Sustainability

BC Dining places a high priority on sourcing food from producers who share our Jesuit values of integrity, care, and earth stewardship. We foster a culture in which the interwoven benefits of growing, cooking, and sharing responsibly and ethically grown food become an integral part of the University's community experience.

The University has working relationships with local growers, manufacturers, and vendors who respect and promote ecologically sound agricultural practices, and food distributors who can trace their products to responsible sources.

Our Dining team is committed to continuing a business strategy based on high-quality food service that focuses on the principles of long-term sustainable and equitable development. We're a proud member of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. In the fall we host a weekly farmers market outside Corcoran Commons.

Programs & Initiatives


FRESH to Table promotes fairly traded, regional, equitable, sustainable, and healthy food through our purchasing, outreach, and menus. FRESH to Table encourages students to eat intuitively while focusing on growing community awareness for regional food systems, food literacy, and food justice. We partner with student sustainability groups like EcoPledge and Real Food and participate with them at Harvest Fest and the Earth Day Fair.

Students at a FRESH to table event
students at a FRESH to Table event

Funded by the Henry P. Kendall Foundation 

The FRESH to Table initiative was launched in 2017 thanks to generous funding from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation.The Kendall Foundation's goal is to create a resilient and healthy food system in New England by increasing the production and consumption of local, sustainably produced food. Only 13 percent of food in New England is grown regionally; the Kendall Foundation seeks to increase this to 50 percent by 2060.

Learn More About the Kendall Foundation

BC Dining makes great efforts to reduce our waste footprint. Initiatives that reduce single use plastics and combat unnecessary food waste are not only good for business, but the right thing to do as stewards of the Earth. Learn more below.

BC Dining subscribes to the New England Food Vision, which calls for a food future in which 50 percent of our food is sustainably produced in the region by 2060. We prioritize foods grown and produced by New England food producers, farmers, and fishing communities while also striving to support food producers around the world who contribute to a more socially just and environmentally sustainable food system. We use our FRESH to Table parameters as food standards to:

  • Empower small farmers and environmentally sound farming practices
  • Support New England farmers and businesses 
  • Ensure fair wages and humane animal welfare practices 
  • Foster environmental stewardship while protecting biodiversity and soil fertility
  • Encourage a plant-forward, balanced diet

Regional and Sustainable Vendors

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a system in which people invest in their local farm in return for a share of the produce during the growing season. Shareholders receive fresh, bountiful local produce and play an active role in supporting their community food system, benefitting both farmers and consumers. Their investment provides pre-season income to the farms at a time when they must make great expenditures but do not yet have crops to sell.

Boston College Dining Services proudly partners with Ward's Berry Farm in Sharon, MA, for our CSA Farm Share program. The program provides weekly boxes of seasonal fruits and vegetables to CSA members. From March through May, farmer Jim Ward selects a variety of local produce to fill the boxes. The contents of the boxes vary week to week as the season progresses—so not only do you get fresh produce, but you gain a real feel for the local cycle of crops.

CSA Pick Up

Fridays 2:30–5:30 p.m. inside Corcoran Commons, March 18–May 6 (eight weeks)

Ordering

Demonstrate your interest 

Sign up deadline is Friday, February 18.

Split shares with a friend (see FAQs below).

For questions, email bc-csa-help-ggroup@bc.edu.

CSA FAQs

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Community Partnerships

Boston College Dining Services is dedicated to working with a variety of student and university groups and local partners to support sustainability initiatives across campus:

students at the Green Week event

BC Sustainability News