The goal is to operate a model local food system that provides sustainably processed tomato sauce, made from freshly grown tomatoes, to the campus Dining Halls. This team plans on making this project, its experiences, and data accessible to the campus community and others involved in the local food movement. A long term goal would be to expand the products that this university can handle to include all commonly grown produce in Illinois. There is a great need to expand this knowledge, and the USDA is motivated in the local food movement. 

This project improves the sustainability of the Illinois campus in many ways. It directly contributes to hitting a goal of the Illinois Climate Action Plan by making locally grown food more available on campus, while being accessible to students for education about sustainable agricultural processing practices. To my knowledge, this is the only project on campus that is providing locally grown and processed food to the Dining Halls, and will be a critical part of helping Dining Services hit their goal of procuring 20% of their food from locations within 100 miles of campus. It will also help the financials of the SSF by increasing the amount of goods they are able to sell. There will be considerable effort in developing this program, but it will be a model of sustainability to be proud of on campus, and the data will be accessible to help the local food movement on campus and off.