Food & Dining

So Far

• Emory’s Sustainable Food Committee drafted and adopted the Sustainability Guidelines for Food Purchasing in fall 2007, and provide clear goals and implementation steps for 10 categories of food. They have been revised multiple times as new research is produced, and the current version was adopted in 2016.
• Emory has a campus chapter of the international Slow Food Movement, called Slow Food Emory, which advocates for “good, clean, and fair” food in a way that is accessible to all Emory students. Slow Food Emory seeks to reconnect students with the production of food and encourage student involvement with the local sustainable food community.
• The Emory Farmers Market provides a weekly place to educate about the principles of local, sustainable food production by connecting the Emory community with the local farmers and small business owners who grow and make their food.
• The annual Sustainable Food Fair is a student-run event where attendees can learn about sustainable food practices and sample tasty treats from a variety of student and community groups. The fair takes place alongside the weekly Farmers Market, in partnership with the Office of Sustainability Initiatives and Emory Dining.
• The Oxford Organic Farm at Emory, one of the top 30 sustainable college-run farms in the nation, cultivates produce for Emory Dining, the Emory Farmers Market and a community-supported agriculture produce subscription program while providing a hands-on educational experience for students across disciplines. Sign up here for the CSA.
• The Emory Educational Garden Project provides gardening plots for students, faculty and staff to learn organic growing techniques, to provide access to local produce, and to build community around food production.
• Emory University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Conservation Fund’s Farms Fund to break down barriers and support next-generation farmers across metro Atlanta while boosting the supply of fresh, local, sustainably grown food for Emory’s campus and hospital communities. The  Farms Fund will purchase farmland within a 100-mile radius of metro Atlanta, place conservation easements on it to permanently protect it from development and harmful environmental practices, and lease the land to farmers with a 5- or 10-year path to ownership, selling it to them at a much lower price at the end of their lease. Read more here and watch the webinar, “Taking Action for America’s Local Food,” to learn more about the partnership.
• To help those experiencing food insecurity in the Emory community, OSI created a Food Security Resource Guide with a list of initiatives and organizations that can help people access the food they need. This monthly updated guide contains information specific to the Druid Hills/Emory community, the Oxford community, and broadly Atlanta-based/general resources. It not only includes basic information about these food security resources such as time and location but also provides volunteer opportunities for those who would like to help. If you are aware of any resources that should be added to this guide, please email emorysustainability@emory.edu.

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Emory’s goals are for 75% of the food purchased by the University and 25% of food purchased by Healthcare to be locally or sustainably grown by 2025. In 2019, Emory University’s Atlanta campus reached 36%, Oxford College reached 39%, and Emory Healthcare’s hospital average reached 13%. Each of Emory Healthcare’s hospitals that tracked sustainable and local food purchases report the following figures for 2019:

• 21% Emory University Hospital
• 17% Emory Johns Creek Hospital
• 12% Emory University Orthopaedic & Spine Hospital
• 7.5% Emory Wesley Woods Hospital
• 7% Emory University Hospital Midtown
• 5% Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital