On the Road with Fair Food - Atlanta, GA

Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Emory University’s Sustainability Initiatives are extensive and exceptional and were the background to Oran’s presentation and discussion at Emory University on February 2. Sponsored by Emory University Food Service Administration, Food E U Program, and the Sustainable Food Committee, led by Julie Shaffer, Sustainable Food Education Coordinator, the event brought together not only the committed campus community but also the larger Atlanta local food movement. The sustainability goal set by the University is to have 75 percent local and sustainably grown food in its hospitals and cafeterias by 2015, a truly ambitious goal, and they are half way there already! This is particularly impressive since the Real Food Challenge, that is active on college campuses across the country, puts their goal for procurement of locally grown food for any college campus at 20 percent by 2020.

Julie Shaffer introducing Oran at Emory University

A Sustainable Food Committee including all sectors of the University community was initiated in the spring of 2007 to lead Emory’s Sustainable Food Initiative, and has accomplished a number of projects including establishing food purchasing guidelines for local and sustainable food, creating food gardens and developing an Emory Farmers’ Market. Emory has nine small educational food gardens right on campus that emphasize sustainability and food and are tended by a team of students, faculty, staff, and community members where harvests are shared within each team.

Emory sponsored a Sustainability Summit on Food in 2008 which resulted in students choosing Fair Trade coffee and tea as products with “big impact” potential. As a result, Emory Dining followed the lead of the students and created changes in the coffee and tea purchased so that 100 percent of the coffee provided in most of the large dining halls on campus is completely supplied from fair trade sources. Patty Ziegenhorn, Executive Director of University Food Service Administration, (in photo below) is excited by the example of the Green Bean Coffee Cart, initiated by two undergraduate students with a passion for both sustainability and coffee, as the direction the University wants to move.

Julie Shaffer Emory Dining Projects Manager for Sustainability, Susan Johnson, Emory Dining Registered Dietician, Oran Hesterman and Patricia Ziegenhorn, Sr. Director of Food Service, Emory University.

Oran’s book presentation took place at Emory’s new Food E U Interactive Learning Center, an innovative one-stop location for students, faculty and staff who want to eat more sustainably and nutritiously. The Center was filled with students and staff interested in the local food movement as well as a strong representation of folks from the larger Atlanta food community including: Georgia Organics, Atlanta Local Food Initiative, Atlanta Community Food Bank, Truly Living Well,  Slow Food Atlanta, Wholesome Wave Foundation, DeKalb County Board of Health.

Oran and Bill Bolling, Executive Director of the Atlanta Community Food Bank

The following day Oran had an opportunity to visit the sprawling campus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and speak to a large and responsive audience of professionals interested in his message and the data he presented, especially the impact of providing greater access to healthy food through incentives. Anne Haddix, Ph.D., CDC’s Chief Policy Officer, issued the invitation and was supported by a number of her co-workers in the enthusiastic reception they provided. Oran’s message was right in line with CDC’s “Go Green, Get Healthy Initiative.”

Diane Harris, Joel Kimmons, Oran, Liz York, Anne Haddix, Laird Ruth, Jenna Seymour, and Marjorie Coy

One of the more intriguing questions for Oran concerned the possibility of retirees volunteering for FoodCorps, the new organization that places committed leaders into low income communities for a year of public service that focuses on nutrition education, building school gardens, and accessing healthy, local food for public school cafeterias. We began considering the many opportunities for retirees to enter back into vital and meaningful work within the fair food movement and how we can support the influx of not only high school and college age young people into our important efforts, but also the huge cadre of retirees seeking a place to bring their considerable talents, time and energy.  We want to flag this discussion as one we want to continue so we can bring a whole different segment of population into our growing work to provide greater access to healthy, fresh food for underserved communities.

What do you think?  Where do you see opportunities for retirees and senior citizens to contribute to this movement? Please give us your ideas.