Bard Eats
Guiding Bard's sustainable food initiatives
is Bard EATS (Education Advocacy Transparency Sustainability), a collaborative partnership among Bard students, dining services, faculty, and staff committed to increasing food purchasing transparency, reducing waste, decreasing the college's carbon footprint, promoting food access, and supporting local farms and sustainable products. 
Spotlight on the Bard College Farm
Since its inception in 2012, more than 100 students have worked to produce more than 160,000 pounds of food, from basics like peppers, greens, and squash to specialty crops like honey, hops, maple syrup, cranberries, and shitake mushrooms. Creating a connection between students, farm, and food is one of the central missions of the Bard College Farm, a 1.25-acre sustainable urban farm where Bard students organically grow fruit and vegetables to sell to Chartwells, the campus dining service. During the 2017 growing season, Chartwells purchased almost 20,000 pounds of fresh produce directly from the farm.Increasing "Real Food" on Campus
Bard EATS has been so effective that Bard met its pledge to purchase 20% "Real Food" (local/community based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane as defined by the Real Food Challenge) five years ahead of schedule, and recently upped our pledge to meet 25% by 2020.
How Did Bard Dining Reach This Goal?By supporting local Hudson Valley farms and business, including: Bread Alone, Hudson Valley Fresh, Winter Sun Farms, Purdy & Sons, Feather Ridge, Wild Hive, and Red Barn Produce among many others. Bard Dining continues to seek out local and sustainable products and providers to improve our sustainable food options.
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Katrina Light, Supervisor of Food and Agricultural Programs
I work to advance local food purchasing and overall sustainability efforts at Bard College. My goal is to help our campus community better understand the complex issues that go into creating our food, including how we treat our workers and animals and how we use our land and energy resources. By tracking food purchases, Bard’s “Carbon Foodprint,” and being part of the Real Food Challenge we are increasing transparency and accountability. By working with food producers in the Hudson Valley, we are supporting our local community. Contact klight@bard.eduReducing our "Carbon Foodprint"
Chartwells, the food service provider for Bard College, works in collaboration with Bard EATS to help reduce food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.Currently, we are reducing GHG emissions by:- Reducing red meat consumption
- Facilitating the shift to locally grown produce
- Increasing plant-based options
- Creating food waste reduction programs
- Improving composting practices in the dining areas
