Students in the Medical Sciences building took a welcome break from midterm pressures to mingle at a farmer’s market conveniently held in the building’s lobby on Tuesday afternoon.
And that wasn’t just a quaint name, as Jaco Lokker, St. George campus’s director of food services, was quick to point out.
“These are the actual farmers,” he said, introducing students to local food-growers and the Local Food Plus program.
Lokker talked energetically about local food programs on campus while doling out bowls of hot pumpkin soup with tea biscuits—a $1 lunch that curious, underfed students quickly demolished.
LFP, a non-profit partly funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, certifies food that meets growing and processing standards meant to promote sustainable agriculture and encourage Ontarians to buy locally grown food.
How far had the veggies traveled from countryside to campus?
“The average farmer drove about two hours to get here,” said Lokker. Not quite a hundred-mile diet. “That might work okay in California,” Lokker allowed. “Ontario is a big place.”
Christina Miniota, who drove down from Kerr Farms in Chatham, spoke while busily paper-bagging tiny orangeand- green peppers.
“LFP actually came from a teacher at U of T,” she said.
Lori Stahlbrand, the founder and current president of the LFP group, has taught for U of T’s equity studies department. In 2006, the university became the first to partner with LFP. U of T’s contract with current food services provider Aramark stipulates that 10 per cent of campus food be LFP-sourced.
In addition to Christina’s peppers, fresh produce on sale ranged from Norfolk’s crisp apples to potatoes sweet and white from Dashwood—all storable foods students could stock up on, Lokker explained.
