The Fellows with the Hobart Center for Foodservice Sustainability have announced a $5,000 grant to Bates College Dining Services for its comprehensive approach to food service sustainability, and have named Director of Dining Services Christine Schwartz as an HCFS Fellow.

Bates was judged as having the best sustainability program from among 13 entrants nationwide, which included K-12 schools and higher educational institutions, health care and hospitality facilities.

“Every year the level of participation and interest in sharing sustainable practices continues to expand,” says Rick Cartwright, vice president, ITW Food Equipment Group, and HCFS Fellow. Cartwright said that “Bates College stood out as a best-practice example showing a broad level of impact across many aspects of sustainability.”

Prompted by a generous gift from an anonymous donor, the opening of a new dining facility and the passion on the part of students to know more about the foods they were eating, Bates College undertook a yearlong initiative to explore connections between the dining program, food and the educational mission of the college itself. “Nourishing Body and Mind: Bates Contemplates Food” was launched in September 2008. Overall, Bates College decreased energy consumption and water use, reduced solid waste, and implemented a Farm-to-Fork program, expanding the purchasing of local, sustainable foods. From these initiatives, Bates College realized an annual saving totaling more than $80,000.

“Bates, like many colleges, believes that the environment must be taken into consideration when purchasing, creating, delivering and serving food products. And our dining program has integrated environmental stewardship into every decision regarding dining and food services,” says Schwartz, who will help select future operations for grant recognition while serving as an HCFS Fellow. “We are committed to continuing to develop the Bates Contemplates Food initiative and are grateful for the funds from the HCFS to assist us in doing so.”

Bates is the third recipient of the annual award. The winners in previous years were the University of California, Santa Cruz and Dickinson College.

Judges were particularly impressed with Bates initiatives in environmental sustainability, according to Melissa Ezarik, managing editor of University Business, a national business magazine for higher education based in Norwalk, Conn.

“With a full 82 percent of waste diverted from the waste stream through composting, recycling, or a program where waste is sent to a local pig farmer, the building doesn’t even have enough waste to fill a dumpster,” Ezarik said. “So there isn’t one. And nearly one-third of the food budget is spent locally.”

Although the College’s New Dining Commons is a new facility, by student request the seating area maintains the feel of the old Commons. The servery was designed for easy traffic flow, capable of handling 500 or more within 30 to 45 minutes.

“We’re very excited to be recognized for something that is central to the student experience here at Bates,” said Director or Dining Services Christine Schwartz. “We have a longstanding commitment to environmental sustainability at Bates, and our new facility has allowed us to enhance our sustainability mission.”

Higher education institutions from across the nation submitted their dining programs for consideration with 65 entries received. Entries were evaluated by three editors and the magazine’s art director (also a college parent) as well as by a recent college grad, a graduate student and Neal A. Raisman, a higher education consultant and former college president.

The Dining Halls of Distinction program reflects excellence in all aspects of dining operations, including atmosphere, service, variety of offerings, guest satisfaction, environmental sustainability and financial stability. Other schools receiving a top designation are Boston University (large private institution); Bucknell University (medium/small private institution); and Virginia Commonwealth University (public institution). View story from University Business, October 2009.

Where we are

We write again to keep everyone informed about H1N1.  While we have not yet seen H1N1 on the Bates campus, as of today, Sept. 24, 2009, we have had nine students experience an ILI (Influenza Like Illness).  The Health Center has sent nine cultures to the state lab to test for H1N1.  Eight of these cultures were negative with one still pending.  Five of these students, who lived within driving distance of campus, went home to recover, and the other four were placed in isolation spaces.  Eight of the students have recovered and are back on campus and in classes, and the ninth just recently began exhibiting symptoms.

Although we have no confirmed cases to date, we need to understand that it is likely to happen.  We will be giving regular updates on the H1N1 situation as warranted and we will inform the community immediately if/when we have a positive H1N1 culture.  Please remain vigilant about hand washing, good coughing and sneezing etiquette, and general good health practices.

Make a plan

We anticipate that the number of ill students may increase beyond our isolation capacity.  At that time, our plan will be to have ill students stay in their rooms.  Roommates of these students may choose to move in with a friend for several days.  WE ASK EVERY STUDENT TO DECIDE TODAY WHERE YOU WILL MOVE IF YOUR ROOMMATE BECOMES ILL. We also ask that you choose a friend now who will bring back a “take out” meal from Commons twice a day for you if you become ill.  Dining Services will deliver an initial box of fluids and basic food items to the ill student.   Students exhibiting flu-like symptoms will  be given access to an online symptom  flow sheet where they will document their  temperatures, symptoms, and  general  level of illness and will be in touch with the Health Center by phone.  If symptoms worsen, the Health Center will direct their care.  Please be sure you have a digital thermometer, Tylenol or ibuprofen, and tissues in your room in case you become ill.

Vaccines

Getting the regular flu vaccine and the H1N1 vaccine as soon as they become available will be critical to preventing a major flu outbreak on campus.  We and the CDC are strongly recommending that all students receive both vaccines as soon as they become available.  We are offering several regular flu vaccine clinics for all students as our ordered vaccines arrive.  Vaccines for employees have not yet arrived, but a clinic for faculty and staff will be scheduled when they do.  THE FIRST FLU CLINIC FOR STUDENTS WILL BE THIS MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28th IN NEW COMMONS, ROOM 221 FROM 3 p.m. UNTIL THE VACCINE RUNS OUT, PROBABLY AROUND 5 p.m. There is a $10 charge for this vaccine.  The state is hopeful that we will be receiving  the H1N1 vaccine some time in October.  That vaccine will be free to all students.  The testing on this H1N1 vaccine shows that one vaccine will probably be sufficient, that both regular and H1N1 vaccines may be administered at the same time in opposite arms, and that side effects and complications are similar to the regular flu vaccine.  Complications involve mild headache, sore arm and sometimes  mild muscle aches.  More information is available at the CDC web site.

So cover your coughs and sneezes in your sleeves, wash your hands frequently and make your plans in case you or your roommate becomes ill.  Stay well and informed!  We thank all of you for your continued cooperation in minimizing the spread of flu.

Christy Tisdale
Director of Health Services

Tedd Goundie
Dean of Students

As part of an environmental studies requirement, Molly Mylius ’11 will help create an herb garden next to new dining Commons building.

While Sylvan Ellefson ’09 hasn’t banished sweets or Commons crispitos from his diet, he has honed an understanding of what his body needs to perform at peak level.

“I was definitely not conscious of eating a balanced diet my first year here,” says Ellefson, a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo., who won All-America honors at last year’s NCAA Skiing Championships. “But in the past two years I’ve really realized what it means.”

With the Bobcats hosting the 2009 NCAA Championships, March 11–14, and with Bates in the midst of its yearlong focus on food, Ellefson and his teammates have ample reason to make Bates Dining Services an honorary member of their team.

“Commons does a great job of providing us with the food we need for how we train,” Ellefson says.

For example, when the Nordic team travels during carnival season, their van carries Commons-provided snacks like granola, breads, fruits and yogurt for immediate post-race nutrition. “Your body recovers more quickly if you get food right after a race,” explains Nordic teammate Sam Evans-Brown ’09.

When it comes to establishing healthy food routines, the teammates support each other, says head coach Becky Flynn Woods ’89. “It’s about getting into the right habit. For example, the skiers racing later in the day will take time in the morning to prepare food, like PB&Js, for everyone to eat right after the races.”

Nordic skier and teammate Nicole Ritchie ’09, twice an All-American rower as well as a skier, has become conscious of her food choices for another reason. “A friend is doing a thesis that focuses on corn syrup,” she says. “I’ve been reading over her shoulder. The amount of energy going into producing corn syrup is pretty disgusting.”

Bates Dining pizza chef Tina Vallerand performs her wizardry at the brick oven in the new Bates Dining Commons. A favorite of Bates students, Commons pizza is one of many popular choices that appears regularly on the Bates Dining menu. [More...]

While Sylvan Ellefson ’09 hasn’t banished sweets or Commons crispitos from his diet, he’s honed an understanding of what his body needs to perform at peak level.

“I was definitely not conscious of eating a balanced diet my first year here,” says Ellefson, a Nordic skier from Vail, Colo., who won All-America honors at last year’s NCAA Skiing Championships. “But in the past two years I’ve really realized what it means.”

Now, he and his teammates consider Bates Dining Services to be part of their team. “Commons does a great job of providing us with the food we need for how we train,” Ellefson says.

For example, when the Nordic team travels during carnival season, their van carries Commons-provided food like granola, breads, fruits, and yogurt. Not for the skiers’ major meals — they get meal money for that — but for quick post-race nutrition. “Your body recovers more quickly if you get food right after a race,” explains Sam Evans-Brown ’09, Ellefson’s teammate.

When it comes to establishing healthy food routines, the teammates support each other, says head coach Becky Flynn Woods ’89. “It’s about getting into the right habit. For example, the skiers racing later in the day will take time in the morning to prepare food, like PB&Js, for everyone to eat right after
the races.”

These days, the Nordic team’s training is especially motivated, what with Bates hosting this season’s NCAA Championships, March 11–14. For Ellefson, a Colorado-raised skier not recruited by any Division I schools out West, his competitive cup runneth over. “I’m proud to race as a Bobcat,” he says. “I love it in Maine.”

An alpine enthusiast growing up, Ellefson and his Vail Mountain School soccer buddies took up cross-country skiing to stay in shape during the winter. As a high school sophomore, he won skimeister as the best performer in Nordic and alpine events. By then, he knew his forte was Nordic so he dropped alpine, comparing it to choosing soccer over baseball when, as a little kid, he “couldn’t hit the ball off the tee.” But as a relative latecomer to Nordic skiing, Ellefson came East for college when Division I schools passed him up.

Highly competitive by nature, Ellefson describes his mother, Tashina, as a “tremendous” athlete. His late father, Lyndon, who helped found the sport of skyrunning — high-altitude, long-distance running — died in 1998 when, on a training run near Cervinia, Italy, he fell into a hidden snow crevasse, dropping 75 feet to his death.

Sylvan Ellefson is well-aware of his father’s reputation as a highly motivated competitor who pushed himself hard. “I feel that if I can do something really well, I can carry on his legacy,” he says. “In my case that’s Nordic skiing.” Looking ahead to his post-Bates racing career, he wants to “get to that level,” referencing the accomplishments of Nordic alums like Justin Freeman ’98, a 2006 U.S. Olympian, “and then do better.”

Ellefson’s specialty is freestyle, like skating on skis, and he earned trips to the NCAA Championships in both 2006 and 2007. Last year was a breakthrough season, as he won freestyle races at the season-ending carnivals at Williams and Middlebury, the first-ever wins for a Bates Nordic skier on the Eastern Collegiate Skiing Association circuit. At the 2008 NCAA Championships, Ellefson finished fourth in the 10K freestyle, one of only three Americans, and the only Division III skier, in the top 10.

While Ellefson targets another top-five finish, teammate Evans-Brown, a Spanish major from Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H., is so eager to qualify for his first NCAAs that he spent last summer in Argentina, living with a government official who’s a cross-country enthusiast, so he could train on snow. “I had easy access to skiing and was well-fed,” he says. “Lots of meat, for breakfast, lunch, snacks.”

There, he earned a reputation as “the kid who always eats,” and Evans-Brown estimates that he and Ellefson will take in 6,000 to 9,000 calories a day while training hard. That’s more than triple the typical daily diet of 2,500 calories — if not quite the famous 12,000-a-day regimen of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

While the Nordic team tends to frequent Italian restaurants on the road for a good balance between protein and carbs, “what you eat right before a race is not so important, I think,” Evans-Brown says. What’s critical is “fueling yourself well while you’re training.”

At a recent campus meal, Ellefson and Evans-Brown are joined by Nicole Ritchie ’09 of East Dummerston, Vt. Twice an All-American rower as well as a skier, she has begun to avoid processed food. “A friend is doing a thesis that focuses on corn syrup,” she says. “I’ve been reading over her shoulder. The amount of energy going into producing corn syrup is pretty disgusting.”

In the new dining Commons, Ritchie gravitates toward local products: apple cider from Greenwood Orchards, chocolate milk from Oakhurst Dairy, and hamburgers from grass-fed, Cold Spring Ranch beef (see page 16) for her training fuels. She also frequents the vegan bar.

“Making your own food choices takes a lot of different economic and environmental issues into your hands,” says Ritchie. “It’s really cool that Commons supports us in making these decisions.”

This anonymous gift from a Bates alum — perhaps the first, and certainly the largest, of its kind to a U.S. college — builds on our strengths and recognizes the additional costs of certain sustainable practices. Before the gift, about 22 percent of our food already came from local farmers and vendors; now we are able to purchase about 28 percent from these sources. Up to 84 percent of the food we don’t use re-enters the food cycle: to a food bank, into compost or to a recycling center, or as “waste” to a local pig farmer to be consumed as food by another species. We have never outsourced our food operations, and for many years staff members have been strong supporters of our environmental and communal ethos.

The purpose of Bates Contemplates Food is to call attention to ongoing programs as well as special events that teach us to ask questions about food. Where does it come from? How is it sourced and prepared at Bates? What is our role in the larger food system in which we are all embedded? Why are sustainable, healthy food cultures so important and so endangered, and what is the relationship between how we eat and how we think? Seeking answers often means confronting how little we know about complex and confounding issues ranging from dependence on petroleum and diet-related diseases in the U.S. to threats like species extinction and global hunger. But by feeding body and mind together, we may learn to make better choices in the face of complexity.

In presenting Bates Contemplates Food to the College audience at Convocation this fall, I juxtaposed two stories, one fictional and one factual. The first story, about two meals the narrator eats on her visit to the fictional university of Oxbridge, is taken from the opening chapter of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, where Woolf introduces her argument about the relationship among money, space, and creative thought.

The luncheon meal at one of the men’s colleges is a glorious feast: “partridges…with all their retinue of sauces and salads” and “potatoes, thin as coins but not so hard….sprouts, foliated as rosebuds but more succulent.” Consumed slowly and satisfyingly, the sumptuous meal has the effect of lighting a “profound, subtle and subterranean glow which is the rich yellow flame of rational intercourse.”

The meager evening meal, by contrast, is taken at Fernham, the neighboring women’s college recently founded on a small endowment to promote the radical idea of higher education for women. This meal of stringy beef and prunes dampens the spirit, leaving Woolf toher unexceptionable conclusion: “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

The second story that I told at Convocation was about Bates dining itself. While the spirit of communal Bates dining has always been strong and willing — notwithstanding the historical reality that Bates women of my generation were the very first to be allowed to eat in the same dining hall with men — the physical space of Bates dining, Chase Hall’s Commons, grew less adequate to our dining needs over the years.

In planning to correct that situation, our architects initially advanced the au courant idea of “distributed dining” — multiple facilities spread around the campus, with food courts and fast-food franchises. To their surprise, Bates students promptly vetoed the idea and insisted on dining as a committee of the whole. True, they wanted a bigger and brighter and better Commons, but their ideas focused on a better space for one and all. And so we built a place where cooks and servers could excel in their work, and where students would be called to the table to eat nourishing food with good friends and great ideas.

Both the new Commons building and our sustainable dining practices are now more visibly than ever at the heart of our educational vision, reminding us that a liberal education prepares a whole human being for life. Today, in the high-speed, high-tech, competitive, and distracting world where we eat too much and too fast and too often alone, it’s critical to ensure that respectful and ethical human interaction is still at the core at Bates College.

By Elaine Tuttle Hansen

Above is the 1987 letter from actor Paul Newman to then-President T. Hedley Reynolds, as reprinted in a 2001 issue of The Bates Student. Click on the image for a larger version.

It’s common knowledge that the late actor Paul Newman once asked Bates to recast its Newman Day tradition. The evidence is this 1987 letter from the actor to then-President T. Hedley Reynolds.

What’s not been known until now is how Newman probably learned about the Bates tradition. That part of the story involves the person copied on the letter, Laurette Cousineau (now Carle), Class of ’86.

After one Newman Day of particularly ill-mannered student behavior — probably 1985, Carle says — she wrote to the actor, telling him what was occurring in his name. “My roommate, Jennifer Goodwin Oates ’86, remembers watching me sit down at my desk to write it,” says Carle, now a science teacher in Franklin, Tenn. “She got a kick out of it.”

Held since the 1970s, Newman Day usually occurs on the Friday of Winter Carnival weekend. Similar to the more recent tradition at Princeton (which Newman also tried to stop, in 2004), participants try to drink 24 beers in 24 hours while still going about their usual routine. Why the tradition carries Newman’s name is not clear — maybe because of Newman’s Cool Hand Luke character (50 eggs in an hour) and/or the apocryphal Newman quote: “Twenty-four beers in a case, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? I think not.”

Today, Newman Day passes quietly. In the 1980s, however, the event prompted lively debate in The Bates Student between those who defended it for reasons of personal freedom (to get hammered, apparently) and those who decried its effects on the community.

Back in 1985, Carle recalls getting only a form letter in response to her letter to Newman. Two years later, however, he wrote this letter to Reynolds, copying Carle. Newman’s text, suggesting a community fundraiser instead of a drinking day, is in keeping with the tongue-in-cheek mission of Newman’s Own, the food company he had founded a few years earlier: “Shameless exploitation for the common good.”

Just before Newman Day 1988, the Representative Assembly discussed and pooh-poohed the actor’s letter, with The Bates Student reporting that the RA “agreed with the administration that students…should be trusted to handle the day.” (It’s not known if Reynolds responded to Newman’s letter, as neither the letter nor any response is in the official Bates Archives. What’s seen here is a version that appeared for a few years running in the late 1990s Bates Student.)

The Bates deans have tried to stop the tradition over the years, notably in January 1987 when, in the words of then-dean Celeste Branham, “all hell broke loose in Commons” during Newman Day. Afterwards, she hopefully declared that Paul Newman Day at Bates “is over.” Perhaps that statement reached the actor, prompting him to express premature “relief” in his letter that the tradition was “quashed.”