Princeton's Thanksgiving table

On Friday, Nov. 9, the University hosted a banquet for over 700 alumni, parents, faculty, staff and friends in Jadwin Gym to kick off the $1.75 billion capital campaign. With wintry gusts outside and copious food, drink and merriment within, Princeton's thanks-forgiving mirrored our country's beloved holiday just 13 days away. And just as no Thanksgiving is complete without a long and generous meal, this celebration included an equally epicurean dinner.

The first course featured braised organic artichokes, fig brule au poivre, heirloom tomatoes and organic field greens with a drizzle of white balsamic vinaigrette and oven-dried tomato confit. This long mouthful of delicacies was not gourmet sensationalism as much as it was gastronomic realism. That is to say, each item of the entire meal was sourced locally and/or organically. This type of seasonal and sustainable menu was a remarkable feat of sourcing and preparation that is a new benchmark of sustainable food at Princeton.

As noted at the place setting of every Jadwin banqueter, "In keeping with the University's Sustainability goals of providing foods produced with lower environmental impacts, reducing waste, and strengthening our ties with the local community, the evening's menu features locally raised grass-fed beef, ocean-friendly seafood, locally-roasted organic coffee, and Rain Forest Alliance chocolate."

And while, mystifyingly, this triumph was not mentioned in a single University press release, this type of meal is making headline news around the world. Just three days later, on Nov. 12, the Oxford University Press released its word of the year: "locavore." Coined by a group of women in San Francisco in 2004, this word describes one who eats a diet of food harvested in a regional radius.

The sustainable food movement is not about "earth-muffin tree-hugger nirvana cosmic worshipers" as renowned farmer Joel Salatin describes the crunchier, "granola" side of organic food in past decades. Nor is it simply a trend.

Before you decide it's too difficult, too expensive, too time-consuming or just plain stupid to eat this type of food, take a look in your dining hall. Whether you know it or not, you're part locavore too. Dining Services currently purchases roughly 25 percent of food locally. If the department continues its upward trajectory, we will be 35 percent locavores in 2008.

This is the new shape of food systems around the country, and, remarkably, Princeton is at the forefront.

Two weeks ago, three members of Greening Princeton and I attended the Real Food Summit at Yale. At this student-led, student-attended conference with 175 participants from 47 colleges and universities across the northeast, the four of us came to the same conclusion independently and simultaneously.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

Princeton is blessed with a forward-thinking and flexible Director of Dining Services who has helped us become a quiet national leader in sustainable food. The department could be pouring money into decadent freshman-15-inducing dessert stations or printed promotional materials, but is instead buying humanely-raised meats and locally-produced vegetables.

And we should. Collectively, the purchasing power of all colleges and universities across the country is roughly $4 billion. That's an enormous sum of money devoted to purchasing the food that powers minds and bodies of our country's next leaders. As a top university and a leader in the nation's service, Princeton must continue to be influential in every area of the campus, including our food system.

Princeton's dining halls are a manifestation of our commitment to sustainability. We now buy Bell and Evans humanely-raised chicken, grassfed meat for all groundbeef dishes and seasonal Jersey Fresh produce. We purchase sustainable seafood through the first University partnership with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Humane cage-free eggs are offered on Sunday brunches.

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Sustainable food does not stop at the dining halls. The Garden Project provided herbs and produce to the Forbes Dining Hall and Graduate College this year. The Greening Princeton Farmers' Market brought local organic farmers to our doorstep for five weeks this fall, attended by over 1,000 people on its opening day. And if it is any indication that students support sustainable food initiatives on campus, 690 undergraduates participated in the Princeton Animal Welfare Society Veg Pledge last Tuesday, out of 3,012 participants nationwide.

This Thanksgiving, we not only have delicious feasts with friends and family to give thanks for, but also our sustainable bounty at Princeton. Kathryn Andersen '08 is the president of Princeton Slow Food and former president of Greening Princeton. She can be reached at kda@princeton.edu.