For immediate release:
November 8, 2007
Contact: Sara Russell 320-589-6451 or Dorothy Rosemeier 320-760-3735

Locally Grown Foods featured at recent Morris Campus Pride of the Prairie 
Feast 

By Sara Russell, WCRSDP-With the help of its Pride of the Prairie 
Partners, the West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership 
(WCRSDP) is assisting University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) in their 
efforts to offer more local foods in an accessible and natural way.  The 
WCRSDP and its Pride of the Prairie Partners work with the University of 
Minnesota to coordinate the food service programs with local farm yields 
to offer healthy, local foods on campus at UMM.

Within the last few years, UMM has worked with their food service 
provider, Sodexho Campus Services, to double the food service budget spent 
on local foods and now UMM offers local foods almost daily.  Vice 
Chancellor for Student Affairs Sandra Olson-Loy works closely with 
Sodexho, Pride of the Prairie Partners and local farmers to coordinate the 
needs and wants of the campus with the abilities and needs of the farmers.  
"Since we've started offering local foods, we've been able to bring in 
more products from more farms," said Olson-Loy.  "We've been able to say 
what we want to offer on our menus and the farmers have been able to 
provide what we want."

The Pride of the Prairie Feast, an event that draws the largest crowd for 
local food offerings on the UMM campus, was offered Tuesday, Nov. 6.  The 
event, co-sponsored by the Circle of Nations Indian Association in 
Celebration of American Indian Heritage Month, featured foods from several 
local farms and local food providers, including Honey & Herbs, White Earth 
Land Recovery Project, Bushel Boy, Life Design Organics, Wingard Farms, 
Dry Weather Creek Farm, Glacier Ridge Dairy, J & L Bison, Moonstone Farms, 
Pomme de Terre Foods, Pastures A'Plenty, Glacial Acres, Pepin Height 
Orchards, and Swenson Orchards.  Other sponsors that made this event 
possible were University of Minnesota, Morris Foodies, UMM Service 
Learning, U Plan Wellness Program, MPIRG (Minnesota Public Interest 
Research Group), the Sustainable Farming Association, Pomme de Terre 
Foods, Prairie Renaissance Cultural Alliance, Land Stewardship Project, 
and local Minnesota farmers.

This year will be the fifth year UMM has hosted the Pride of the Prairie 
Feast.  A farmer's market, featuring products from local farms, was held 
before the feast.  "This year, the market took pre-orders," said 
Olson-Loy.  "Both the feast and the market have been growing in popularity 
and I'm sure they will continue to grow."

UMM has also hosted exciting opportunities to feature local foods.  In 
October, UMM was privileged to host the University of Minnesota Board of 
Regents' monthly meeting.  As part of the itinerary, the Regents were 
treated to a local foods meal, featuring foods from west central Minnesota 
(specifically of the upper Minnesota River Valley), including Hancock, 
Morris, St. Joseph and Sauk Centre.  Some of the foods included beans, 
potatoes, pork, apples and whipping cream.  This event was also sponsored 
by the Pride of the Prairie Partners.  

The Pride of the Partners include the University of Minnesota (the Morris 
campus, WCRSDP, West Central Research and Outreach Center and University 
of Minnesota Extension), Sodexho Campus Services, Land Stewardship 
Project, Sustainable Farming Association, Morris Prairie Renaissance, 
Pomme de Terre Food Coop, Prairie Renaissance Cultural Alliance, area 
farmers and the Upper Minnesota River Valley community.  The WCRSDP 
currently convenes the Pride of the Prairie Partners.  For more 
information on Pride of the Prairie activities including the new Buy Fresh 
Buy Local campaign, contact Dorothy Rosemeier, WCRSDP executive director 
at rosemeie@umn.edu, toll free 877-501-3735 or Pride of the Prairie Web 
site at www.prideoftheprairie.org.