Local Meat and Gladfelter
Benedetto Maniscalco | December 1, 2022
Three meals a day, seven days a week, the Gladfelter Dining Hall on Warren Wilson College (WWC) campus provides students with prepared foods and is the only option on campus for students who incorporate meat into their diet.
WWC has a working cow and pig farm, yet local meats are only served a few times a week in Gladfelter.
“We want our meat to go to Glatfelter more than it does,” Charlie Peterson said, the Pig Boss on the Farm Crew at WWC. “But Sodexo — and I think like any cafeteria type company — they're just not looking for the cuts of meat that we sell at a higher price.”
The bottom line for why WWC cannot provide students with more of the food that is grown on its own campus comes down to cost.
“I wish the students were able to access the food that's grown and raised on campus more,” Peterson said. “I don't know, it all comes back to money.”
Blair Thompson, the Farm Manager for WWC, explained that Sodexo is only willing to pay a certain amount of money to the college for local meats and it is up to the farm to calculate how much they can reasonably provide.
“We have a number, as far as income, that we have to get to,” Thompson said. “The price that Sodexo is willing to pay is not comparable to what customers will pay.”
This process of Sodexo setting a price and leaving the amount of product given to them for that price is how they purchase local vegetables from our garden as well.
“Over the course of the year in general, the way it works out is we will sell them something like 25 to 30 pigs a year, something like 10 to 12 beef animals a year,” Thompson said.
Thompson reiterated the financial factors that restrain how much of its own food WWC is able to use.
“Warren Wilson does not exist outside of the same financial and economic forces that everything else exists,” Thompson said. “Our little niche of the agricultural world brands itself as sustainable or organic or regenerative or whatever buzzword you want to use, but there's a real problem with that food being completely financially inaccessible to the great majority of people.”
While the food produced on campus is used sparingly by Sodexo, Summer Vishnu — Marketing and Sustainability Coordinator for Campus dining at WWC — explained that there are other local organizations that WWC purchases food from.
“We work really closely with mountain foods, which is awesome, because they're like at the Western North Carolina market so they're a great connection for us,” Vishnu said.
Vishnu started working at WWC after graduating from Eckerd College, a small liberal arts school in Florida, where they majored in environmental studies. At this school they found a passion for food equity and sustainability.
“I've been doing a lot of these kind of silly but also fun holidays on campus,” Vishnu said. “For example we had pickle day, and so I reached out to a local pickle guy and was like, and even though we might not end up selling his pickles here, at least (we’re) more connected to him and understanding more of what he's doing so that we can see how that can become implemented here.”
She explained how she, and everyone working through Sodexo on campus, wants to utilize as much WWC product as possible and as much local product as possible, but ultimately it is not feasible with the food cost Gladfelter needs to adhere to.
“Ultimately, Sodexo and Glatfelter are really trying to buy as much meat as we can genuinely buy, like all the meat that's offered to us,” Vishnu said. “We're always really focusing on our budget and it can be really hard, especially when local foods are so highlighted. Obviously, it's difficult, farmers working on a smaller scale –– there's not as much wiggle room with their prices.”
Peterson brought to attention the potential lost revenue in Gladfelters food as it produces a large amount of waste.
“There's a lot of food waste and I just wonder, I wonder if Glad somehow cooked the food better if there would be less,” Peterson said. “I feel like people get the food, have a bite or whatever or just don't want to eat more because it's not good and then so much of it gets thrown away after that.”
In a separate article, Barry Phillips, the General Manager of Food Service at WWC, mentioned his hopes for some changes in Gladfelters food this spring semester as the Local Foods crew can restart headed by Vishnu.