SAGE: Scratch Cooking and Local Sourcing
Source/Author: Lynn Hayes, Food Service Director
September 14, 2016
Our SAGE Standards are our promise to you. They’re what you can expect for your students every time they eats in the dining hall. These standards support the health of your community, your environment and your local economy.
Standard #1 - We cook from scratch, using fresh, wholesome, local, and campus-grown ingredients where possible.
- When we cook from scratch, we know exactly what’s in our students’ food. We know the protein and produce are fresh, we can avoid the use of preservatives, and we can make substitutions for common allergens.
- We purchase from more than 800 local and regional suppliers; and the list is growing!
- Local purchasing reduces the amount of gasoline used in transporting food, and the amount of preservatives necessary to keep food fresh in transit. It also supports the local economy by keeping schools’ money within their students’ communities.
- Over 150 of our venues have on-site gardens or farms; in many locations, SAGE helps with planting, upkeep, and harvesting in addition to incorporating the produce into seasonal meals.
- On-campus gardening and farming offer academic and physical enrichment for students by serving as a focus for science classes, volunteer and extracurricular work, independent research and experimentation, and community enrichment.
