Editorial : Independent students need better access to produce, healthy food

A group of students is pushing to start a student-run food co-op on campus, which would bring local produce and foods to students and staff. The organization has the potential to provide an important student service: on-campus access to fresh produce and healthy foods.

The university recently denied the student group official student organization status, which would have given the group considerable resources, including the ability to apply for funds from the student activity fee. The group still has a lot of details to hammer out before it can become a viable student organization, but The Daily Orange Editorial Board supports a part of its mission — to make fresh produce and healthy food available to students without meal plans or cars.

The university has not done enough to accommodate students in apartments who cook for themselves yet lack the means to get to a grocery store. The corner stores around the East neighborhood provide dairy, beer, lunch meat, boxed dinners and little else. Few students can rationalize walking or biking in the winter for two bags of groceries. Nor can they rationalize walking to FoodWorks on Mt. Olympus or taking a 20-minute bus ride to the South Campus Express store for overpriced, bargain-basement vegetables. The university should see a student-run food co-op on campus as a viable solution to this problem.

To garner support, however, the students behind the co-op’s creation must take a realist’s approach. They must solicit the involvement of student entrepreneurs, marketing and accounting majors and make mentors out of professors in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. They must have students in the School of Information Studies work on a website.

The group should also reconsider how they brand the co-op. The group has discussed whether to bring in nonlocal produce during winter, when the variety of locally grown vegetables is slim. Though it’s not ideal, nonlocal produce in winter would serve a student need, which should be the main priority of the co-op.

Local, organic and seasonal are commendable goals. But more students will get on board if the group markets the co-op as a source of fruits, vegetables, meats and other items they simply cannot get at the corner store — but need. Not everyone appreciates organic and local foods, but everyone appreciates convenience.