I spent Monday with food personnel from the University of Michigan, as they toured local farms in Michigan from which they buy fresh, local food for 15,000 to 20,000 of the U of M students who live in dorms. As the video shows, this group literally went the extra mile to visit the farmers who supply them. The primary purpose of the in-person visits was to assure themselves (and certify to their superiors) that the growers follow farming practices that promote food safety.

Unit Chef Buzz Cummings talked glowingly about how great it is to provide students fresh, nutritious, local food. However, he also noted that there are times he has to educate students about the benefits of the localvore movement.

Last year, Cummings put out trays of freshly washed strawberries from Felzke Farms in DeWitt, only to find them still untouched the next morning. Cummings said young people today have been raised to think that those “monster berries” from California are the gold standard. So they passed up the sweet and tender berries from Michigan until he turned them into rich, thick smoothies and refreshing strawberry slushies, promoted as a Strawberry Festival featuring local, fresh food.

A new study shows that the food and beverage industry spends $1.6 billion a year targeting kids with their ads. And we also know that many of those ads promote the high-profit, high-calorie, high-fat, sweetened and salty foods that can put kids at risk of health problems such as obesity and diabetes. So congratulations to the University of Michigan for developing a plan to buy local. Now let’s all make sure schools everywhere, from kindergarten through graduate school, provide nourishing locally grown food to their students.