The Campaign

Students from EatReal, the EAC, and SNEG have worked with Dining Services to determine the next steps towards achieving the goal of 30% meat reduction. Moving forward, there will be two additional meatless lunches on the Middlebury campus:

                          Wednesdays in Ross Dining Hall and Fridays in Proctor Dining Hall

Hopefully this will allow Middlebury to achieve at least a 20% reduction from the 2017 meat        consumption data.

Progress

• Between 2017 and 2018, a 7.95% reduction in meat spending has been achieved by the Middlebury College Dining Services.
• ALSO: A portion of the money saved from the reduction in meat consumption has been (and will continue to be) put towards purchasing higher quality meat from more environmentally sustainable producers!
• Check out this table for individual product reduction and the subsequent money saved:

2018-11-07 Meat Purchase Comparison Sept-Oct 2017 vs Sept-Oct 2018

Meet Your Meat

Beef

Last year Middlebury College Dining Services purchased 32 cows from Lewis Family Farm in Essex, NY, about 80 miles away,  which resulted in 13,385 pounds of usable beef.  The total cost was $119,929.60, some of which was offset by savings from last year’s meat reduction. The college also purchased 11 cows from Cornwall Cattle Co. in Cornwall, VT, which resulted in 3,709 pounds of usable meat.  The total spend $32,305.39 ($8.71 per pounds).

Also, the meat for dining hall burgers come from Black River Meats, which basically purchase animals from multiple small farms throughout the state of Vermont.

Chicken

Last year Dining Services purchased 31,206.35 pounds of chicken from Misty Knoll Farm in New Haven, VT,  for the dining halls. The total cost was $62, 317.03.