Greens to Grounds, a registered non-profit with 501(c)(3) status, officially launched at the University this semester. The group hopes to provide an alternative to the dining hall by making fresh, local food accessible to students in a way that works around their busy lifestyles.
“We [spent] the entire year in the dining hall, [and] we were so tired of all the pizza and the chicken nuggets, all the constant fast food,” said second-year College student Claire Councill, Greens to Grounds co-chair. “A lot of our friends were tired of it too, so we were trying to come up with an option to bring fresh food to people in a way that was convenient to them.”
After a limited trial run last spring, Councill and second-year College student Will Henagan, fellow co-chair, decided the University has the market space to make Greens to Grounds successful. They teamed with University alumnus Matt Baer, Distribution Associate for Charlottesville-based Local Food Hub, to launch their idea.
“[Councill and Henagan] had a sense of what they wanted to do and we were a good partner for them because we have a diverse supply of products and growers,” Baer said.
Boxes from Greens to Grounds are available to order every week and contain a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as optional meat and a la carte items.
“It’s fun to get a random box of food,” Councill said. “You get to pack it yourself and we tell you about where it comes from and the cool things you can do with it.”
According to the organization’s co-chairs, the non-profit is reaching out to students because they are at a critical moment in their development of familiarity with food.
“This is [most students’] first experience being the primary purchaser for their household, especially if they’re going into their second year, so if we can educate them now on the importance of buying local food they can become lifelong purchasers and lifelong supporters of local food,” Henagan said.
Although the group’s main activity involves bringing delicious food to students, the students have a larger mission. Similar to Community Supported Agriculture efforts around the nation, they support food produced in a sustainable manner by local farmers rather than by industrial agriculture.
“The U.S. has this linear system of agricultural production that’s based on all these petroleum inputs and it’s based on all these really unsustainable systems [of] monoculture that destroy the soil that grows the food and externalize all the costs of creating food,” Henagan said.
While locally sourced food sold by Greens to Grounds may be expensive, the benefits are numerous.
“The quality of food is better, safer, healthier and transported a much shorter distance,” Baer said. “We want this food to not just be an exception for a few people who can afford it.”
As the semester continues, Greens to Grounds hopes to gain recognition among students and stress the importance of buying and consuming local food. The co-chairs also envision the organization providing services for a variety of groups on Grounds.
“The thing I’m most excited for is expanding our individual client base and expanding into more institutional clients,” Henagan said. “There is not an organization on Grounds that doesn’t need a fruit bowl.”
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