Campus Alternative Food Projects And Food Service Realities: Alternative Strategies

As United States colleges and universities have developed campus projects to contribute to alternative food networks, strategies have matured from event-based, on-ramp activities to purchasing commitments, statistical tracking, and new food service contract requirements. Critiques in the literature query the extent to which financial flows are redirected; power shifts towards greater social integration and mutual accountability occur; and new food system values, worldviews, and imaginaries are disseminated. Information from twenty-six United States higher education institutions, involving interviews, campus visits, and discussion groups, foregrounds variability in food service structure, mission, and location and the lived realities of food service personnel. Two general strategies to support alternative food networks emerge: relational approaches that involve long-term ties with farmers, mutually agreed upon pricing, and direct deliveries; and metrics approaches that re-embed environmental and social values in market relations through commitments to particular food purchases, usually verified by third-party certifications. Both approaches can insert social and ethical concerns into market relations, but each-or a hybrid combination-is more feasible, depending on the school. The opportunities and constraints of each approach are explored, as they address the academic critiques and also the concerns of food system personnel, ending with implications for expanding campus alternative food projects and for future research.