Earth Week at Central College is focused this year on what people eat.

A biannual tradition showcased the strides the campus dining services have been making to localize their menu.

All Iowa Day at Central Market featured meals containing all locally grown or produced ingredients.

Director of Dining Services Richard Phillips has emphasized finding products closer to home since he took over operations in 2014.

“Prior to that we were only buying 0.2 percent local, which was really difficult for us to comprehend because we thought we were buying a lot more,” he says. “But on the large scale of things–when we buy as much stuff as we buy here at Central Dining Services and Catering, it’s a big number.”

“We just put the figures together and ever since then or since I’ve taken this role, we’re almost up to 19 percent just in dining and catering and overall across campus, with the two other facilities, it works out to about 12.5 percent.”

Phillips tells KNIA/KRLS News their daily menu continues to add more home grown food in an effort to increase quality and to better fit many of the school’s sustainability efforts.

Local producers such as Van Dyke Produce and Fresh Starts in Knoxville, as well representatives from larger Iowa organizations, including Cookie’s BBQ Sauce and Blue Bunny, talked with students about where the food they make comes from.

A group that Phillips cooks for monthly at Pella Manor stopped by to have a family-style dinner as well.