Executive chef Jonathan Cambra and food-service General Manager James Gubata stood in the main dining room at Roger Williams University in Bristol. Several hundred hungry students were fueling up halfway through their first day back on campus, and many had no idea they were getting a lesson along with a tasty lunch.
“We call it stealth nutrition,” said Gubata, who works for Bon Appetit Management Co., which runs food service at the university and oversees 1 million meals a year.
At the high-volume food facility on RWU’s upper campus, local food is served seven days a week at all meals from breakfast through late-night snacks.
The main dining room consists of stations, including a grill station, vegan station, pasta station and salad bar, as well as full-meal selections. Recent dinner-menu choices included Block Island swordfish or a 10-ounce pork chop with vegetables from local farms. Twenty-five percent of foods used across RWU’s dining and feeding facilities is from local growers or producers. The university’s annual food-service budget is $5 million, making it a major player on the local food scene.
Gubata pointed out the issue of economic viability. In the case of one vegetable supplier, RWU uses a supply too large for the producer’s capacity, so the quantity it purchases is shared between the local supplier and the university’s conventional wholesale distributors. On the grill station, the french fries are made from local potatoes grown by Lacerda Farm of Portsmouth.
[caption id="attachment_225914" align="aligncenter" width="696"]
HEALTHY EATING: Roger Williams University executive chef Jonathan Cambra in the kitchen, discussing healthy eating with students.
/ COURTESY ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY/JUAN SILIEZAR[/caption]
Cambra explained the teachable moment: “We cut our own fries rather than the frozen ones that have been brought by truck from hundreds of miles away. In this way, we cut down our carbon footprint.”
The chef was in on the formation of the cooperative “local food hub” Farm Fresh Rhode Island and is a member of the nonprofit organization’s board. He explained how the food hub works. Farmers and food producers list online each week what is being harvested. The farmers set their prices. The chef on Monday morning looks over the availability, places his order and delivery is made by Farm Fresh’s distributor Market Mobile.
It all started with milk. Gubata recalled how over a decade ago, he was approached by Rhody Fresh to carry its locally produced milk and cream.
“Their price was 10 cents a gallon higher,” he said. “A penny a cup more to bring in local milk.”
It turned out to be an important step for both the dairy cooperative and the university.
“You don’t become sustainable overnight,” he pointed out.
Cambra joined the university after making his name in local culinary circles with the Newport Restaurant Group.
Cambra operates a scratch kitchen creating main dishes, sides, soups, sauces and dressings. Entire whole ingredients are used. For example, with 100 pounds of haddock, 50 pounds of bones were used for stock. That Block Island swordfish added up to 260 pounds of fresh seafood harvested from local waters.
The dining program operates the university’s main dining hall serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition, students can choose from a grab-and-go, quick-service eatery with pizza, salads and sandwiches – even sushi – and a deli open until midnight.
Proteins are sourced from several local farms, with beef and pork from Blackbird Farm and poultry from Aquidneck Farm and DaSilva Farm. Cambra gave another lesson: Chickens do not feed in extreme heat. Therefore, they do not grow and add weight. They go into a dormant state, which affects egg production, as well as meat.
In addition to food lessons, there are opportunities for students to work in the food-service facility. Of the total of 200 employees, there are slots for approximately 40 students.
Bruce Newbury’s Dining Out radio talk show is heard Saturdays at 11 a.m. on 1540 AM WADK, through various mobile applications and via smart speaker. Email Bruce at Bruce@brucenewbury.com.
