Farm to Table Event Spotlights Local Seattle-Area Farmers

SEATTLE, April 18, 2018 /3BL Media/ – In celebration of Earth Week 2018, Seattle Pacific University, the Puget Sound Food Hub and Sodexo, the university’s dining services partner, teamed up to launch its first-ever Farm to Table lunch event.  The event will give students a taste of new locally-sourced menu items and an opportunity to connect directly with Seattle-area farmers to learn first-hand about the menu’s ingredients.

Sodexo Chef Angela Shultz created an elaborate menu, including Ginger Carrot Soup (Hopewell Farm), Raspberry BBQ Bacon Apple Flat Bread Pizza (Sauk Farm), Roasted Bean and Beet Sliders with Orange Tarragon Shallot Chutney (Ralph’s Greenhouse & Hopewell Farms) and Thumbprint Cookies with Blueberry Jam (Bow Hill Blueberries).

“The Farm to Table event promotes healthy dining choices for students while supporting small farmers,” said Alexis Cruikshank, SPU Director of University Services. “With students increasingly more conscious of their food choices, locally-sourced produce is a major focus for universities and their dining services partners. We were glad to have the opportunity to highlight the local farmers who provide nutritious food items for our dining hall menus every day.  We’ll continue these educational events for students around the origins and sources for what they eat.”

Event participants included Mike Lufkin, King County Local Food Economy Manager, Jeff Voltz and Karen Mauden from the Northwest Agriculture Business Center, along with leaders from the Student Culinary Council, SPU Garden Club, Food & Nutrition Club and the Food Recovery Network Club. Representatives from the following participating Puget Sound Food Hub farms included:

• Bow Hill Blueberries in Bow
• Cloud Mountain Farming Center in Everson
• Hopewell Farm in Everson
• Ralph’s Greenhouse in Mt. Vernon
• Sauk Farm in Concrete
• VIVA Farm in Burlington

The Puget Sound Food Hub is a robust, farmer-owned cooperative operating in the Puget Sound region to market, aggregate and distribute locally produced food from farms to universities, restaurants, hospitals, preschools, grocery stores, and more.  It is supported by the Northwest Agriculture Business Center (NABC), established in 2006 to provide Northwest Washington farmers with the skills and resources required to develop their businesses profitably and efficiently, while supplying their products to consumers, retailers, wholesalers, foodservice operators and food manufacturers.

“Our partnership with the Puget Sound Food Hub embodies Sodexo’s corporate responsibility strategy, Better Tomorrow 2025 – a commitment to promote local development and sustainable sourcing practices to ensure a positive impact on individuals, communities and the environment,” said Pam Smith, Sodexo Vice President Operations, Universities.  “Connecting students to their food while helping farmers to expand into new markets strengthens our shared community.  We look forward to further collaboration between our chefs and the farmers to bring a wide variety of fresh, delicious, locally grown produce to the SPU community.”

SPU students were invited to visit the iCommit booth to share their personal commitments to protecting the environment. They were invited to write their commitments on a chalkboard and use the hashtag, iCommit, to post on social media.

“We are thrilled that Sodexo and our farmer-owned cooperative, Puget Sound Food Hub, have joined together to provide nutritious and amazing produce from our farm and many other neighbor farmers,” said Lisa Dykstra, owner and family member of Hopewell Farm. “This relationship is a wonderful step towards a stronger and resilient food system and local economy. We are honored to share with our community the healthy, flavorful and organic produce grown on our family farm’s healthy soil.”

About Seattle Pacific University

Seattle Pacific University is a private Christian university, where 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students gain a superb education grounded on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Seattle Pacific University is fully committed to engaging the culture and changing the world by graduating people of competence and character, becoming people of wisdom, and modeling grace-filled community.  Founded in 1891, the university is nestled in the peaceful residential neighborhood of Queen Anne Hill, just 10 minutes from the heart of downtown Seattle, and offers 60 undergraduate degrees and 53 minor degrees.  SPU is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the only private university in the Pacific Northwest to make its 2018 Best National Universities list.

About Sodexo North America

Sodexo North America is part of a global, Fortune 500 company with a presence in 80 countries. Sodexo is a leading provider of integrated food, facilities management and other services that enhance organizational performance, contribute to local communities and improve quality of life of 15 million customers in corporate, education, healthcare, senior living, sports and leisure, government and other environments daily.  The company employs 133,000 people at 13,000 sites in all 50 U.S. states and Canada and indirectly supports tens of thousands of additional jobs through its annual purchases of $9.2 billion in goods and services from small to large American businesses. In support of local communities across the U.S., the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation has contributed close to $30 million over the past 20 years to help feed children in America impacted by hunger.  To learn more about Sodexo, visit SodexoInsights.com and connect with us on Facebook and @SodexoUSA on Twitter.

About Puget Sound Food Hub Farmers Cooperative

The Puget Sound Food Hub is a robust, farmer-owned cooperative operating in the Puget Sound region to market, aggregate and distribute locally produced food from farms to universities, restaurants, hospitals, preschools, grocery stores, and more. The Puget Sound Food Hub Cooperative and their network of aggregation sites supports the relationship between regional farmers and their customers, enabling a values-based supply chain for food safety and transparency.  They maintain seller eligibility requirements and quality standards while preserving the producer’s identity from “purchase to delivery” so that the producers’ customers know the story of who, how and where their food was grown.