dinsdag 8 november 2011

Yes We Canteen

Yes We Canteen is a creative initiative to improve university catering.
Please take a look:
http://www.yeswecanteen.nl/

donderdag 9 juni 2011

Manifesto for sustainable food catering at Wageningen UR

The WUR is reviewing its catering and is investigating which arrangement fits best the wishes of the WUR and its students and staff members. The current contract with Albron ends in 2012.
With this manifesto we want to support a strategic choice for the provision of healthy and sustainable food within the new contract of WUR food catering.

Catering at WUR
Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) “operates within the domain of healthy food and the living environment to improve the quality of life”. According to the mission, the WUR is “committed to contribute to the current challenges of this time, such as the availability of enough healthy and safe food, dealing with climate change and developing sustainable energy supplies”. This includes  a responsibility to deliver healthy, diverse and tasty food for its students and staff members. Canteens are ‘public spaces’ (within the confines of the WUR), where facilities are provided to both Dutch and international students and staff members of the WUR. Canteens are places where students and staff come together to have an enjoyable lunch which fits their dietary standards. Good food improves people’s health and also contributes to a better working environment, enhances social interaction and puts the WUR values of food quality and sustainability into practice.
Among staff and students there is the feeling that current food services need improvement. Signs of this are the use of alternatives options like Chinese and Italian take-away, the high number of lunches brought from home, in the Eat-ins that are being held where staff and students come together to eat food they have made themselves. Chances for improvement lie in adapting to the current wishes and needs of students and staff through a form of catering which reflects the values of the WUR as expressed by its ‘quality of life’ slogan.

Sustainability in practice
The availability of healthy food is paramount to a good standard of the WUR’s working and studying environment. Research shows that people do not eat sufficient amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Eating these at lunch at work/school can greatly help daily intake levels. This means that a wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables should be available. And of course, taste is important!
The type of food on offer should fit the needs and food cultures of students and staff. Since many come from outside The Netherlands we plea for the provision of warm meals (other than soup) of good variety and taste including a vegetarian warm meal option. Warm meals should not contain artificial additives, only natural ingredients, and a large portion of vegetables (eg. no highly processed, sugar and high salt containing sauces).
In order to contribute to sustainability fruit and vegetables should be seasonal as much as possible, and/or organic where possible. Seasonality, and local/regional sourcing are ways to provide organic food more cheaply.

It’s possible!
There are numerous examples of innovative caterers who succeed in providing healthy, tasty and sustainable food at a reasonable price. These examples should be looked at and learned from. Food professionals who know how to provide a good quality service, can be consulted in order to realize this. Catering of tasty seasonal and organic food is something which requires specific knowledge and skills. This includes how to realize sustainability goals in procurement procedure.

WUR food policy
Good food should be seen as an integral part of the facilities for WUR students and staff. The setting up of the tendering and contract lending procedure should be transparent. It is important to involve representatives of students and members of staff in the setting up of new contracts. The WUR’s vision on food services and the practical ways in which these will be met should be available on the internet and communicated broadly in order to generate more support for the efforts the WUR takes in sustainable procurement.

The initiators:
Ina Horlings and Petra Derkzen, Rural Sociology Group
Elizabeth Sargant, Environmental Policy Group


Please support this manifesto by sending a mail before the end of June to lummina.horlings@wur.nl
With the following text:

Yes, I support this manifest for the provision of healthy and sustainable food catering:
Name: …………………………...   Organisation:………………………..... Position: ………………………

donderdag 26 mei 2011

See interesting blog

http://www.earthscan.co.uk/blog/post/So-can-organics-feed-the-world.aspx

So, can organics feed the world? by Matt Reed

Telling porkies: The big fat lie about doubling food production

http://www.soilassociation.org/News/NewsItem/tabid/91/smid/463/ArticleID/360/reftab/57/Default.aspx

20 April 2010

In the UK and globally the future direction of food and farming is being driven almost entirely by two frequently quoted statistics. Experts such as the UN Secretary General, the UK Government’s Chief Scientist, the current Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn MP, the Conservative Party, the National Farmers’ Union and Monsanto, are all saying that we need to increase food production 50% by 2030 or that it needs to double by 2050.

A new investigation from the Soil Association reveals that the widely used statistics are based on a ‘big fat lie’.
‘Telling porkies: The big fat lie about doubling food production’, reveals that all those claiming we need to double global food production by 2050, or 50% by 2030, are wrong about the figures, are wrong about what the figures apply to, and are wrong to claim that achieving these figures will mean we will feed the hungry or end starvation.
Research into the doubling figure shows it doesn’t actually exist in the stated source -and that it is based on a number of incorrect assumptions. The scientific basis for the claims are based on a report which on close inspection actually says production would need to increase by around 70%, not 100%. As the Government states this is a significant difference. The closest the report comes to the doubling claim is projecting that meat consumption in developing countries, except China, could double. The scientific paper that the 50% by 2030 claim is based on appears to have been withdrawn by the authors.
These apparently scientific statistics are leading to an assumption that we need vast increases in agricultural production to feed the projected population of 9 billion by 2050. Many commentators are using this inflated claim to justify the need for more intensive agricultural practices and, in particular, the need for further expansion of GM crops.
Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said:
“The ‘big fat lie’ of needing to double global food production by 2050 has dominated policy and media discussions of food and farming, making it increasingly difficult for advocates of sustainable farming methods, such as organic, to convince people we can actually feed the world without more damage to the environment and animal welfare.
“Many of those misusing the statistics in the FAO paper to argue for massive increases in food production in both UK and globally, appear to be unaware that they are in effect condemning many in developing countries to ill-health and early deaths, because they assume the spread of our unhealthy, Western diet to developing countries. In addition, these projections assume an increase of over a billion cattle, which would lead to massive increases in emissions of global warming gases.”
Those using these dodgy figures have continued to do so, even after the Government expressed some concern about them in September last year.
Independent sources quoted in the report say that with fairer diets and better distribution of food, organic farming could feed the world in 2050, with healthy diets.
Notes:
[1] Download the report here: Telling porkies: The big fat lie about doubling food production’ [PDF, 902KB]
[2] About the Soil Association:
The Soil Association is the UK's leading environmental charity campaigning for sustainable, organic farming and championing human health. http://www.soilassociation.org/

woensdag 11 mei 2011

Eat-in postponed to May 25th!!

Due to the fact that on May 19th there will be regional produce sold in the canteen in Leeuwenborch
I would like to postpone the eat-in to the week after, Wednesday 25th May!

Oregional will be selling regional products in the canteen, a try out to see if
cooperation with the caterer could be possible. http://www.oregional.nl/

The move to the 25th works well since on this day the student organisation Farmers Foundation (Boerengroep)
wanted to have an Eat-in to celebrate their 40th birthday.

So. Please note:
Wednesday 25 May – Eat-In Lunch @ Leeuwenborch
Time: 12.00
Location: Leeuwenborch (Hollandseweg 1, Wageningen)

This day the theme of the Eat-In will be ‘40 years the Farmers Foundation – Back to the Roots’. The Farmers Foundation will celebrate its 40th birthday. We will look back at the themes and function of the Farmers Foundation, how they changed in time and what they will be for the future.
And of course you can enjoy and share your own food.

woensdag 27 april 2011

Spring Eat-in Thursday May 19th

To celebrate the spring the next Eat-in will be held outside.
Please bring your picnic gear!
Same place, same time. (so Leeuwenborch, at 12:00).

woensdag 13 april 2011

Discussion on Catering 19 April!

Tuesday 19 April 16:00-18:00 in C214 in Forum there will be a meeting on the future of WUR catering. All students and staff member are welcome to join. The discussion will be in English. At the end there will be drinks and some snacks.

Please come to share your wishes and ideas about how our food services!!

woensdag 30 maart 2011

Discussion on the future of your lunch!

Do you have an opinion about the catering services at the WUR?

There will be a discussion held on the 19th of April from 16:00 - 18:00 in Forum, open to all WUR students and staff memebers.

This is an opportunity to share your idea's and opinions, so don't miss it!

dinsdag 29 maart 2011

Canteen in Leewarden; Sustainable catering is possible!


A few weeks ago I visited ‘Canteen’, the sustainable canteen of Van Stenden College (Hogeschool) in Leeuwarden.
A couple of years ago masterchef Albert Kooy transformed the canteen into an entirely new concept.
The concept includes the following:
-          Most of the food is cooked on site in the Canteen kitchen.
-          The idea of having 80% vegetables and 20% meat instead of the other way around. Kooy indicates that in much of cuisine one sees a large amount of meat and vegetables as a side dish, he wants to turn this around and pay more attention to vegetables.
-          Much of the food served is organic.
-          E-numbers and MSG: When he started on the canteen concept Kooy got rid of all the mono-packaged products and all products which contain additives (E numbers, MSG). Kooy complains about the artificial additives present in much of the regular food supply for catering. He sees especially MSG as something which distorts our taste for food, and he points to the evidence that these ingredients are bad for human health. He would like people to know what food really tastes like.
-          Taste: Choosing to cook without additives has everything to do with developing a good sense of taste, and keeping food free of additives which are harmful for the body. Kooy indicates that users had to get used to the taste of the authentic food served in Canteen, since the food production and processing techniques used are different from a lot of food people are used to eating.
-          Seasonality and near-sourcing: Kooy wants to keep to the seasons as much as possible, and makes use of produce which comes from the region, like the Wadden Sea. But he does not see the need to drive locality to extremes, he sees The Netherlands as the region from which he want to source produce. One example of seasonality in Canteen: Instead of serving tomato and salad (out of season) with a burger, Kooy serves his with a white cabbage salad.
-          Meat: Kooy tries to use more pork and poultry and less beef, as the formers two score better on CO2 emissions.
-          Vegetables: Vegetables are to a large degree seasonal, and from The Netherlands (‘de koude grond’). He also works with vegetables/herbs from outside NL since he makes Asian and African meals as well.
-          International food: Van Stenden College has many international students and so meals need to be adapted to fit this clientele.
-          Drinks: Kooy has cancelled all soft drinks, except for an organic coke and a kind of seven up drink. The idea again is to eliminate as much unhealthy food and drink as possible. Other drinks served are self-made fresh juices and smoothies. Coffee is supplied by Peeze. Water is not bought in plastic bottles, instead in Canteen bottles tap water in attractive glass bottles, and adds gas for fizzy water. In this way Kooy wants to avoid the water-miles and plastic which comes with bottled water. His idea is that since the tap water is very good why import it from another region/country?
-          Bread: is made according to traditional recipes. Kooy found a baker who could supply bread where no additives are used like for instance flour improving agents (meelverbeteraars).
-          The canteen makes use of recycled/recyclable plastic.
-          The canteen ‘buffet’ consists of 5 outlets:
o   -‘It’s only bread’; fresh roles with toppings and soup
o   Coffee shop’; smoothies, cakes, coffee and tea
o   Made in Europe’; eg. pizza’s, kroketten, pancakes
o   East meets west’; wok meals, noodles, meat and vegetarian sauces
o   Out of Africa’; mostly North-African style food like falafel, and without pork

-          Education: Kooy wants students to learn to cook vegetables well, making vegetables the centre of a meal and not meat. Enhancing cooks’ skill and knowledge on how to cook vegetables has environmental and health benefits. It also means changing an entire culture where meat is the primary focus of a plate of food. Students from Hotel Management Studies do praticals in the Canteen kitchen. This means that future catering managers are trained in food preparation within the sustainable canteen concept.
-          Service: The canteen is open all afternoon (i.e. the food is available all afternoon) and in the evening there is a plate du jour with a choice of three warm meals.


woensdag 23 maart 2011

Next Eat-in 7 April

The next Eat-in will be held on thursday 7 April at 12:00 in the Leeuwenborch canteen.
Thank you for your contribution to the last Eat-in on the 9th of March.
Many people showed up once again and we were also joined by Laan van Staalduinen, business director of SSG, who supported many of our idea's for improving WUR catering. We will remain in contact with her on the subject.

Other news:
- Last week we had a meeting with the Albron catering manager for WUR canteen facilities in Wageningen.
- Tuesday 19 April there will be a public discussion on WUR catering open to all students and staff. I will let you know as soon as I know the time and location.
- I visited the canteen of Van Stenden College in Leeuwarden where a sustainable canteen concept has been set up by chef Albert Kooy. A report with pictures will follow on this blog soon. For more info see also You Tube film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9P2mjb8MJk

dinsdag 8 maart 2011

Eat-In Forum & Leeuwenborch tomorrow!

Tomorrow (9th March) there will be Eat-in's in Leeuwenborch and Forum (at 12:00, in their canteens). Please come and join us with your food (friends and colleagues) and some extra plates so we can share a lunch together. A better lunch culture starts with the acknowledgement of the value of food and the value of a meal as a medium of sharing that food and companionship.

An up-date:
Meanwhile lots of things happened too. We talked to Annet de Haas and Annemarie de Vries of Facility Management who are interested in the Eat In’s because they express a concern which is important in their search for a new caterer. We learned that in their broad searching process, all options are open, meaning that they are open to partial contracts for specific canteens rather than only focussed on one big contract for all canteens. They go to different universities and other public canteens to see what others are doing. If you have any suggestions on good practices where they can get additional inspiration, let us know. However, as the ACT group also concluded, so far the university does not want to subsidize the future meals under the new contract(s) which hampers the possibilities to make it sustainable and affordable.

The ACT group finished their research and presented it at the Boerengroep meeting on catering at 23 of February where Annemarie de Vries was also present. We discussed various aspects of the current and potential future catering and the group present will be invited by Facility Management project group to brainstorm further. The ACT group also presented the results of their Local Eatery project at various other places and their report will be soon available online.

The current search for other and better catering options are greatly helped by the Eat Ins because they make visible that this concern is shared amongst many more people than those actively involved. 

See you,
Petra and Elizabeth

vrijdag 4 maart 2011

Innovative, sustainable catering; it is possible!

The Van Stenden Academy (HBO) in Leeuwarden has a canteen which serves sustainable, self-cooked meals. Sustainability is realised through working with organic and seasonal produce, and near-sourcing. Well known cook Albert Kooy is the Chef Executive and whishes to work with ingredients which are in his eyes as natural as possible, that is, free of E-numbers and pesticides. The canteen has a modern design and fits the institution's vision of  'Serving to make a better world'.

Sources:
http://www.stenden.com/nl/studies/nieuws/Nieuwsberichten2010/maart2010/Pages/Stendenhogeschoolopentnieuwstudenten-enmedewerkersrestaurant.aspx
http://www.ecovrede.nl/nieuws/47-hogeschool-heeft-als-eerste-een-volledig-verantwoorde-keuken

VVD en PVV willen af van verplichte duurzame producten

'VVD en PVV willen af van verplichte duurzame producten'

http://www.eerlijk-heerlijk.nl/ Gepubliceerd op
De VVD en PVV in de Tweede Kamer willen af van de door de overheid verplicht gestelde duurzame inkoopcriteria voor bedrijven. De partijen gaan afschaffing daarvan eisen in een debat met staatssecretaris Joop Atsma (Milieu).

“Dit inkoopbeleid is failliet”, zegt VVD-kamerlid René Leegte dinsdag in De Telegraaf. Volgens de krant kost het duurzame inkoopbeleid van producten als koffie, printers en bureaustoelen het bedrijfsleven jaarlijks een half miljard euro aan administratiekosten en bijkomende lasten.

“Kennelijk is duurzaam inkopen alleen duur inkopen”, aldus Leegte. Het Kamerlid zegt er bovendien aan te twijfelen of de strikte regels echt leiden tot milieuvriendelijker producten.

De VVD krijgt in zijn standpunt steun van gedoogpartij PVV. “Ons gedoogakkoord heeft al flink geschrapt in de erfenis van mevrouw Cramer, maar dit moeten we ook aanpakken”, stelt PVV’er Richard de Mos in de krant.

De regels voor duurzame inkopen werden ingesteld door voormalig minister van Milieu Jacqueline Cramer.
Bron: NU.nl

woensdag 23 februari 2011

CO2 labels made easy

Francesca Galmacci, visiting researcher at ENP, has made a short film about the use of CO2 labels as a way to inform consumers about the environmental impact of their food. She will present her work “Moving towards sustainable food consumption: the role of science-based art”on Wednesday 2nd March, 12:15 - 13:15 hours in the Mansholt room, Leeuwenborch.
You can view the short film on
http://vimeo.com/20212839

Top 5 food trends for 2011

-------------------------------------------------------
********TOP 5 TALKIN' FOODTRENDS 2011********
-------------------------------------------------------


1. Food=punk:
Net als fashion schuift food steeds meer op richting ethiek. Van imago-ondersteuning naar handelswijze. Om tegelijk de rafelranden ervan op te zoeken. Precies zoals punks deden in de jaren zeventig. Als iets momenteel aan de hand is, dan wel dat food zijn eigen punkperiode beleeft. Met alle on the edge undergroundvarianten van dien. Anarchie in food als tegengif tegen de doorgeschoten voedselwetgeving.
2. Veggienista: Vegetarisme nieuwe stijl, nouveau-vegetarisme, gaat niet langer enkel om 'niets eten dat ademt' maar om de ganse planeet en zijn inwoners, hier en in de derde wereld. En daarmee is vegetarisch eindelijk volwassen geworden.
3. Sophistithee 2.0.: 2010 was onmiskenbaar het jaar van de (slow) koffie. In 2011 zet eindelijk ook thee de volgende stap. Verrassend genoeg mede dankzij koffiebaristi die via de slow coffee waardering krijgen voor de aardse smaak van thee! Ook in de nieuwe theesalons.
4. Community Dining Experiences: Hoe meer we online zijn met de hele wereld, hoe groter de behoefte onze buren weer te kennen. En hoe beter dan via het bord? Buurtinitiatieven waarbij oud, jong, nieuw- en oud-Nederlands elkaars offline tafelgenoten zijn. Met dank aan de feminisering van de maatschappij en ons eten.
5. Nouvelle Fusion: Een tendens die al eerder werd opgestart, maar in 2011 een extra slinger krijgt. Integratie en innovatie op het bord! Cross-overs Nieuwe Stijl.

Lees meer elders op deze site en in: What (not) to eat 2011, uitg. Talkin' Food®, ISBN 978-94-91086-01-4, 19,50 euro.

Source: http://www.talkinfood.nl/themas.php?id=337

donderdag 17 februari 2011

Another reason te eat organic food and cut/recycle plastic packaging!

PARIS — Tonnes of throw-away plastic and massive runoff from chemical fertilizer are choking the world’s oceans, the UN’s environmental watchdog warned on Thursday.

Taken together, the two sources of pollution threaten biodiversity, harm water quality, poison fish stocks and undermine coastal tourism, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in its annual Year Book report... Only better waste management and a coordinated shift towards cleaner engines of economic growth can insure the future health of the planet’s aquatic commons...
“The phosphorus fertilizer and marine plastic stories bring into sharp focus the urgent need ... to catalyze a global transition to a resource-efficient Green Economy,” UNEP executive director Achim Steiner said.
Recent research suggests that both problems are more widespread — and deleterious — than one thought. In the United States alone, for example, the costs associated with phosphorus pollution are estimated at more than two billion dollars a year, with the global tally in the tens of billions. Some three dozen countries mine the phosphate rock found in growth-enhancing fertilizers. While a finite resource, supplies are not about to run out — at current production rates, supplies will last an estimated 300 to 400 years.
Use of chemical-based fertilizers increased worldwide by 600 percent during the second half of the 20th century, but precisely how much flows into the environment is not known...
....a new concern is microplastics, tiny particles smaller that five millimetres in length discharged as pellets by industry or broken down by waves and sunlight...
Just how much plastic has been discarded into the sea in unknown, but consumption of plastic products continues to rise worldwide.

vrijdag 11 februari 2011

Did you know that...

- Catering within Dutch higher education is less subsidised than catering services used in government authorities, businesses and health care institutions.

- Research shows that Dutch contract lenders and end-users are not very satisfied with contract catering food services. Especially universities and HBO 's show a relatively low level of satisfaction.

- Contract-lenders say that caterers need to take more initiative, be more innovative, but caterers say they do not get enough opportunity to do so because of the rules connected to contractual agreements.

- Good catering can contribute to the success of an educational institution; research shows that the quality of facilities (especially food) is important for students.

- Canteens are places where knowledge is shared and where social interaction takes place and this contributes to increasing the time spent within a space/building.

- Thus, canteens can contribute to improving the multifunctionality of spaces/buldings i.e. used for studying, meeting friends and eating, and can contribute to improving the studying habtis of students.

(Source: Damen and van der Meer, 2010 in Misset Catering, December 2010)

donderdag 10 februari 2011

Forum Eat-in March 9th!

Good news: ISOW is planning to have another eat-in in Forum on the 9th of March! Their least Eat-in was a great success, so don't miss the fun! Please check http://www.isow.wur.nl/ for more information.
So don't miss the chance to show you care about your lunch!
See some pictures from the last Forum Eat-in:
(For more pictures check http://www.isow.wur.nl/index.php?option=com_phocagallery&view=category&id=13:eatin&Itemid=69 )



woensdag 2 februari 2011

Up-date

The current catering contract will end next year and so WUR has started preparations for a new tender for all its canteen facilities in the Netherlands. A new catering ‘vision’ is currently being prepared before the publishing of the tender. This is a window of opportunity to start a dialogue on how the catering services can be improved in terms of cultural diversity, healthiness and sustaianbility. We have invited the head of business management of the social sciences for the next Eat-in on the 9th of March. We also have meetings planned with WUR facility manangers, as well as the head of facility management and the student council. The latter are involed in setting up a user-committee, consisting of staff and students, who are involed in the process of creating a new catering vision.

Tonight a wide  range of student organisations, engaged staff members and local producers will meet at Lawickse Allee 13 to brainstorm about our vision for sustainable catering. The meeting is organised by the Boerengroep. If you want to join tonight please send an email to st.boerengroep@wur.nl

dinsdag 1 februari 2011

Eat-in at Forum 26 Jan

As the Eat-in was going on in the Leeuwenborch, ISOW got a group of people
together at the Forum. Various people joined who had heard that an Eat-in
would take place. Everyone brought nice food and two guys even thought of a mini frying set to make some fried eggs. Very creative!

woensdag 26 januari 2011

Eat in success!


The Eat-in at the Leeuwenborch today was another big success! With two long tables full of nice food, from various salads, to soup, to Chinese food and cake!
Thanks to all those who participated.

Unformtunalely the front desk was not so pleased as we forgot to send a mail before hand and we did not sit at the back as agreed. (There was not that much room in the back of the canteen so we decided to sit on the front side). There seems to be a real lack of space in within the canteen...





Catering News 25.01.2011:
Both Sonja Nooy, the new Head of Facility Management of the Social Sciences and Annet de Haas responsible for Catering within Facility Management may join the Eat In of tomorrow (26th jan).

At the Forum ISOW will also organise an Eat In.

Annet de Haas is responsible for the process to come to a new catering vision as preparation for the new WUR tender on catering. The Student Council is invited to contribute. Two delegates of the Veste fraction within the Student Council are taking part and a first meeting was planned last friday. We as organisers of the Eat In have also been invited by Annet de Haas for a meeting in the coming weeks.

Last week Tuesday a number of people came together at the office of the Boerengroep to get an overview of all those busy with catering. The Boerengroep will organise a brainstorm meeting at the 2 of February 19.30 at the Boerengroep Lawickse alleen 13 to come to a common statement on sustainable catering of all organisations/groups involved as a united input into the discussion. If you would like to contribute please email the Boerengroep that you will join.

donderdag 20 januari 2011

Innovative university food projects

Take a look at some innovative university food projects in the US:
http://www.yale.edu/sustainablefood/
http://www.uidaho.edu/dining/food/Foodprocurement

Eat-in 26 jan Leeuwenborch and Forum!

This month there will be two eat-in's, one at the Leeuwenborch and one at Forum!
ISOW is planning to organise the one at the Forum in support of better catering
for the WUR.
The contract with Albron will end next year and so we are trying to
formulate our own wishes for a better catering service.
By now many organsiations are involved and/or interested.
ISOW, WEP, Boerengroep are some of them.

Do you have an opinion about the catering?
What changes would you like to see?
Please dump it on this blog ! :-)

donderdag 13 januari 2011

Join the Eat-in Mania!

At Wageningen University monthly Eat-in's are held to show that students and staff want a different kind of meal served for lunch!