Students can now access local food without passing the Sample Gates.
A series of weekly farmers markets debuted at the IMU on Wednesday.
Until Oct. 14, students can find local food from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Wednesday on the terrace outside of the IMU’s Dunn Meadow entrance.
In the case of rain, the farmers market will be moved inside the IMU’s Dunn Meadow entrance.
IMU Food and Beverage Director Chris Gray, said students can expect to find produce such as tomatoes, lettuce and watermelons during the earlier months, and turnips, potatoes and apples during the later months.
“The food will all be in season because it will be whatever food is available,” he said.
Regional supplier Piazza Produce provides the IMU staff with a list of local farms and their available food, Gray said. The IMU staff then selects the desired food from the list.
In addition to supplying the farmers market, Piazza Produce also supplies Dunn Meadow Café, which sponsors the farmers market.
Customers will find samples from, and even coupons to, Dunn Meadow Café at the farmers market. This action reflects a campus movement to source local food and support the local food community, Gray said. He added that campus participates in the Real Food Challenge.
“The part of the Real Food Challenge that we think we can most affect quickest is trying to source as much local food as we reasonably can,” he said.
Local food is crisper, fresher and lasts longer than non-local food, Gray said.
“It just spends less time in the food production system before it gets to us,” he said. “And then, feeding back into the community, whether it be the community of Bloomington or the community of greater Indiana. It’s at least keeping the money here. ... It’s paying back to the employment of people in our area.”
Gray said students can also find local food at stores like Bloomingfoods, Lucky’s Market and several local restaurants, as well as the Tudor Room in the IMU.
“The purpose of the whole project is to bring an awareness to local food,” he said. “To say, ‘Hey, this is an option for us,’ and to be able to ask for what is in season. A lot of the local restaurants do that.”
Gray said produce will be pre-packaged into convenient amounts so customers won’t have to weigh their produce.
“For example, green beans are pre-packaged into half-pounds of green beans, so people don’t have to stand there and weigh out their green beans,” he said.
Gray added that, because the produce is sold at cost, the food found at the farmers market is cheaper than the food found at the grocery store,
“I’ve had a lot of staff say, ‘You know what, I was going to stop at the store and grab some food,’ and I was like, ‘Go there and grab it.’”
