission to sell the produce outside dorms and has partnered with the Co-op, which, because it is regularly inspected, could help take responsibility for CSA and its products, Lilly said.
Though Lutz said the recovered food isn’t of lower quality, the safety of the produce remains a concern for some students.
Matt McPherson, a senior civil engineering major, doesn’t think he would buy from the CSA, although he said it’s a good idea.
However, others would be happy to buy food that would otherwise be thrown away.
“I would definitely support it,” Jordan London, a freshman marketing major, said. “I don’t like seeing food go to waste.”
