LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky’s (UK) The Food Connection, an applied food systems center, recently released its 12th annual report, highlighting UK Dining’s efforts to source food locally, according to officials.

“UK’s land-grant mission calls us to strengthen communities across the Commonwealth,” said Laura Stephenson, UK Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (CAFE) dean and vice president for land-grant engagement. “The Food Connection and UK Dining partnership demonstrates how we can live out that mission by connecting Kentucky farmers and food businesses with our campus community.”

Under the dining contract, UK is required to meet annual Kentucky Farm and Food Business Impact purchasing goals, which mandate buying food from Kentucky farms and locally based food businesses, officials said.

Kentucky Farm and Food Business Impact is a program, largely spearheaded by UK’s The Food Connection, to support local Kentucky farms and food businesses by increasing procurement of their products by large institutions, such as the UK dining services.

Officials said this initiative aims to foster local economic growth, provide technical assistance to farmers, and create a strong agro-food system within the state, although it has faced challenges from federal funding cuts to similar programs.

Created as part of the Aramark (a national food service company based in Philadelphia, Pa., and UK’s dining service provider) contract and housed in the UK Martin-Gatton CAFE, The Food Connection leverages local food systems expertise to support the growth of the local farm and food economies across the Commonwealth of Kentucky in keeping with UK’s land-grant mission, as part of contract negotiations, officials said.

“Our team works closely with UK Dining to identify new Kentucky farm impact items to bring to campus and provides tailored technical assistance to Kentucky farmers who are interested in selling to large food service operations like UK Dining,” said Ashton Potter, The Food Connection executive director.

The report’s analysis tracks local food purchasing against predetermined benchmarks set forth by UK in partnership with Aramark: “The Food Connection and the UK Dining Partnership was borne out of a contractual relationship between the University of Kentucky and Aramark in 2014,” Potter told Farm World.

“This unique public-private partnership serves as a national model for successful farm-to-institution procurement by demonstrating that a clearly defined, contractual commitment to farm impact purchasing can have a significant positive benefit to the freshness and quality of food served on campus, and can have a tremendous economic impact on our local and regional food and farm economy,” she said.

She said The Food Connection regularly works with Kentucky farmers in a variety of ways: “Our Culinary Team at The Learning Kitchen (a student-run program where participants prepare healthy, balanced meals for the community) routinely sources ingredients from Kentucky farmers and provides education about finding, cooking, preserving and enjoying Kentucky-grown ingredients.

“The Food Connection’s Cultivate Kentucky Partnership, launched in 2016 in response to a request from UK Dining to identify more options for third-party, GAP (Good Agricultural Practices)-audited Kentucky-grown produce, provides one-on-one produce food safety technical assistance to specialty crop growers who are interested in obtaining an audit so that they can sell into larger, wholesale and food service market channels,” she added.

In addition, she said The Food Connection’s Kentucky Value Chain Collaborative provides technical assistance to all Kentucky growers who are looking to expand their markets – particularly to restaurants, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and retailers.

“The Cultivate Kentucky and Value Chain Coordinators collaborate closely with UK Dining and other institutions across Kentucky to identify Kentucky farm products that would work well in their food service operations,” she said. “As a part of the partnership, The Food Connection also tracks and reports on UK Dining’s progress toward its Kentucky Farm and Food Business Impact spending.”

Since 2014, The Food Connection and the UK Dining’s partnership has resulted in over $31 million of direct investment in Kentucky farms and food businesses, and has drawn national recognition and awards, she added.

She said this partnership remains committed to local purchasing to benefit stakeholders across campus, and the Commonwealth: “The Food Connection and UK Dining Partnership continues to be a national model for institutional local procurement.”