Paresky Commons Sustainable Dining 2011/2012 

ARAMARK and Phillips Academy are pleased to be working together to make Paresky Commons a model sustainable dining facility.  We are committed to providing delicious meals while also working to reduce the environmental impact of the dining service and encouraging healthy life-long eating habits.

Ongoing features include:

• organic yogurt from Stonyfield Farms
• local milk from High Lawn Farms in Lee, MA
• local and organic fruit & produce from New England farms
• cage free, hormone free eggs
• in-house roasted deli meats (preservative free, nitrate free, hormone free)
• locally raised lamb
• all natural peanut butter
• 100% maple syrup
• transport of all dehydrated organic waste to Brick Ends Farm to make compost

New initiatives for 2011-2012 include:

• an agreement with NorthStar Farms (Westport, MA) to grow produce specifically for PA
• fresh baked Perfecto’s bagels every morning
• fewer beef entrees each week, but higher quality when served
• more pork and poultry products that are raised in a humane and sustainable environment

Committing to sustainable food is one of the most important contributions we can make to our own health and to the health and wellbeing of our planet. Food should be the ultimate form of stored SOLAR energy, through the process of photosynthesis that underlies the whole food web.  Instead, modern industrial agriculture and food production require huge inputs of fossil fuels. Food production – from agriculture, to transportation to preparation -- is responsible for up to 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions globally. In addition, pesticides, fertilizers, irrigation and clearing of land carry other significant burdens of pollution and habitat destruction that have shaped our planet in significant ways.

In addition to using as much local, sustainably grown produce as possible, another way to reduce the impact of food is to simply eat less meat.  Returning again to fundamentals of biology, the lower one eats on the food web, the less land is required per calorie of food.  There are also health benefits associated with eating more vegetables and less meat.  Finally, when we reduce the amount of meat we eat, we can afford to eat higher quality meat – meat that is free of much of the pesticide residues and antibiotics found in factory farmed meat, and meat that comes from the animals have been treated more humanely.