Environment & Wellbeing: Sodexo helps connect the dots.

Chef Seenivasan cutting the Italian Basil in the Herb Garden

On the surface this could look like just another of our good news gardening stories, however this one has the potential to change the way we think about environmental stewardship and sustainability. Too often we talk about how we are doing things "for the environment" as though somehow Nature needs us...good old UWC saving the world again! In reality we know this is arrogant and delusional - we depend on our natural world for everything. In trying to protect our environment or at least minimise the damage we cause, we are really working for our own well-being.

Raising herbs in a small patch of Dover Campus may seem just a fun hobby, but it can point the way to a more sustainable future for the school, one that is focussed on the well-being of our environment and our community. Last week Dover's Veggie Wednesday saw our partners Sodexo use the fresh Basil grown by the Campus Gardeners for their pasta pesto - a lunchtime favourite here. So how does this tasty treat really join the dots in the complexity of sustainability issues where we are attempting not just to reduce our ecological footprint, but build a stronger, fairer community and enhance individual well-being?

Well, not only did the pasta pesto prove as popular and healthy as ever but the chefs really enjoyed being able to pick their own fresh-as-can-be, quality ingredients a few convenient metres from the kitchens.  And as one of the main points of Veggie Wednesday is to start connecting us to the ecological implications of our diets, what better way to demonstrate this by using herbs that have been raised using just sunshine and love and without the usual energy-intensive fertiliser, refrigeration, packaging and transport?

Chefs Raymond & Ah Fook preparing the pesto sauce

Not only that, but gradually much of the compost being used in the herb and vegetable gardens is generated on campus by the partnership of the Grade 12 Budden Initiative working with a Grade 9 service group and our awesome Estates team. And for all you Sustainability experts out there (that will have to be all of us at UWC), no prizes for guessing where the compostable material comes from - yep you got it, vegetable and fruit peelings straight out of the back of the Sodexo kitchens. So which genius invented this circular system? Oh, yes; Nature.

Less waste, less cost, less energy. More health, more community, more fun. Maybe sustainability is not that complex after all.

Many thanks to Mr Shoeb of Sodexo for providing the photos (and for all his help moving us to a more sustainable campus!)

Pesto's looking good...

....et voila!

Ok, so we had it with burgers, but hey, who's perfect?

Talking of more fun, check out the first Dover Organic Salad that featured in the Kurt Hahn Boarding House Gourmet Evening recently - Tossed Romaine Lettuce, Red Wispy Mustard Leaves and Mint, harvested just minutes earlier from the Herb Garden. As chair of Thought for Food and Kurt Hahn's demon chef, Shen Ming Lee is in foodie heaven....despite having to be photographed next to some random balding guy.