“A national event. Real food, just food.” Every October 24th, thousands of Food Day events are held across the nation, but why? What is Food Day, anyway, and why does it bring so many people together? Just 5 years ago, there was no such thing as a national “Food Day” in America – no food labor conferences, […]
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John Kokoski of Mapleline Farm is our Farmer of the Week. John, who is a UMass alumnus, and his team at Mapleline provide their local milk wholesale to large institutions like UMass Dining but also to small markets and cafes around the Pioneer Valley. Mapleline has been a part of the Hadley community for over a
The UMass Dining Sustainability team poses for a photo with Rob Litch at Misty Knoll Farm. This week we are featuring Misty Knoll Farm, a poultry farm in New Haven, VT, for our first Farmer of the Week for the Fall 2015 semester! Misty Knoll has been a family-owned business and an integral part of
This week, we are featuring a farm that you might have heard of before. You can find Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs in grocery stores all across New England. That fact might make you pause; aren’t we supposed to be supporting small, family farms instead of commercial, large-scale growers? Actually, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Pete and
Who said kids shouldn’t play with their food? This November, UMass Dining staff and about two dozen UMass students visited Lambert-Lavoie Memorial Elementary School in Chicopee for the Fun with Food Fest. A collaboration between UMass Dining and ChicopeeFRESH, the event sought to teach 4th and 5th graders about local, healthy food in all sorts of
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With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s time to celebrate our local turkey supplier, Diemand Farm! Located in Wendell, MA (15 miles north of Amherst), Diemand Farm is run by siblings Annie, Faith, and Peter. Since 1936 when the farm was founded, the Diemand family has been providing food for their local community. Until recently, Diemand Farm
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Date: 11/11/2014 Pine Hill Orchards, located 30 minutes north of Amherst in Colrain, MA, is a 75 acre orchard run by David and Matt Shearer. Of course, apples make up a big component of their farm. During the fall, you can visit their orchard to pick your own apples and ride on their tractor. For wholesale
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Anna Hankins is a second year student at UMass Amherst paving her own path through education by combining both classroom learning and organizing work. Anna enjoys being agitated about food injustices, spending hours in meetings trying to change them, and eating copious amounts of chocolate in her spare time. An Earth Day baby, Anna has
Edwin Matuszko, Linda Kingsley, and their son, Josef, are third and fourth generation farmers of Twin Oaks Farm in Hadley, MA. Since 1979, when Ed and Linda took over the farm, Twin Oaks has grown an increasingly diverse selection of vegetables ranging from cabbage to ornamental pumpkins. Linda says, “We used to have only two crops.
Pete and Tara Roy are the proud owners of PT Farm in North Haverhill, New Hampshire. Operating a beef and hog farm is not easy work, but it’s not their only job. They also have five children: Calvin, Madeleine, Dory, Gabriel, and Rose. Tara admits that this can lead to having a “crazy lifestyle”. Despite their
