Walking Veggies and Fruits in the SUB???
posted by Sustainability ... on 2008-10-7 19:32:44
ARTICLE:
By Carolina Guimaraes and Liksa Richer
How often do you get told by a Brazilian bumblebee or a red headed pea to compost your food scraps? If you weren’t at the SUB during last Eco-Friendly day, you missed out on Ana the Banana, Cute Bumblebee, Foxy Pea, and Sexy Grape parading and picketing around the SUB. It was in that spirit that the first Eco-Friendly day took place last September 25th.
Interestingly that same day, a banana and a wigman were wandering around the SUB looking for a friend, yet when they saw a bee and a pea, and learned about the opportunity of a life time ie: to parade as a banana and grape and support the most important day of the month, they did not think twice about participating in such an amazing event.
The Eco-Friendly day was inspired by a project developed by students from AGSI 450 from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. This class aims to teach students through case base learning how to integrate knowledge learned throughout their degree in dealing with real world issues related to UBC’s food system. Each AGSI group ultimately provides recommendations to the department studied by them, such as: UBC Sustainability Office, UBC Food Services, AMS Food and Beverage Department, UBC Waste Management and UBC Farm. This class creates the opportunity for students to gain hands on experience with various food related departments across campus. In addition, students are able to aid staff and faculty in coming up with sustainable solutions/ innovations for their departments/outlets that many times their busy routines would have not allowed them to do so.
The Impacts committee, an AMS sustainability group comprised of students, staff, faculty and clubs, throughout the summer of 2008 worked on the recommendations of these students to make their projects a reality by fall of 2008.
Eco-Friendly day was created to raise consumer awareness of food choices and sustainability initiatives part of a larger effort tohelp the AMS lighten its ecological footprint as stipulated in a unique strategy the AMS embraced – the AMS Lighter Footprint Strategy. Recently, a new line of menu items were launched at AMS Food and Beverage Department outlets, that are Local, Organic, or/and Vegan (LOV). These products were created to help make our food system more sustainable, by providing support to local growers, sustainable production methods, and accessibility to foods that have a lighter ecological impact – ultimately helping provide opportunities for customers to make more informed purchasing choices. This new LOV product line are promoted on Eco-Friendly day at every AMSFBD outlet in the SUB, as well as a variety of other sustainability initiatives that AMS is taking leadership on from green discounts, provision of free range eggs and fair trade items, to recycling and composting. Ultimately, this initiative seeks to raise awareness, participation and support among students, faculty and staff in AMS Sustainability efforts and other campus sustainability initiatives to help our campus and the broader communities which we are embedded become a true leader in sustainability.
It is hard to stay positive when we know that we need a paradigm shift to alter the current course of environmental degradation. However, people take time to incorporate new habits and ideas to their routines. A new and accessible initiative always provides an opportunity for change. So if we can’t change the world all at once, we can at least spread the LOV around! So come next Thursday, October 30th, to check how much LOV the AMS outlets can offer you!
How often do you get told by a Brazilian bumblebee or a red headed pea to compost your food scraps? If you weren’t at the SUB during last Eco-Friendly day, you missed out on Ana the Banana, Cute Bumblebee, Foxy Pea, and Sexy Grape parading and picketing around the SUB. It was in that spirit that the first Eco-Friendly day took place last September 25th.
Interestingly that same day, a banana and a wigman were wandering around the SUB looking for a friend, yet when they saw a bee and a pea, and learned about the opportunity of a life time ie: to parade as a banana and grape and support the most important day of the month, they did not think twice about participating in such an amazing event.
The Eco-Friendly day was inspired by a project developed by students from AGSI 450 from the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. This class aims to teach students through case base learning how to integrate knowledge learned throughout their degree in dealing with real world issues related to UBC’s food system. Each AGSI group ultimately provides recommendations to the department studied by them, such as: UBC Sustainability Office, UBC Food Services, AMS Food and Beverage Department, UBC Waste Management and UBC Farm. This class creates the opportunity for students to gain hands on experience with various food related departments across campus. In addition, students are able to aid staff and faculty in coming up with sustainable solutions/ innovations for their departments/outlets that many times their busy routines would have not allowed them to do so.
The Impacts committee, an AMS sustainability group comprised of students, staff, faculty and clubs, throughout the summer of 2008 worked on the recommendations of these students to make their projects a reality by fall of 2008.
Eco-Friendly day was created to raise consumer awareness of food choices and sustainability initiatives part of a larger effort tohelp the AMS lighten its ecological footprint as stipulated in a unique strategy the AMS embraced – the AMS Lighter Footprint Strategy. Recently, a new line of menu items were launched at AMS Food and Beverage Department outlets, that are Local, Organic, or/and Vegan (LOV). These products were created to help make our food system more sustainable, by providing support to local growers, sustainable production methods, and accessibility to foods that have a lighter ecological impact – ultimately helping provide opportunities for customers to make more informed purchasing choices. This new LOV product line are promoted on Eco-Friendly day at every AMSFBD outlet in the SUB, as well as a variety of other sustainability initiatives that AMS is taking leadership on from green discounts, provision of free range eggs and fair trade items, to recycling and composting. Ultimately, this initiative seeks to raise awareness, participation and support among students, faculty and staff in AMS Sustainability efforts and other campus sustainability initiatives to help our campus and the broader communities which we are embedded become a true leader in sustainability.
It is hard to stay positive when we know that we need a paradigm shift to alter the current course of environmental degradation. However, people take time to incorporate new habits and ideas to their routines. A new and accessible initiative always provides an opportunity for change. So if we can’t change the world all at once, we can at least spread the LOV around! So come next Thursday, October 30th, to check how much LOV the AMS outlets can offer you!
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