PRESS :: Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Aliza Wasserman, Institutional Outreach Co-ordinator.

510-832-4625, aliza@caff.org

CAFF and UC Berkeley launch new institutional partnership

BERKELEY (November 8, 2007)

The smell of roasted pumpkins and coriander mint squash soup filled the air of UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr dining hall, as students, faculty, staff, and community members sat down to celebrate a Harvest Dinner and the launch of their new food procurement plan for “fresh, local and fair” food . The dinner – produced exclusively from local seasonal produce bought from the Growers Collaborative - highlighted UC Berkeley’s new Institutional Partnership with CAFF – that includes a commitment to sourcing at least 10% of their produce from local source-identifiable farms. With the help of the Growers Collaborative and celebrated chefs Deborah Madison and Mollie Katzen - UC Berkeley executive chefs Ida Shen and Susi Modiano are redesigning menus to meet this plan.

Along with the usual group of student diners, the celebratory dinner served on October 25th, was attended by UC Berkeley executives, chefs, student sustainability groups, CAFF employees and Growers' Collaborative member Brian Boyce from Riverdog Farm. Brian enjoyed seeing the results of his farm’s hard work in planting, caring for, and harvesting food and is excited about the partnership’s implementation that will have a direct positive impact on his 200-acre organic family farm.

Beginning in September 2007, Clark Kerr began weekly orders from the Growers' Collaborative, including peppers, potatoes, rice, bok choi, melons, and grapes. UC Berkeley bought a wide array of Buy Fresh Buy Local marketing materials for six of its dining halls – including regional banners, tote bags, Farmer of the Month posters and 5,000 Local Food Guides for their students. The UC Berkeley dining website – one of the most popular sites for the whole university – now links to the online Local Food Guide, already resulting in a sizeable increase in traffic for the local food site.

For more information, contact Institutional Outreach Co-ordinator Aliza Wasserman at (510) 832-4625 .