The History of BardEATS
In 2008, Bard College committed itself to purchasing sustainable food and supporting local producers and farmers. This commitment began as a relationship between Bard’s dining services and Old Saw Mill Farms which brought local Hudson Valley stone fruits, produce, and proteins to campus. In 2009, Bard created another local relationship with the dairy cooperative Hudson Valley Fresh. In 2009, Bard removed its trays from the dining hall to save water, food waste, and energy. From 2009 to 2010, campus local produce purchases increased by 30%. In 2010, Bard’s dining services introduced 100% compostable disposable wares and added locally produced juices and ciders to the on campus grocery store, the Green Onion Grocer. In 2010, the Bard Community Garden expanded to hire John Paul Sliva who would then go on to become director of the Bard Farm, continuing to be our 1.25 acre farm located on campus.
In 2012, the college’s president, Leon Botstein, agreed to donate $40,000 dollars from the school’s funds to create a farm on campus if students could raise $25,000 for the project in three weeks. Carter Vanderbilt (‘15) organized a Kickstarter campaign to fund the Bard Farm and the goal was successfully reached. Later that year, the 1.25 acre Bard Farm broke ground under the leadership of Paul Marienthal, Farm Director, and John Paul Sliva, Farm Coordinator. The first year yielded 6045.5 pounds of local, fresh, organically grown veggies that were served to the Bard Community. The farm is currently operated by student labor and sells its yields directly to Bard Dining Services.
In March 2013, President Leon Botstein signed the Real Food Challenge Commitment, pledging to dedicate 20% of purchasing to "real food" (food that is local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound, or humane as defined by the Real Food Challenge criteria) by 2020. In Spring 2015, Bard reached an average of 21% purchasing of Real Food, beating the goal five years early, and by 2019 Bard reached 27% Real Food.
Bard Dining Services has purchased from many Hudson Valley producers over the years including, Bread Alone, Hudson Valley Fresh, Winter Sun Farms, Purdy & Sons, Feather Ridge Farm, Wild Hive Farm, and Red Barn Produce, to name just a few. Bard dining continues to seek out local and sustainable products and providers.
In 2020, COVID-19 did not stop BardEATS from creating programs and continuing to reach sustainability and equity goals. Bard gained a new dining service, Parkhurst Dining, which has worked with BardEATS since day one to provide sustainable and local food to students, facilitate pre-consumer and post-consumer composting in dining locations, and work to find new local and/or BIPOC producers for Bard to buy from. BardEATS celebrated another year of Campus Crunch where local apples were enjoyed, as well as creating a new Family Food Share program where students who were not able to go home for break due to the pandemic could find meals in Kline that reminded them of home and partnering with Wellness at Bard and Parkhurst to increase food security for students over winter break.
BardEATS ended 2020 thinking about ways to do better and be better as students, faculty, employees, friends, and coworkers, now committing themselves to an anti-racism initiative starting in 2021 where future and current programing will be focused on showing how interconnected sustainability work and anti-racism work is.
