Campus Kitchen leaders know the food waste saga States-side well. Advocates like Jonathan Bloom and his blog Wasted Food, regularly pop up in the sustainability-minded’s Google Alerts.

But are our friends across the pond better at reducing food waste? The release of Unilever Food Solution’s World Food Menu Report – and ensuing discussion in London – has U.K. sustainability advocates shedding some light, and discovering some insight into how different populations think about food waste.

Business Live reported that last year, the Sustainable Restaurant Association found UK restaurants and eateries wasted 600,000 tons of food.

The report, which polled both western and non-western countries, established some key findings on the subject of food waste.

Via UK foodservice publication Eat Out:

• 82% of respondents said it was important that ‘places to eat’ aim to reduce the amount of food waste that is thrown away every day 
• 40% would be prepared to pay more for meals in places that have a commitment to reduce food waste 
• 48% of consumers globally believe food waste is a government responsibility 
• 30% of consumers in the UK believe food waste is down to caterers and only 4% think it’s the government’s responsibility 

Unilever also commissioned a survey of 3,000 across 29 cities and towns and found women are more concerned about the food waste issue than men. Additionally, older generations are more likely to clean their plate than young people.

Eat Out cited WRAP (Working together for a World without Waste) as estimating the cost of avoidable food waste in the UK at 722 million pounds.

That’s over one billion U.S. bucks. Perhaps all countries can find reason in that number to work together and save some dough.

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Calendula is a hardy annual that does well in cool weather. It thrives in full to partial sunlight and will usually grow to be 1 to 2 ft tall.  Calendulas deter beetles, Mexican bean beetles, nematodes, tomato worms and asparagus beetles. Calendula also attracts aphids and whiteflies so they do not attack the vegetables. Lastly, it also has great medicinal value.

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Happy National Garden Month to everyone! April is just the right time to get gardening (if you haven’t been already). Through my past posts, I have aimed to inspire novice and seasoned gardeners alike to get out into their spaces and to start thinking about how to make things bloom. But for anyone without a large backyard or a community garden plot, it is time to start thinking about container gardening! If you have a small area that gets some sun or if you don’t want to tear up your lawn to put in edibles, the container route might be the best for you. Many of my suggestions over the past number of posts definitely still apply, but the following 5 tips will help with Container Gardening success!

1. Use Potting Mix: Soil from your yard or regular topsoil is often to heavy for a container. What is good in the garden will probably turn into a hard plant suffocating clump, even if it seemed light and fluffy in the ground! A good potting mix will contain organic matter for nutrients, something for drainage (like perlite, vermiculite or sand) and something for water absorption (peat is popular but not so sustainable; a good alternative is coir). Some good bagged options include Organic Mechanics, Johnnys Selected Seeds and Fox Farm Soil. If you want to create your own growing media, click here for some good recipes. One other thing to think about is that the nutrients that plants need to thrive (especially heavy feeders) can get washed out of a pot pretty easily. Make sure your soil has organic fertilizers or that you are adding fertilizer to the soil as you move through the growing season.

2. Choose Your Pot Carefully: Though many seeds are very small, when planting, you want to think about the size of a plant at maturity. You can definitely start a few seeds in a small pot, but know that you will need to transplant them up to a larger space after they have developed 2 or 3 sets of true leaves. For one tomato plant, you will probably need a 5 gallon pot to ensure that its roots have enough space to develop. A good rule of thumb is that the roots of a plant are equal if not longer than the length of the plant above the soil. Check out table 1 of this resource for more guidance on pot size for a variety of vegetables.

3. Think About Sunlight: It is very important to choose plants that will grow in the amount of sunlight that you have in whatever space you are choosing for growing. Most edible plants need at least 6 hours of sunlight and many like to have more than 8 hours (especially sun-loving tomatoes, peppers and eggplants). Leafy vegetables can tolerate 4-6, and might be a good choice if you are limited. If your containers are inside, you can supplement the sun from a South facing window with a grow light. If you are very limited on the sun front, consider annual or perennial flowers that can tolerate those limitations and check out this site for more suggestions.

4. Don’t Forget Water: Like all other plants, container gardens need water to thrive. More so in the ground, container plants have the tendency to dry quickly especially in the heat. Terra Cotta pots also leach water out of the soil, so plants placed in such spaces will need a careful eye. Similarly, container plants don’t have the advantage of the same type of drainage that happens out in the garden. In addition to using a soil media with good drainage, take care to keep the roots from rotting due to over-watering. When planting more than one type of plant in a pot, make sure to pair plants that have similar watering needs. If you are worried about watering, consider building a self-watering container.

5. Pay Close Attention and Enjoy!: This has the potential be a great (and fun!) learning experience! Watch your plants closely as they grow to maturity; they have so much to teach. And most often, the signs are pretty visible is something is not quite right. The closer attention you pay, the higher chance you will be able to catch problems early (most often, a little water, some air or some sun will solve most ailments!). Stick your finger in the dirt to understand watering needs, observe leaf and fruit development, watch for changes in coloring and smell the flowers! If you have questions, ask your at your local garden center, contact a master gardener in your areas (or email me!). Enjoy the fruits of your labor!

Featured Gardening Site of the Week: YouGrowGirl (but not just for women!). Author and gardener Gayla Trail is consistently inspiring (I may or may not keep a copy of her book Grow Great Grub on me at all times) and has great tips for gardening in small spaces on a minimal budget. Check her out.

Lastly, to celebrate National Garden Month, the National Campus Kitchens Office is engaging in a Container Gardening Competition. Stay tuned to learn more about the success of each staff member’s plant!

Fridays in the Garden is a blog series by The Campus Kitchen Project’s Community Development Coordinator and is designed to provide timely ideas and tips to anyone embarking to garden (at a Campus Kitchen or anywhere). Feel free to contact her with questions at asteiner@campuskitchens.org or leave your thoughts below. Also, follow her on twitter for great gardening thoughts and tidbits: @redheadgardener

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Asparagus: This delicious hardy perennial takes a little work to establish, but the effort is well rewarded with a bed producing 20-30 years of crops! Though you can buy it from seed, utilizing asparagus “crowns” is usually much more effective. These crowns should be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked or just after the last frost (so soon here in the Mid-Atlantic!). For more information on growing asparagus, click here.

Herbs: These are healthy and interesting plants to grow in any garden, adding flavor and excitement to every dish. Though some favorites are of the annual variety (most notably, basil), most culinary herbs will live from season to season if cared for properly. Be sure to give them plenty of room; if they are in pots, they often need to be transplanted to bigger containers. Trim them often to keep them from getting too woody! Also, be careful with mint: it is delicious and fragrant, but it loves to take over entire gardens…plant it in a pot. For more guidance on caring for perennial herbs, check here.

Fruit: A lot of the fruits that we consume the most come on trees and are grown in orchards (often far from where we live). That being said, so many wonderful fruit can be grown in your home garden. With enough space and care, they will provide you with delicious edibles season after season. Some great ones include currants (pictured above), kumquats, gooseberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, kiwis and so many more! One great place to get fruit plants from is Edible Landscaping in Afton, VA. The owner there has been working since 1979 to reclaim and reintroduce edible plants native to America.

For ideas about getting started with small fruit plants, check out this resource. (This guide from the University of Maryland Extension is pretty specific to the mid-Atlantic region. Check out your local extension office if you are looking for something catered to your hardiness zone).

If you are not convinced yet, check out this great treehugger slide show about edible landscaping for more inspiration! Also read Hank Shaw’s article in The Atlantic about local foods that we all should be investigating, most of which are perennial (or wild!). Keep on growing!

Fridays in the Garden is a blog series by The Campus Kitchen Project’s Community Development Coordinator and is designed to provide timely ideas and tips to anyone embarking to garden (at a Campus Kitchen or anywhere). Feel free to contact her with questions at asteiner@campuskitchens.org or leave your thoughts below. Also, follow her on twitter for great gardening thoughts and tidbits: @redheadgardener

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The Real Food Challenge (uniting students for just and sustainable food) recently announced the Real Food Awards, allowing students to choose standout leaders in real food.

The five awards aim at celebrating what’s good about college food, focusing not just on taste, but also on the good it does in communities.

One award is appointed to schools to recognize their use of the Real Food Calculator, but the other four awards are open to your nominations until April 15, 2011. Winners will receive prizes and priceless speaking opportunities at future Real Food Summits.

The Kitchen Gardener/Flickr

So what’s on the dinner table? Campus Kitchen leaders can nominate in four categories: “Outstanding Worker Leader”, “Producer of the Year”, “Student Group or Activist of the Year”, or “Administrator or Faculty Member of the Year.”

We figure, as Campus Kitchen leaders, you are most familiar with the food activists and champions of healthy eating on your campus, so nominate away!

Nominate your Campus Kitchen or a standout volunteer for helping to change the campus food system or choose an outstanding staff person from your kitchen who you know integrates local foods into your meals. Showcase one of the farms you glean from . Or pick your faculty advisor to let their commitment to real food shine.

The nomination form is simple to fill out on the Real Food Challenge website. Read through the nomination descriptions, consider food on your campus, and plant the seed. You never know what may grow.

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For new gardens, you will want to refer to Garden Planning for ideas about all the things you need to think about when creating a garden. Specifically for bed preparation, you will want to find a place with good sun, drainage and access to water. If you are building raised beds you will want to consider both space for pathways and the width of the beds to ensure you can access and utilize (and be able to weed, tend and harvest from) the entire garden space without stepping in the bed.

Hannah Laird, from Baylor University’s Campus Kitchen, is helping to coordinate their new garden project. She shared that they broke ground on MLK day and have built a beautiful garden space. Because they  went the raised bed route, they have more control over what kind of soil they are working with. Hannah said that they filled the beds half with compost and half with a regular soil. Hannah reported that in their 80 degree Texas weather, they already have strawberries, tomatoes, okra, peppers and basil plants thriving in their beds! Stay tuned for more news from the Baylor garden team!

Thinking carefully about your soil is one way to ensure the success of your garden, as healthy soil can be a treasure trove of the nutrients and positive structures that create a the bounty of produce that every vegetable grower is hoping for. If you have never had your soil tested, now would be a great time to do so. Soil testing will let you know what the nutrient landscape is down below, will tell you what type of contaminants are present and in what quantity (lead and arsenic are the main antagonists on the urban soil stage), and it will tell you about your soil pH, which affects availability of the nutrients that are present. Most plants prefer a pH of between 6 and 7.5. You can send a soil sample to a nearby soil testing site, usually for less than $20 or you can test for pH yourself with a soil test kit. Knowing in more detail about what is in your soil also helps you make decisions about the various amendments that you may want to add to enable certain plants to thrive, or will help you decide where to plant what and allow the plants to do the work for you.

To prepare the vegetable bed, some type of tillage may be required to incorporate organic matter, “fluff” the soil to create good conditions for seed germination and seedling growth and remove unwanted plants (weeds!). Hand tilling will usually suffice for smaller spaces, but machine tilling may be necessary to get the bed to a place where it is ready for planting. Raised beds usually will not require tilling, especially if you are utilizing a no-till, long term soil maintenance plan. This no-dig gardening method maintains soil structure, and, though it is a more complex system to manage, yields higher soil quality!

If you feel like you need to break up your soil (especially for a new garden bed), one permacultural technique that can be beneficial for a new garden bed is double digging. This video by Farmer Ty at Windy Hill Organics in Comanche, TX does a great job of clearly explaining how to double dig and why its valuable method.

The last thing you will want to do before you get planting is add organic matter to the soil. If you feel like your soil is two clumpy, you may want to add something like Coir (a more sustainable option than peat) to increase aeration.
Once the soil is turned and any large clumps are broken up, you can enrich the soil with organic matter. This material should be dug, or hoed, into the top 6″ of soil where is will be available to the root systems of young plants. The best sources for organic matter is COMPOST!  Compost adds nutrient-rich humus which fuels plant growth and restores vitality to depleted soil. You may want to add other amendments, again, depending on what your soil has too much of or is lacking.

Lastly, once all your work is done, you want to avoid stepping on your finished beds. This compresses and compacts soil and makes it harder for plants and their root systems to access nutrients, water and oxygen.

This may seem like a lot of work, but a well prepared garden bed will set you up for great success and bounty all season long!

Garden resource of the week: Ecology Action has all sorts of great ideas about promoting healthy soils and gardens. Check them out!

Dig on!

Fridays in the Garden is a blog series by The Campus Kitchen Project’s Community Development Coordinator and is designed to provide timely ideas and tips to anyone embarking to garden (at a Campus Kitchen or anywhere). Feel free to contact her with questions at asteiner@campuskitchens.org or leave your thoughts below. Also, follow her on twitter for great gardening thoughts and tidbits: @redheadgardener

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Almost everything that is grown in a edible garden start from seed. Some exceptions include garlic bulbs, strawberry runners and “seed” potatoes, but for the most part, edible plants start with a seed, either directly sown outside or started in controlled conditions inside.

Peter Prehn/Flickr

Certain plants thrive best when directly seeded (radish are my favorite among these). Others can be planted by direct seeding or by transplanting, depending on the time in the season (cucumbers are an example of this). Lastly, some plants really need to be grown inside and need to be more mature plants before they are exposed to the elements of outdoor living (tomatoes are a great example of this). Seed packets have great information about when and how to plant as do seed companies.

Emily Paulson, the Campus Kitchen Coordinator at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA is getting some of the seeds for CKGU’s Community Garden from 2nd Harvest Plant a Row committee. In addition, several kinds of vegetable seeds are coming from a woman in the School of Education at Gonzaga. Emily said that this woman is eager to share her knowledge about heirloom tomatoes. She is also excited to teach students involved in the garden through Campus Kids about seed saving, which will be a wonderful lesson in sustainable food resources.

When choosing your seeds, there are a few things to consider. First, you want to make sure that what you are planting is suitable for the climate that you live in. This tool will help you find your hardiness zone, which indicates both what you can plant and when. Second, you want to think about types of seeds. You can grow heirloom seeds, which often means seeds coming from open-pollinated (non-hybrid) strains from before the Green Revolution. Another option is hybrid seeds, which are produced by artificially cross-pollinating plants, often to improve the characteristics of the resulting plants. They both have their merits, but plants from hybrid varieties will not produce reliable seeds for future seasons, so consider heirloom or other non-hybrid versions if you are interested in seed saving. Last, you’ll want to think about timing. This also relates to your hardiness zone and climate, but timing definitely dictates when to start seeds indoors as well as when to sow them directly.

A few large companies control the majority of seed production in the world. That being said, independent, small scale seed companies are holding their own all across the country. Supporting seed companies in your area is one way to ensure the saving of heirloom varieties for years to come; plus, regional seed growers have a handle on what cultivars grow best in the area. Some of my favorites are as follows:

Mid-Atlantic Region – Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Pacific Northwest – Abundant Life Seed Company & Uprising Seeds

Midwest – Seed Savers Exchange & Nature’s Crossroads

Rocky Mountains – Rocky Mountain Seed Company

Northeast – Fedco, High Mowing Organic Seeds & Johnny’s Selected Seeds

Southwest – Peaceful Valley Farm Supply & Seeds of Change

South – Park Seed Company & Sow True Seed

Also check out the Organic Seed Alliance, which supports the ethical development and stewardship of the genetic resources of agricultural seed.

One last resource to consider is the America the Beautiful Fund, which provides free seeds (shipping charges may apply) through their Operation Green Plant program. A number of other seed companies also offer similar seed donation options.

Hopefully these ideas and resources are helpful as you move forward with seed selection and garden planning. Future posts will feature tips on starting seeds indoors, bed preparation and garden design. If you have ideas or questions you want to share , leave them below!

This week’s favorite Garden Blog: The Garden Rant because of their down to earth and witty musings about the great world of gardening. Read on!

Fridays in the Garden is a blog series by The Campus Kitchen Project’s Community Development Coordinator and is designed to provide timely ideas and tips to anyone embarking to garden (at a Campus Kitchen or anywhere). Feel free to contact her with questions at asteiner@campuskitchens.org or leave your thoughts below. Also, follow her on twitter for great gardening thoughts and tidbits: @redheadgardener

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For anyone excited about the  sustainability aspects of the Campus Kitchen mission, you may be interested in exploring OurEarth.org’s summer internship opportunity.

OurEarth.org started in 2006 as a way to make it easier for the general public to access environmental organization. Now, OurEarth.org is a national 501 (c)3 non-profit organization and grassroots initiative that aims to aid and develop environmental leaders, in part, by transforming the way environmental programs, activities, and information are found on the internet.

OurEarth.org’s summer internship program provides undergraduate and graduate students with the opportunity to develop their leadership and professional skills, create new content for the OurEarth.org website and expand the impact and reach of the organization. Over the course of the 8 week program, interns will work remotely on a diverse array of projects, participate  in educational webinars and work with other interns from across the country, connecting them into a network of grassroots environmental activists. This great program will prepare participants to be environmental leaders on their campuses and in their communities.

The application is due April 15th, but interns will be accepted on a rolling basis, so get yours in as soon as possible. Click here to download the form!

For more information about the internship, check out the program’s flyer.

For more information about the work of OurEarth.org, check out the website.

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Of the 162 schools Sierra magazine profiled (those that returned the environmental questionnaire Sierra’s editors sent), nine schools with Campus Kitchens were ranked. Five of those schools made it in the top 100 of cool schools, including: Augsburg College, Elon University (Campus Kitchen opening Spring 2011), University of Florida, Washington University in St. Louis, and University of Vermont. The other schools profiled were: St. Lawrence University, Northwestern University, Washington and Lee University, and Baylor University

University of Vermont came in as the highest ranking Campus Kitchen college, with a ranking of 17. Sierra magazine’s editors rated the universities across ten categories: energy supply, efficiency, food, academics, purchasing, transport, waste, admin, investments, and other. The University of Vermont scored perfect tens in areas of efficiency, purchasing, and investments, with a 9.5 in the “other” category. In the introduction of the piece, Sierra magazine explained “other” means sustainable initiatives on campus, so schools like Vermont with a Campus Kitchen picked up extra points there.

The next highest ranking, Washington University in St. Louis at #43, scored high in areas of food, admin, and other.

In addition to the nine schools highlighted, 13 other universities who have either partnered with The Campus Kitchens Project or made moves toward opening up their own Campus Kitchen, took the time to fill out Sierra’s survey and highlight their own sustainability efforts. Those schools include: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Bowdoin College, Boston University, Duke University, George Washington University, Williams College, Binghamton University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Georgia, University of Southern California, Creighton University, Kalamazoo College, and Kent State University.

The wealth of schools who have Campus Kitchens and those who partner with The Campus Kitchens Project on this list shows that while some university’s didn’t receive Sierra magazine’s top scores, many are thinking of sustainability and continually improving their greening efforts through initiatives like The Campus Kitchens Project.

A Campus Kitchen adds value to nearly all of the categories Sierra magazine chose to evaluate. While hairnets, gloves, and aprons may not exude coolness, student-led hunger relief most certainly, and sustainably, does.

Wondering how your school measures up?

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The man who strives to empower voices in a new generation of service-oriented, “dot orgs”, also conceived and created The Campus Kitchens Project,  modeling the national program after D.C. Central Kitchen, a non-profit he initially founded in 1989.

Egger’s vision has led to the creation of 26 Campus Kitchens today, with even more prepping to open their doors in the coming year. At each kitchen, sometimes hundreds of students volunteer, and most come away with something:  from leadership skills to a new found appreciation for cooking, or a moment shared with someone during meal delivery. Many of these students are not quite sure how to extend this give-and-take beyond the walls of the Campus Kitchen.

That’s where Robert Egger’s live chat at the Campus Kitchen’s Project’s The Kitchen Table comes in. He’ll take to the keyboard Friday, May 14 to chat candidly with Campus Kitchen students, their community partners, and anyone else who’d like to join, about how to propel a life of service into a sustainable career, how he got where he is today, and social enterprise. The chat comes as a timely prologue to the commencement address Robert Egger will give to Gettysburg College on Sunday, May 16. The Campus Kitchen at Gettysburg College recently held a campus-wide celebration for hitting the milestone of 10,000 meals served.

Please submit questions for the chat in advance to jtouton@campuskitchens.org by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 13

Robert Egger will host a live chat on CKP's own social network.

Robert Egger – The Campus Kitchens Project live Chat

Making Meal Service into a Career of Service

When: Friday, May 14 at 2  – 2:30 p.m. EST

Where: The direct link to the chat is here. You must sign up for The Kitchen Table to participate in the chat. Please sign up for The Kitchen Table at least 24 hours in advance to allow for approval.

What: Robert Egger will lead a live, typed chat that talks with students and community partners about what they can create and take with them beyond meal service. How do you propel a college career of service into a lasting career? How is this sustainable? What makes Campus Kitchen volunteers particularly viable in the current economy? How can you be a dot com and a dot org at the same time? How should you best leverage your Campus Kitchen experience in your job search? What brought Robert Egger to where he is today? Egger will answer these questions, and more.

Also: Please submit questions by 5 p.m., Thursday, May 13, for the live chat. Participants are encouraged to ask follow up questions during the live chat session, which is hosted at The Kitchen Table.

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