As staff and faculty of George Washington University and/or members of the wider DC community, we see the need for the creation of sustainable, living wage jobs for farmers and food chain workers in and around our city. We ask that President Knapp and the GWU administration use their dining hall program to forward these goals.

President Knapp has publicly expressed the school's intention to use the dining hall in this way, by declaring:

“We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in our communities and throughout society by modeling ways to support ecologically sustainable, humane and socially equitable food systems.

We further recognize that investing in the use of local/regional, ecologically sustainable, humane and fair foods benefits not only the daily lives of current students, but the recruitment and retention of new students; fosters university-community relations by supporting the livelihoods of family farmers and food chain workers; and places our institution in alignment with leading colleges and universities across the country”

We urge the President and his administration to follow through with these intentions in the current dining hall contracting process through:

- Direct sourcing of food from local/community farms, green houses, and businesses in order to support both environmentally-sound practices as well as living-wage job creation

- Ensuring the retention of all current dining workers in the future dining program, along with union recognition and a fair contract

- Guaranteeing skills training for workers in how to prepare food from scratch and sustainable cooking