Eating Green at Duke

After working all week, Sage and Swift catering company owner Amy Tornquist doesn't sleep in on Saturdays. She's up at the farmer's market by 6:30 a.m., foraging for fresh local delicacies such as pea shoots and squash blossoms to adorn the plates at her two "green" eateries on Duke's campus.

 

Tornquist, who manages the Nasher Café in the Nasher Museum and the Faculty Commons in the West Union Building, is one of a growing number of dining vendors on campus dedicated to putting more fresh, local food on Duke's tables.

"It's more effort, all the time. You just have to be committed," Tornquist says.

 

Duke made a commitment to increase green dining practices on campus in 2004, according to Tavey McDaniel Capps, Duke's full-time coordinator of environmental sustainability. "Food is something that touches the entire Duke community. The food choices we make may seem small, but if you look at the larger picture of where the food is coming from and how it's being produced, you begin to understand how significant these choices really are," McDaniel Capps says.

 

Green Initiatives

Duke Dining director Jim Wulforst has worked with interested members of the Duke community to promote green dining ideas in campus eateries. Among the initiatives include a study of the environmental impacts of dining at Duke and a 2005 program that asked members of the Duke community to think about how their food is prepared and processed.

For more information about green dining initiatives, click here.

As a member of the Green Dining Committee, McDaniel Capps works to improve sustainable practices at eateries around campus. She is currently in the process of defining "green" and "sustainable" at Duke and developing a ratings scale of minimum standards that will apply to eateries campus-wide.

 

Green, says McDaniel Capps, is more than just food.

 

"While food is a huge component, there are many other things such as energy and water consumption, use of resources like disposables and cleaning products, waste and recycling, and educational efforts that really determine the sustainability of an eatery," she says.

 

Companies such as Bon Appetit, which caters the Marketplace on East Campus, also have taken the green message seriously and made sustainability part of their business model.

 

"Students and faculty and staff are becoming more and more aware of these issues and that's really what they're looking for in a food service provider," says Travis Burns, director of promotions for Bon Appetit as well as Chartwell's, which services the Great Hall on West Campus. Both are part of the Compass Group, a national food service company.

 

"We purchase all our seafood under the [Monterey Bay Aquarium] Seafood Watch guidelines," Burns says. In addition, they buy hormone-free milk when available, antibiotic-free chicken and locally ranched beef.

 

Green food is generally healthier too, since most foods are made from scratch. At the Marketplace, for instance, the stockroom is full of raw ingredients such as grains, beans and tapioca for bubble tea, with a minimum of prepared foods.

 

"We don't have a fryer. We don't do grease," says Laura Hall, owner of Bon Vivant catering, who runs The Refectory, another green eatery located in the Divinity School.

 

Hall says it's the fresh, local eggs, dairy and whole grains that make their signature baked oatmeal so good.

 

"I'm a big protein person. It stays longer in your body, gives you energy. Every meal we give you we try to give you whole grains, protein and a little bit of fat so you'll get dietary requirements," Hall says.

 

Vegetarian and vegan options like daal, an Indian lentil stew, are available every day.

 

Hall takes "sustainable" to mean that food "is good for the way we treat the earth and is good for the way we treat our bodies." She wants to encourage students on the run to sit down and enjoy their food. She also reclaimed long, wood tables and china from Duke storage, which creates a community dining atmosphere and cuts down on trash.

 

Local foods on the Nasher's menu range from 10 percent in the winter, to as high as 95 percent in the summer, Tornquist says, from the flank steak she orders from a local rancher to North Carolina shrimp to bread from Durham's Pop's Bakery.

 

So, why is local better? Because, Tornquist says, the food travels less, takes less energy and time to get here, so generally it's fresher. Economically, it supports the local community and creates a buffer against economical downturns. And, it preserves green spaces by keeping family farms from being turned into condos.

 

Sometimes that means paying more for food. But Tornquist says it's worth it.

 

"It's more responsible, and it certainly tastes better, there's no comparison. You know that every dollar you're putting into the community you're putting in to your friends and neighbors, and that makes a huge difference."