Local Sourcing From the Farm to the Table

For the opening of the Raleigh (N.C.) Convention Center, which coincided with the city's Raleigh Wide Open street festival a few weeks ago, Centerplate's general manager at the center, Lyn Mayer, and Centerplate's regional chef, Don Burchell, wanted something unique to North Carolina for one of the weekend's VIP receptions.

“I wanted to do a display of mushrooms,” Mayer said. “I found a place outside of North Carolina, but I decided to get more local. You have to love the Internet.”

Mayer went online and found Deep Woods Mushrooms in the Western Appalachian Mountain town of Horse Shore, N.C.

“They used my logs dotted with shiitake mushrooms growing out of them,” said Deep Woods Mushrooms owner Greg Carter.

The logs were part of a larger crudité display at the VIP reception, Burchell said, adding that “people who saw them said, 'Oh, cool!'”

Mayer added, “People's eyes just got really big, and they said, 'We've never seen anything like this before.' ... We're looking toward the future of food here. We just don't want to do the same old thing.”

The Raleigh Convention Center is only one of many centers across the United States taking another look at the way it sources its food. More and more, instead of using produce shipped from South America or some other far-flung location, catering companies are investigating their own backyards and giving local farmers a try.

The push to go green makes a difference when meeting planners check out the new center in Raleigh, Mayer said. “Green conventions are growing by leaps and bounds,” he added. “We're running into more meeting planners that are all about green.”

The mushrooms at the VIP reception were just a starting point for the Raleigh CC. “We are going to try and use as much local produce as possible, such as blueberries,” Burchell said. “It's what seasonal produce is available.”

Lucky for him, he has a lot to choose from because there's a farmers market a stone's throw away from the center that is open every day. “It's very convenient,” Burchell said. “For smaller events, I can throw something in the back of the car and toodle on back over here.”

Mark Wallace, assistant general manager at the Phoenix Convention Center, said his facility also recently launched a local food sourcing program, which is being driven by Aramark's on-site chef, Jesus Cibrian. “He has a partnership with a local farmer that turned desert land into enriched soil,” Wallace added. “(The farmer) grows stuff just for our center, and it's grown for each season.”

That farmer is a part of FreshPoint, a national produce distribution company. “(FreshPoint's) goal is to not ship from the East Coast to here, but to work with local farmers instead,” Wallace said.

Every Friday, the farmer gives Cibrian a list of what he has available, and it's delivered every Tuesday. For the past month, Wallace said, some of the local produce used at the center's events has included salad greens, root vegetables and heirloom tomatoes. “We also have a deal with a local butcher for specialty meats,” he added.

On a national level, Aramark and Centerplate each have someone toward the top of the corporate ladder leading the charge to source more food locally at the centers the companies work with.

Jim Tripp, based at the Anaheim Convention Center and director of innovation and sustainability for Aramark's Western Region, said a tradeshow opened his eyes to the idea of getting food from local farmers.

Tripp previously was general manager of the Anaheim CC, and, he said, beginning in 2002 and 2003, show managers for Natural Products Expo West/Supply Expo started asking him if the center could serve organic food for their show. “I said, 'Yes, I can do that,'” Tripp said. “I did a haphazard job of it. I put in an organic restaurant.”

He realized he needed to learn more about the food supply, so he began to meet with local farmers and attended The Organic Summit twice in Colorado. As a result, Tripp said, the decision was made to start sourcing food locally at the Anaheim CC.

“We wanted to reduce the miles on how far food came to come here,” he added. “We had South American, Middle Eastern and even Japanese fruits coming here. That's about as far as you can go, getting it from Japan, unless you get it from the moon.”

Tripp resourced farmers through various Web sites and built up a steady group of local suppliers. Now, he added, 15 percent of all the food and beverages served at the center are some combination of local, sustainable and organic, and he's spreading the word to other Aramark-contracted facilities. “I teach for Aramark how to manage environmental stewardship,” Tripp said.

Brett Lewis, Centerplate's corporate executive chef, also is preaching the local food gospel to the chefs in his company's stable. “One thing we are really focused on right now and driving chefs to do ... is to bring in the opportunity for local and seasonal food,” Lewis said.

His office is in the San Diego Convention Center, he added, where the executive chef, Jeff Leidy, works with a local farm, Connelly Gardens. “There's always something in season here in California,” Lewis said. “There's a lot of fresh herbs, heirloom tomatoes and greens. ... They add extra flavor and appearance.”

Tim Connelly, owner of the farm, said he worked with Lewis 18 years ago when Lewis was a chef at a local hotel. “Brett was going out of his way to use locally grown,” Connelly added.

Connelly and the other farmers appreciate the support. “There are just a small number of us left in the state, and we are within 50 miles of people who consume our food,” he said.

More places should consider using local farmers, Connelly added, if for no other reason than the issue of food safety. “The reality is a lot of the food here in San Diego at fine-dining restaurants comes from an average 1,200 miles away,” he said. “We need to preserve a local and safe food source. I think everyone should know where their food comes from.”

Lewis encourages all the chefs at Centerplate to get to know their local farmers and source as much food as possible from them. “(The chefs) are empowered to go out and find the best local products for their menus, and they take pride in doing that,” he added.