On Monday, September 24, oysters were pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay. On Tuesday, September 25, they were on Goucher students’ plates as part of the “Fish-to-Fork Eat Local Challenge” lunch. The meal, which was made almost entirely from ingredients originating within a 150-mile radius of campus, focused on sustainably harvested fish and seafood—easy to do at a college a half-hour away from the largest estuary in the United States.
The trip out on the water was part of an effort to have Goucher students, faculty, and staff think about the source of the food they consume, according to Norman Zwagil, resident district manager of Bon Appétit, the college’s food services provider. “This is the closest we can get,” he said while aboard the boat. Zwagil likened the trip to visiting a farm, picking the produce, and networking with the farmer.
Goucher’s head chef Bill Griffin, who also was on the procurement outing, said the college already uses local seafood most of the time. “Rockfish, yellow perch, crabs, oysters, and clams … I’d say 75 to 80 percent of what we get is local,” he said.
For the Farm-to-Fork lunch, oysters from the bay were supplemented with oysters and fish from a local cultivation farm. Scallops, another star ingredient, were supplied by Two Oceans True Foods in nearby Stevenson, MD.
Gaylord Clark, of Two Oceans True Foods, worked during the lunch, prying the oysters apart and rimming a Stimson Dining Hall display with the shells and meat. A curious student wandered nearby, craning his neck to examine the goods.
“Delaware Bay wild caught, Chesapeake cultured,” Clark said, pointing at the display. “You should try one of each because they’re different bodies of water, and they’re going to have a different flavor profile.”
Oliver Hulland, a Goucher teaching fellow who took some oysters, said the Fish-to-Fork Eat Local Challenge was a cool addition to what the college does to promote environmental sustainability. “I think local food is a big asset,” he said, pointing out that not all college students have access to education about sustainable seafood. “You can’t help but be enthusiastic about it.”
The fishing trip and Fish-to-Fork Eat Local Challenge tie into what Goucher is achieving as a whole in terms of its green initiatives, which include reducing the college’s greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020. Buying from local seafood providers helps support sustainable practices that replenish the waters and safeguard the environment.
“This is truly the way that we want our food linkages to be achieved at Goucher College – we want to live by the mantra of our food service provider, Bon Appétit, to ‘eat local,’ said Wendy Belzer Litzke, vice president for government and community relations and co-chair of the Goucher Environmental Sustainability Advisory Council (GESAC).
For more photos from the Chesapeake Bay trip and the Fish-to-Fork Eat Local Challenge, visit our Flickr page.