SUSTAINABILITY
S ustainability is arguably one of the hottest topics in college dining segment and you’d be hard pressed to find a higher education dining program who is not looking for ways to go green. Northern Illinois University (NIU) in Dekalb, Illinois is no exception to this rule and when the school’s Executive Director of Campus Dining Daniel Koenen heard about a type of rice with an impressive sustainability profile (more on that later) grown locally, he was immediately interested. “[NIU] has an extensive sustainability plan, so I was looking at ways to become more sustainable in the dining program, and one of those is to try to purchase more locally, he says. Koenen and the team found out about Cahokia Rice Farm located downstate in McClure, Illinois. Fourth generation farmer Blake Gerard has been growing rice on this land for over 30 years. Several years ago, he bought the patent to grow a type of rice called Frontière which was developed by researchers at Louisiana State University. Frontière is naturally higher in protein compared to other white rice varieties and it’s also better for blood sugar management. “Our white rice has a glycemic index of 41; most white rice has a glycemic index of between 70 and
QUARTERLY | Q1
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