Once a month each residence dining hall has a Local Food Day. On Local Food Days, produce, meat, dairy, eggs, and grain products which are in season are purchased locally by McGill Food and Dining Services. Local is defined as preference to under 200km to a maximum of 500 km. Local Food Day will feature one main event each month, organized by the McGill Food Systems Project and McGill Food and Dining Services.
What do Local Food Days offer?
- An opportunity for students and staff to learn about the availability of regional food and Quebec’s cultural food heritage through seasonal menus
- A place to celebrate community initiatives and share perspectives surrounding sustainable food through workshops and events
- A place for students to ask questions about getting involved in the sustainable food movement at McGill through their university classes and various campus groups
- A platform to test student research on supply chain sustainability, local and sustainable products and to develop relationships with alternative suppliers
Why only in Residence?
- A smaller testing ground than the entire 29 McGill dining locations to conduct this Local Food Day pilot project
- Students in residence are on a mandatory meal plan. They are a captive audience due to relative isolation from other food source alternatives.
- The residence students are most concerned with the quality of food on campus given their dependence on food served by the Food and Dining Services.
- Home to close to 3,000 first year students, residences are the perfect opportunity to reach out to and engage a large and diverse body of students from the very beginning of their time on campus.
Local Food Days Accomplishments:
2009-2010 was a very successful scholastic year for the monthly LFDs in the five resident cafeterias. In fact, a 300 person petition asking for more LFDs was formed and signed independent of the MFSPLocal Food Day Accomplishments and Food and Dining Sercives commitments:
The 2010-2011 scholastic year, hosted nine LFDs in each of the 5 resident cafeterias. Additionally, local food will be preferred throughout the year with guidelines of 75% local food summer months, 50% local food in the fall and 25% local food in the winter/spring seasons (with exception to citrus). Furthermore, the Food and Dining Services have focused on ordering:
- Fish only from the green and yellow Seachoice list
- Whole eggs from cage free hens
- Pork grown without the use of antibiotics and preservatives
- Most of their grains (couscous, spelt, quinoa, bulgur, some lentils and flower) from a local and organic producer
- Fair trade coffee in all their retail locations
- A percentage of organic frozen vegetables from a near by farmer
Local Food Days are open to the entire campus, so check out the monthly schedule, and make sure to stop by the dining halls for a local breakfast, lunch and/or dinner on the dates listed above.
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