Residents in Gorham will now be filling their cups and cereal bowls with Oakhurst milk instead of Hood. USM’s food service provider, Aramark, decided to switch milk to Oakhurst Dairy in their effort to be more environmentally conscious. Retail locations on the Portland and Gorham campuses already sell Oakhurst Dairy products. The change USM will see is in Gorham’s residential dining hall.
Aramark provides food service for every University of Maine System school, with the exception of UMaine. The switch also effects the other five UMS schools and Northern Maine Community College.
“It’s a way to send a message to our customers that we do care about the environment,” said senior food service director Mark Allen. “We get students everyday who talk about how we can be a better environmentally conscious business.”
Allen said the change did not result from student complaints about Hood but some students see the change as an improvement.
“I like Oakhurst better,” said senior accounting major Ruthie Briggs. “It tastes better and it’s local.”
He said they looked at Oakhurst for milk before but Oakhurst didn’t have the to distributional capability to ship the milk to all the schools.
“[Oakhurst] is very much into the environment and they’re into giving back to the community,” Allen said. “Hood was not delivering that message.”
Allen said Oakhurst’s active effort to reduce their carbon footprint was the chief reason for changing dairy providers. “Both Hood and Oakhurst have comparable prices,” said Allen.
“It was more about what Oakhurst does as a company in terms of sustainability,” added Stephanie Brown, food service director in Gorham.
The change continues USM’s effort to reduce its carbon footprint. USM has pledged to produce no net emissions of green house gases as soon as possible and no later than 2040.
Oakhurst installed solar energy systems at both their Portland and Waterville facilities in the past year and a half. They also converted their delivery vehicles to biodiesel and purchased a hybrid delivery truck as well.
Allen said even containers they ship milk in are more environmentally friendly.
“Most manufacturers have containers shipped empty then fill them,” said Allen. He said they cut out the environmental costs of shipping empty containers by buying plastic and making the containers themselves at their location on Forest Avenue.
Allen said that although Hood is based in New England, Oakhurst’s close proximity to USM helped continue Aramark’s efforts to look local for suppliers. “When people think of the local dairy in Maine, they think of Oakhurst,” he said.