Status: °ä°¿²Ñ±Ê³¢·¡°Õ·¡¶ÙÌýSummer 2012
The mandate of ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï is to provide locally grown fruits and vegetables from the Macdonald Campus’s Horticultural Research Center to ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s Food and Dining services operated residences and the general student community.
The 2012 season was ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s most successful season to date. They delivered around 25,000 Kg of fruits and vegetables to ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s downtown residences. This is an increase of 66% from the previous year.
The mandate of ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï is to provide locally grown fruits and vegetables from the Macdonald Campus’s Horticultural Research Center to ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s Food and Dining services operated residences and the general student community.
ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï houses and feeds thousands of students on a yearly basis in its various residences downtown. The Macdonald Campus’s Horticultural Center specializes in the growing of fruits and vegetables and is thereby well suited to provide these food items to the University’s Food and Dining Services Department. The use of locally grown food will directly contribute to the sustainability of food services in our community. In addition the use of food grown in our community will contribute in reducing the University’s overall carbon footprint.
The Horticultural Research Center follows an integrated pest management (IPM) approach to growing in order to minimize the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers; the result is produce of an excellent quality while reducing the impact of production on the environment. By developing a working relationship with ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s Food and Dining Services Department, the Horticultural Center is able to hire ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï students to work at the Center, providing them with practical experience in sustainable agricultural practices to complement the knowledge learned in the classroom.
The University relies largely on purchasing horticultural produce from exterior suppliers, but ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï keeps some of the University’s financial resources within the institution with direct benefits for the ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï community and students in particular. This project will also optimize the use of currently available land, machinery and other resources at the Macdonald Campus.
The project strengthens the relationship between the Campuses by opening up Macdonald Campus to visits, and academic and work opportunities for ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï’s students from the downtown campus.
All the above contribute to a clear vision of sustainability: ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï helping itself… to help itself!
Each year the group transplants the greenhouse plants to the field, maintains them throughout the growing season, harvests crops in the fall, and then delivers the produce to the various residence cafeterias.
The SPF acquisition of the Farm Fresh Truck (SP0079) has also greatly facilitated delivery to downtown residences.
See Also: ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï (SP0002),ÌýºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï 2 (SP0038),ÌýandÌýºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï Feeding ºÚÁÏÍø±¬³Ô¹Ï 4 (SP0099)
If you would like to learn more about this project or reach the individuals involved, please contact the krista.houser [at] mcgill.ca (SPF Administration Team).
