University of Winnipeg students can say goodbye to greasy, processed burger patties and soggy crinkle-cut fries and say hello to wholesome, fresh and locally-sourced cuisine.

Diversity Food Services, owned by SEED Winnipeg, Inc. and the University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation, promises to offer healthy, fresh and satisfying food.

But this isn’t just ordinary healthy food – it’s food that makes a difference, both environmentally and socially.

Rather than being mass-produced and shipped across the country, as is often the case with national foodservice companies, Diversity’s food is made from scratch in the kitchens on campus.

“It’s not that the food services at the U of W won’t have burgers this year,” said Kirsten Godbout, manager of food operations and catering for Diversity.

“It’s that they won’t be frozen burgers from Ontario. They will be homemade patties,” she said.

Not only is the food prepared locally, many of the ingredients are produced by local farmers.

When purchasing ingredients, Diversity gives preference to local organic sources. If an ingredient is not available from a local organic source, Diversity opts for local non-organic ingredients. Third preference is given to non-local, organic ingredients.

Godbout said she and Diversity’s executive chef Ben Kramer, formerly of Winnipeg’s Dandelion Eatery, try to avoid using non-local, non-organic ingredients.

“A lot of times we will just take a food item off the menu until the food is back in season,” she said.

Director of campus sustainability Mark Burch said that using local organic ingredients is the most important thing Diversity Food Services is doing from a sustainability perspective.

By purchasing local organic food, he said, the money goes straight into the hands of the grower. Environmentally sound organic practices and minimal transportation eliminates a great deal of the carbon footprint.

While some may think Diversity’s sustainability efforts will translate into higher prices, president and vice-chancellor Lloyd Axworthy said this is a misconception.

“We hope to try to bring the prices down for students because it is a locally based enterprise,” he said, adding that he is aware that students were dissatisfied with prices of the university’s previous foodservice provider, Chartwells.

Godbout guarantees that students will also get more bang for their buck.

“In terms of quality of food we will come out higher every single time,” she said.

While Diversity strives to do their part for environmental sustainability, their commitment to sustainability does not stop there.

“We see Diversity as not only meeting some of those environmental aspirations but also contributing to the social aspect of sustainability in the sense of employing locals,” Burch said.

Over time, employees will be invited to invest in the company. Once Diversity is up and running, 25 per cent of its shares will be distributed to Diversity employees, Axworthy said.

Diversity has trained 21 staff through a program sponsored by the provincial government. The staff is comprised of inner-city residents, First Nations People and immigrants from countries including Burma, Sudan, the Philippines, Nigeria, Cuba and Ethiopia.

Byar Mar Bu of Burma came to Canada last year through a refugee camp in Thailand.

“This gives us the opportunity to understand the Canadian workplace because it is very different from our country back home,” she said.

Bu is certain students will enjoy what Diversity has to offer.

“It is delicious.”

Godbout is also confident that Diversity’s food will be enjoyed and that its mandate will resonate throughout campus.

“It is our hope that students will see [Diversity] as more than just a foodservice,” she said.

“All of us need to think about how we choose to spend our food dollar and where we choose to spend it and how we are impacting the rest of the earth.”

Published in Volume 64, Number 1 of The Uniter (September 3, 2009)