UMaine Dining, Greens combine for 'natural collaboration'
By Liam Nee
With temperatures dipping well below zero degrees in recent weeks, it's perhaps hard to believe the University of Maine's dining service, UMaine Dining, would have any inclination to buy local instead of continuing to reliably import product from warmer climates, but they're doing it, and the benefits are certainly exceeding any drawbacks.
In an Oct. 6 interview with UMaine's student run newspaper, The Maine Campus, UMaine Dining director of culinary services Glenn Taylor shared his thoughts on the importance of buying local.
“It’s amazing, you know, we don’t realize the greens we buy are probably coming from California, and we get them here and I don’t know how long they’ve been in a warehouse,” Taylor said. “A week later, [UMaine Greens' product is] still crisp. They’re just so awesome.”
UMaine Greens is "a student group working to supply the University of Maine campus with fresh, local, organic greens during the academic year," according to the group's Facebook page. The project was launched back on Oct. 24, 2012 to improve agricultural education, community ties and also supplement the university's food product. The grounds of UMaine Greens, located behind the Keyo Public Affairs Building on Rangeley Road, features a 26 x 96 ft. double-layer high tunnel green house that cost $10,000.
A YouTube video produced in January by the university's public relations department describes the program more in depth.
Third-year sustainable agriculture student Margaret McCollough, who has become the "face and manager" of UMaine Greens, was also featured in the Oct. 6 article. She says it's a win-win for both UMaine Dining and UMaine Greens.
“It’s a good deal for them, and it’s a great deal for us. So it’s this cool symbiotic relationship that’s happening,” McCollough said.
In an interview on Tuesday, fourth-year financial economic students Ryan Hardiman and Logan Nee shared their thoughts on UMaine Greens, highlighting the taste difference between other competitors.
"You can't beat the taste," Hardiman said. "To know this was grown on the same campus I'm now eating it on it's crazy. This is simply a natural collaboration — both physically and theoretically — between UMaine Dining and UMaine Greens."
UMaine Dining's efforts toward supporting other local produce and product from around Maine can be found on their website here.