Marlboro Signs Real Food Challenge

On Tuesday, April 15, President Ellen McCulloch-Lovell and Chef Manager Benjamin Newcomb signed the Real Food Campus Commitment, joining more than 100 colleges and universities across the country. The commitment promises that Marlboro will procure at least 20 percent of the food consumed on campus from local or community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane food sources—“real food”—by 2020.

“Colleges like Marlboro have to show leadership in our communities by modeling ways to support ecologically sustainable, humane, and socially equitable food systems,” said Ellen. The primary goal of the Real Food Challenge is to shift $1 billion of existing college and university food budgets away from industrial farms and junk food and towards real food. “Investing in real food benefits not only the daily lives of our students, but also fosters community by supporting the livelihoods of family farmers and other local producers.”

“I am thrilled to be a part of the solution to our troubled food system,” said Benjamin Newcomb, chef manager at Marlboro through Metz Culinary Management. “The Real Food Challenge permits us to create a fair, sustainable food culture that celebrates the student, the local farmer, and the best of what New England agriculture has to offer—farm to table.” The signing of the commitment was followed by a community dinner of mostly regional or ecologically sound foods, part of Marlboro’s events leading up to Earth Day.