Maine’s Universities Should Walk the Talk on Local Foods, Farms

By Craig Hickman, Special to the BDN

Posted Aug. 06, 2015, at 12:33 p.m.
Last modified Aug. 06, 2015, at 5:04 p.m.

As a farmer, an advocate for food self-sufficiency and a resident of the great state of Maine, I am pleased — and entirely unsurprised — to see such excitement around the University of Maine System’s upcoming food contract. Its current, 10-year, $12.5 million annual contract with the national food service behemoth Aramark is coming to a close at the end of the 2015-2016 calendar year.

I am pleased because this opportunity for UMS to make a significant commitment to Maine food in the contract renewal is ripe with enormous potential for our great state.

It will be good for our farmers, who need more markets and reliable partnerships to make investments in their businesses and hire more workers. It will be good for our economy because we know dollars spent in Maine stay in Maine. It will be good for our students who will have access to fresher, healthier food. And it will be good for UMS, which will attract more students and positive public relations.

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