Food
UCCS Dining and Hospitality Services
In Fall 2014, UCCS significantly increased its efforts on food purchasing, production, and literacy starting with a transition to university ownership of dining and food services. UCCS Dining and Hospitality Services strives to be a recognized leader in service delivery and food sustainability. DHS will cultivate and nurture a healthy campus culture where access to wholesome, seasonal, and local food directly links to wellness, sense of place, and environmental protection. Aligning DHS with campus sustainability efforts allows for the integration of academic programs and community action, thereby providing students invaluable experiential learning opportunities. This includes preparing and serving healthy, flavorful, sustainable, and nutritious food produced through fiscally responsible and mindful practices that nourish and support our community.
UCCS Farm and Greenhouse
The UCCS Farm and Greenhouse strives to provide high quality, organically-grown produce to UCCS's food service outlets as well as to educate the campus community about new gardening methods and sustainable growing solutions. Through researching a variety of avenues of organic gardening, the Greenhouse and Garden seeks to use innovative as well as traditional gardening practices. Our hope is that through education and outreach, the Greenhouse and Garden can become a resource center for sustainable organic gardening methods while producing delicious, nutritious organic fruits and vegetables for the UCCS community.
Additional Organic Gardens
The Family Development Center, which offers early childhood programs and provides day care for students, faculty and staff as well as the community at large, has created an educational organic vegetable garden. Children share in watering and caring for the garden using the organic fertilizer made in their worm composter. The children learn about agriculture, weather, food, and recycling in a hands-on, sensory-filled, environment. Recently, the Family Development Center was named a National Wildlife Sanctuary (www.nwf.org), perhaps the only preschool in the nation to hold this designation.
"The greatest gift of our garden is the opportunity for all of the children to dig in the dirt and get in touch with the outdoors, a lost art for many city children." -- Ida Bauer, Director FDC
UCCS students, faculty, and staff established an organic vegetable garden at the Heller Center. The purpose of the garden is to educate the campus community, particularly younger students who may be away from home for the first time, about local, organic food, nutrition, and sustainable agricultural practices. The garden will serve as a living laboratory for research on variety of sustainability topics as well as provide delicious local, organic food.