University of Massachusetts Amherst - Auxiliary Enterprises Sustainability
Sustainability
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The Local, Healthy UMass Food System Initiative

The Local Healthy UMass Food System Initiative is a cutting-edge approach to supporting a healthy & resilient New England food system. As a result, UMass Dining has invested over $4.5 million in local and sustainable foods in the past fiscal year with more than half sourced from New England farms, cooperatives, and vendors.

Our grant-funded pilot project converted one of UMass Amherst's on-campus dining halls (Hampshire Dining Commons) into a premier campus eatery dedicated to sustainability, health, and great-tasting foods and provides a defensible and cost-effective example to implement campus-wide. We aim to work with large-volume food service providers across New England to implement similar initiatives.

Why Local

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“The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility.” --Wendell Berry

sustainability resources

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"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." --Virginia Woolf

News

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“We are not only what we eat, but how we eat, too.” --Michael Pollan

Some of Our Farm Partners


New Vendor Application

See all of our local partners here


“Imagine if we had a food system that actually produced wholesome food. Imagine if it produced that food in a way that restored the land. Imagine if we could eat every meal knowing these few simple things: What it is we’re eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table.” 

--Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

UMASS DINING . UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST . AMHERST, MA 01003
phone: 413-545-8682 | www.umassdining.com