Community Harvest of Brown Dining represents a commitment to socially and environmentally sustainable purchasing practices.

We've got big plans. Read about our Vision, Values and Goals for Community Harvest.

Community Harvest at Brown Dining began in September 2002 as a program to increase the University's support of food producers in the Rhode Island region. The expectations and scope of the program have quickly expanded in response to growing enthusiasm from students and workers. The maturation of the Community Harvest program has coincided with the development of the Rhody Fresh dairy farmers’ cooperative. Six months after its start, Rhody Fresh had achieved the goals projected to be completed in three years’ time. These successes have been due partly to Brown’s support of Rhody Fresh. Rhody Fresh is sold in Campus Market, served with Equal Exchange fair-trade coffee in the Blue Room, and when Rhody Fresh is produced in bulk, the Ratty and VW will be serving only Rhody Fresh milk. On Thursday mornings of the ’05 Spring, the Ratty had local breakfast offerings, including Rhody Fresh milk and local eggs. On Wednesday afternoons in September and October 2003, members of the community, both within Brown and without, flocked to Wriston Quad to purchase fresh produce, jams, and other goods while interfacing with the growers who produced them at a Community Harvest sponsored Farmers’ Market. These markets provided countless individuals with fresher goods of higher quality than those usually available and proved to be a huge success.

During the fall of ‘04, members of the Brown community had the opportunity to dirty their hands and breathe some fresh air while supplying local farmers with much needed help during the harvest season crunch-time. Weekly Harvest Crews traveled to nearby farms, buying the produce they picked, and bringing it back to the Ratty to be served for dinner later that evening.

Brown Dining also became a founding partner in Farm Fresh Rhode Island. The upstart organization works to connect small farms and producers around Rhode Island with consumers, restaurants, schools and food service institutions. Farm Fresh is run by Brown alumni and other collaborators include Brown's Center for Environmental Studies, the Rhode Island Division of Agriculture, the Rhode Island Foundation and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The fall semester of 2004 also hosted Candi the Cow, a Rhody Fresh representative, on the Main Green and the 2nd annual Shuck-Off. The corn shucked during this event was served that evening in the newly-renovated Ratty, some in the Roots and Shoots line beside bread from Hope Street’s Seven Stars Bakery. The spring ’05 semester had its fair share of local foods, too. April alone saw an Avocado Festival with avocados from a sustainable farm in California; the Local Food Forum, four days of food-focused workshops and presentations with a variety of attendees, from students to local farmers; and a Local Foods Seder over Passover. Spring ’05 also saw the revitalization of the Sustainable Food Initiative (SuFI), a student group dedicated to local foods and Fair Trade products. The first Monday of every month was designated as a Community Harvest lunch day, when representatives from Dining Services, SuFI and anyone else interested were welcome to convene and discuss current successes and future goals.