Goal 2 - Institutional Stewardship Initiatives
Institutional Stewardship Initiatives
Camrose Campus Farmers Market
The Camrose Campus Farmers Market was launched in October 2019 and is open each Saturday in the Forum Building at Augustana Campus. In its first five months it hosted over 70 different vendors.
Campus Food Bank
Since 1991, this student-run service has provided food for thousands in the university community. They also educate clients on healthy eating, affordable shopping and cooking skills.
Dining and Food
The University of Alberta is committed to providing healthy, affordable and sustainable food options for everyone across all of its campuses.
The institution's primary dining contractor has committed to sourcing and serving more healthy, affordable, responsible and sustainable foods. This includes purchasing more local, ecological and humane foods as well as sustainable seafood and FairTrade and RainForest Alliance-certified products.
Additionally, food vendors on campus offer a variety of healthy and affordable meal options that suit vegetarian, vegan, halal, gluten-free and organic diets. A complete list of North Campus food outlets can be accessed online. Similarly, Lister Residence and Peter Lougheed Hall have a meal plan that provides residents with a variety of nutritious options. The Get the Good Stuff™ label makes healthy and balanced food choices easy to spot. The Campus Dish page provides information on food-related health and wellness
Heritage Chickens
The Poultry Research Centre maintains and develops the genetic stock of rare chicken breeds, including six breeds that have been maintained since 1965. Their egg delivery and backyard flock programs promote citizen science and provide a way for their conservation programs to become financially self-supporting.
Backyard Chickens
The Poultry Research Centre provides a free manual for backyard and small flock poultry owners in Alberta. The Centre provides free resources to the community on the specific needs of poultry in the region, regulations, chicken house designs, egg management, how to care for chickens, and more.
Lister Hall and Peter Lougheed Hall both use a cloud-based service to track and separate food waste in their cafeterias. This enables more efficient ordering and organics composting.
Green For Good Market
The University of Alberta Green for Good Market, hosted by Sustain SU, is open to the public and takes place on North Campus at the Student's Union Building (SUB) open to the public and runs on a number of occasions in the academic year. The Green for Good Market market offers local, sustainable, and ethical goods and services by hosting various local sustainable businesses, makers, and artisans, as well as sustainability-focused student groups and community partners. The market aims to serve as a gathering place for the campus community to engage with vendors and learn about sustainable practices.
Prairie Urban Farm
Prairie Urban Farm is a one-acre, mixed crop, community food system in the University of Alberta's South Campus. Directed by Faculty of ALES professor Debra J. Davidson, this garden provides skill-building opportunities in alternative, regenerative ways of growing food within the city. A primary aim of the garden is to demonstrate the need for food security (access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food). Its mission is to support activities that contribute to knowledge and understanding of, and capacity for, enhancing production innovations, regional food security and food sovereignty in urban agriculture in an ecologically sustainable manner.
Sustainable food labeling in residence
In Lister Residence and Peter Lougheed Hall, menu items are labelled to help students quickly find sustainable and alternative food options. Labels include: vegetarian, vegan, sustainable, locally grown, no gluten, halal and plant powered.
Sustainable Food Working Group
The Sustainable Food Working Group advances the university’s social, economic and environmental sustainability performance by making progress on food-related goals identified in the 2016-2020 Sustainability Plan.
U of A Heritage Chicken Program Events
The Poultry Research Centre runs several events throughout the year, including a popular course in raising small flocks of poultry. The course covers a number of topics, including: choosing the right breed of chicken for a small farm, building or buying a coop, planning for overwintering chickens, chicken anatomy and egg laying, proper biosecurity practices, how to recognize and treat common poultry disease and more. World-class experts offer a question and answer period at the end of each session.
U of A Permaculture Group
The U of A Permaculture Group is a multidisciplinary student group that is free to join, dedicated to permaculture and the pursuit of sustainable agriculture. The group focuses on the design, construction, and operation of aquaponics systems with the long-term goal of enhancing the efficiency of systems and furthering public interest in aquaponics, permaculture, and sustainability.