Cafe Proposal 2-2

7/31/2019 Cafe Proposal 2-2

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Hampshire College Café Proposal Spring 2011

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Members of the Hampshire College student body propose operating astudent-run cooperative food café offering a local, healthy, and affordable menu

in the Prescott Tavern. The desire for food service in the Tavern space wasidenti ed as a signi cant concern for students in a 2010 survey by the TavernWorking Group. Over 50% of the students surveyed stated that late night andday time food service and coffee service was an important need to be met. TheTavern is underutilized and the current programming and study sessions donot allow the Tavern to act to its full potential as a community space. The co-opwill support the Tavern as a hub for health and food interests as well as a com-

munity space for the campus at large.The strategic planning visioning sessions in February of 2011 emphasizedthe desire for more community spaces on campus. The student-run cooperativecafé will create a space that draws in students, faculty, and staff by offeringsustainable, healthy and affordable eating options while creating opportunities

for collaboration, education, and leadership.

Executive Summary




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Background

Great concern has accumulated around thetopics of sustainability, the food system,health (human and environmental), educa-tion, trading practices, and countless otherrelated topics in recent decades. As Hamp-shire students often do, groups have takenaction combating or supporting our manyviews on these and other topics. One suchstudent-group is focusing on creating morecommunity spaces on our campus throughmore healthful, sustainable and wholesomefood options. The group shares the viewsand opinions of other student groups oncampus such as the Local Foods Initiative,Mixed Nuts, and Re-Hamping. We are allstriving for a more sustainable, communal-ly engaged, and responsible campus.

We feel that a cooperative cafe would act asa vehicle for these dreams. The cafe wouldprovide an alternative to the current food

options, creating not only a more all-around,wholesome eating environment -somethingthat is in high demand on our campus-, butmore avenues for connections within dif-ferent circles and groups. It will open wideone more community space, which we (thegreater community) collectively agree ourcampus lacks. A cooperative, student-runcafe will provide a venue for art, concerts,classes, studying, hanging out, eating, play-

ing, and being in a welcoming space open tothe entire community. The food will be or-ganically, fairly, and locally sourced when-ever possible, and will use the HampshireCollege Farm Center as an educational andfood source. The sharing of good tastingand good for you food, prepared by some-one whose name you know and who you willsmile at in passing at the library later onprovides an opportunity for great relation-ships and greater communal care.

The Prescott Tavern acts as one of the veryfew community spaces that we do have onthe Hampshire Campus. It is currently usedas a late night study space and occasionallyhosts an art show or concert. In the past ithas been a pizza place, a gallery space andat one point even had an alcohol license.To put this space to good use, we proposeto house the cafe here. Money does need tobe put into the fabrication of a commercialkitchen in the existing facilities. However,having a commercial kitchen on campusopen for students, faculty and staff to usewould be a great resource. It would act asan engaging, multi-faceted classroom.

We realize the challenges and dif cultiespresent in our vision, but feel con dentthat we have the resources and skills toovercome them. One possible reason thatthe other Tavern endeavors failed was that

they didn’t know how to run a real businessand therefore oundered. Our group, onthe other hand, have a wonderful resource,CoFed (cooperative food empowerment di-rective). “CoFed is a new national trainingprogram and research institute empoweringstudents to create ethically-sourced, coop-eratively-run sustainable food storefrontsand cafés on college campuses”(CoFed2010). The initiative has been very success -

ful already, putting cooperative cafes on thecampuses of UCLA Berkley, the Universityof Washington, Binghampton University,and our sister right down the road, UMass

Amherst. With CoFed’s support and direc-tion we have no doubts that we can succeed.This cafe has the potential to be the physi-cal place of community at Hampshire.




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Vision Statement

We provide the Hampshire Community with affordable ,wholesome and nutri-tious food that is sustainably produced and locally sourced when possible. Wecultivate an environment of community engagement and collaboration in whichstudents, faculty, and staff come together through the sharing of food, music, artand discussion. We empower student leaders in creating an edible classroom

and educational platform in social entrepreneurship and cooperation.




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Proposed SolutionHampshire College is in need of a

space where students, faculty, and staff can

come together to collaborate, discuss, andbuild community. Hampshire students aredeveloping a plan to create a space that willcater to both the need for more communityspace and food alternatives on campus. Stu-dents are following models for cooperative ca-fes that have been developed by universitiesacross the country. We have the support of anew national training program and researchinstitute the Cooperative Food Empower-ment Directive (CoFed). CoFed empowersstudents to start student-run cooperativecafes on university campuses by provid-ing them with the training, network, andsupport system to help guide their project.Hampshire students are closely af liatedwith this organization and will have theirsupport through the entire process. We arepart of the movement across the nation tobring more healthy, affordable and real foodto college campuses by creating cooperative

student-run cafes.

Hampshire already has many programsin place that are assets to the developmentof a cafe. We have the support of the boththe Hampshire CSA and animal farm andthe farm managers Nancy Hanson and Les-lie Cox. Their excitement and willingness toact as suppliers and supporters of the projectwill bene t the future of the farm and the

cafe. By creating this localized food systemthe cafe will connect more students to thefarm and will help students gain a better un-derstanding of what real food is and where it

comes from.

We also have the support of several foodbased student food and sustainability groupssuch as the Local Foods Initiative, MixedNuts, and New Leaf. The Local Foods Initia-

tive will help provide students with the nec-essary educational tools for gaining an un-

derstanding of local food systems. The cafewill also bene t the group by providing themwith a commercial kitchen in which they can

prepare meals for their weekly events.

Although the cooperative cafe will oper-ate differently then Mixed Nuts food co-op,Mixed Nuts existence is a great resource forthe development of the cafe. Mixed Nuts isconnected with the major food supplier UNFIwhich will also act as a supplier for the cafe.Mixed Nuts has also developed relationshipswith local purveyors such as Bart’s Home-made, Sidehill Farm, Enterprise Farm, Pa-per City Brewery and the Hungry Ghost bak-ery. Not only will these producers be able tosupply the cafe, but they will be able to offeradvice and support throughout the devel-opment process. The student managers of Mixed Nuts have knowledge of how to oper-ate and run a cooperative business and willbe able to share their expertise with the fu-ture managers of the cafe. Mixed Nuts hasbeen in existence for the past 38 years andhas experienced countless changes through-out that time period. Students will be ableto study both the challenges and successes of Mixed Nuts and apply that directly to man-

agement decisions made for the cafe.

The Pioneer Valley is one of richest ag-

riculture areas in the nation which in turnprovides many potential food suppliers forthe future cafe. Through the support of theMassachusetts Farm to School program, theCommunity Involved in Sustaining Agricul-ture (CISA), Northeast Organic Farmer’sassociation, Grow Food Northampton, wewill be able to connect to the local farms inthe area. Many of these farms are alreadyconnected with Hampshire through previ-

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Proposed Solution Continued

events and programs such as Brook eld Farm, RedFire Farm, Simple Gifts, The Kitchen Garden, Ma -pleline Farms and Town Farm. Along with theselocal organizations and other national organiza -tions such as CoFed, the Real Food Challenge, theGreenhorns, and the National Young Farmer’s Co -alition, there is much support for the cafe project.

The Pioneer Valley has one of the highest con -centrations of cooperative enterprises in the coun -try. These cooperatives take the form of many dif -

ferent enterprises such as Food for Thought Books,Collective Copies, Pedal People and Valley GreenFeast. The organization Valley Alliance of WorkerCooperatives will help connect us to these coop -eratives. University of Massachusetts also has astrong group of eight student-run businesses, oneof which is a cooperative cafe, Earthfoods Market.The co-managers at Earthfoods have already pro -vided support for the undertaking of this projectand will continue to act as a resource and model

for the Hampshire Cafe.

Using Earthfoods as a model, the cafehopes to provide the Hampshire community with

simple, vegetarian food options. By offering theoption of one salad, soup, sandwich, entree, anddessert in addition to the choice of rice and beans,we will provide healthy alternatives to food choic -es currently on campus and will use local foodswhen possible. We will also offer students fullcoffee service including espresso, chai tea lattesand hot teas. These ideas are tentative and willchange depending on the requests and feedback

from the Hampshire Community.

We hope to build a relationship with the currentHampshire dining food service and communicatewith them effectively to ensure we are answering

the food needs of the Hampshire community.

These plans will continue to develop as more re -search is executed and more feedback is receivedfrom the Hampshire Community. One we receiveapproval to use the kitchen space of the PrescottTavern we will be able to move forward with ourplans in create a student-run cooperative cafe and

community space on campus.

Documents

Cafe Proposal 2-2