Our Philosophy
We are first and foremost a group of students concerned about the environmental, social, economic, and health impacts of our agro-food system. ASUW SFC members are a diverse group of students from a wide variety of disciplines and backgrounds, who've come together because we share a passion for improving our own health and the health of our planet through food. We value student autonomy and ensure that all decisions related to running the cooperative are made by students.
Our Pledge
TO SUPPORT access to healthy and affordable food for students
TO ACHIEVE freedom from an unsustainable food system
TO PROMOTE the UW Farm and other local growers
TO ENRICH student lives with experience in ethical practices
TO EDUCATE our community about local and sustainable food
TO BUILD a foundation for a collaborative food community on campus
TO CULTIVATE a thriving cooperative community that provides opportunities for student growth
Our Values - Sustainable
Sourcing local food is a sustainable practice that can greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels. We can help to ensure the growth of our local economy by purchasing fresh, seasonal products from local farmers whenever possible.
We support farmers who grow food in methods harmonious to the environment. Ideally synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and hormone supplements are not used, which helps protect our land, our food, and our community from chemical pollution and contamination.
We continue to work towards providing more vegan and vegetarian meal options on campus. In addition to this we support and strive to further support sustainably grown and distributed animal proudcts. A diet higher in plant based foods is more sustainable because the production of plant material requires less energy input per calorie produced. However we also recognize that there are many sustainable ways that meet can be cultivated. We strongly encourage people to develop relationships with ranchers at markets and organic meats in stores to support ranchers with shared values of animal treatment and health quality.
Our Values - Ethical
The production of agricultural goods is crucial to the livelihood of a significant portion of the world. Unfortunately, many agricultural workers are treated and compensated unfairly within the industrial food system. We aim to source our food from organizations that adhere to policies that ensure fairness for producers. Additionally, the animals in the factory farm system live an extremely low qualityof life that we do not justify as ethical. Because of this, and in efforts to be the most accessible, we choose to cook recipes without animal products from these systems. ASUW SFC believes in food sovereignty, as we recognize the inherent right of communities, businesses, and farmers to grow, sell, and eat food that is sustainably produced, healthy, humane, affordable, and accessible to everyone.
Our Values - Cooperative
We believe that community-driven, transparent, democratic organizations empower their members to enact social change and ultimately create a more sustainable, loving community. We are a cooperative organization that embraces the seven cooperative principles: voluntary and open membership, democratic management, participation, independence, education, cooperative, and community involvement.
