FOOD&WINE fall05

Demand for organic foods has been steadily expanding from what was an esoteric stratum into a demographically mixed consumer group—yet still only a handful of chefs in Monterey County restaurants are committed to using organic ingredients.

In a leap beyond the leading edge, The Otter Bay (formerly Otter Bay Café) at CSU Monterey Bay has opened the fall semester by offering a menu featuring 100-percent organic fresh fruit and vegetables, and around 95 percent organic produce in prepared meals.

The breakthrough results from a partnership between the food-service giant Sodexho, which has the contract to provide CSUMB’s food outlets, and local organic giant Earthbound Farms.

Daniel Kaupie is a manager based at the university full time on behalf of Sodexho—a Maryland-based company that contracts food service for more than 900 colleges and has over 120,000 employees.

The good news, according to Kaupie, is that the cost of Earthbound’s organic fruits and vegetables is the same as conventional produce, so Otter Bay customers, primarily students, are not paying more for organic ingredients.

San Juan Bautista-based Earthbound Farms, North America’s largest grower/shipper of organic produce, is following up the smashing success of its retail division with an effort to provide food service channels with organic produce. The relationship represents the first time Earthbound has dealt directly with an end user, rather than working through a distributor.

“We’d like to close the gap with our customers by getting organic produce onto menus and through our normal distribution channels,” says Earthbound’s sales manager, Jon Kiley.

“Our food service customers are currently buying conventional produce,” Kiley says. “And though their customers are asking for organic, they don’t know what to carry and what’s going to sell. So CSUMB is a pilot project for us with Sodexho and with all of our national customers.”

In addition to schools, the food service sector includes restaurants, hospitals, airlines, nursing homes, and day care and senior centers. With sales nationwide now growing faster than supermarket food sales, proponents of organic food have cause for optimism.

The project began last year, when Kaupie met with Kari Bernardi, director of the nonprofit Farm to School (full disclosure: founded by Weekly Community Fund) which is based at CSUMB’s Watershed Institute. The two discussed some initiatives that could be implemented to promote sustainability. At the same time that Kaupie and Bernardi were strategizing about organic farming and composting, some students formed a committee to create more options in food service, such as buying locally.

Bernardi’s relationship with Earthbound Farms led to the partnership.