George Washington University

• Type: Private, 4 yr, 10,000-15,000, Urban, Grad School
• Region: Midatlantic
• City: Washington
• State: DC
• involvement in the Real Food Challenge?
  Level 3: Taking the Challenge
• Provider: Sodexo
• On campus concessions: Chic-Fil-A, Wendy's, Starbucks, Domino's, Subway
• Dining Services Director/Executive Chef: Moshen Emami and Sam Ramos (Dining Services)
• Farm operated by students? yes
• Needs and challenges: We currently have three goals: -get local food purchased by dining services challenge: dining services mainly purchases from one company-Keany Produce- and doesn't want to make contracts with individual farms or buy products that cost more money, and they want students to eat the food. They compete with restaurants on campus, who actually sell more food to students than does our cafeteria. -create a functioning and educational community garden on campus funding will be a challenge, as well as finding people to tend the garden year round. so far so good on finding space... -open a student run co-op on campus with fair trade, local, and organic food and products real estate is insanely expensive because we are in downtown DC and the school has put up innumerable road blocks in the past to student run businesses-lots of red tape-industrial strength. also, finding the money would be a problem.
• Successes and achievements: -dining services is open to using some local foods. within Keany is a list of local farms they access food from each week that are available for purchasing. we are going to sell whole fruits, like apples and pears, that are local, and incorporate mushrooms, lettuce, and spices into a few entrees a week, and post informational signage so people know the food is local and where the farms are. dining services is open to the idea of cage free eggs, organic milk, and artisanal local bread. we have worked with them over the past two years to successfully bring fair trade food to the cafe, so we already have a strong, positive relationship. -with respect to the garden, our grounds keeper is willing to work with us to find sites on campus and build on a positive relationship that was started last year by another student. he can help us with tools to use in the garden as well. additionally, the Sustainable Landscape Design graduate program is extremely interested in working with us and one of its professors has taken on design of our project for one of her classes this semester. this help will be invaluable! -there is a lot of student interest in the co-op, and one of our candidates for student body president next year would like to make it happen. we are hoping that he wins!
• Food activities: fair trade purchasing, student organizations, student farm/garden, local purchasing
• Relevant academic programs: Graduate degree
• comments: Graduate program in sustainable landscape design is available- they are actually helping us design the garden.