SUNY Potsdam Dining Services Offering Campus Local Foods Dinner

POTSDAM, NY (09/12/2014)(readMedia)-- Potsdam Auxiliary and College Educational Services has invited SUNY Potsdam students, faculty and staff to celebrate Northern New York food producers next week.

On Wednesday, Sept. 18, PACES Dining Services will host a local foods dinner in SUNY Potsdam's Lehman Dining Center. The College has a longstanding history of supporting and working with local growers.

The dinner at Lehman Dining Center will feature locally grown and produced products from a variety of area vendors, including: local Amish communities, Kilcoyne Farms, Daniel Martin's Farm Stand, Thousand Island River Rat Cheese, S&B Maple Products, Glazier Meats, the Croghan Meat Market, Fobare's Fruits and the Potsdam Food Co-op's Carriage House Bakery.

The event runs during normal dinner hours at Lehman, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Students may use their meal plan or guest passes. Cash and Bear Express may also be used to pay the $12 per person entry price.

Fobare's Fruits will provide educational material about its operations in Rensselaer Falls at the dinner, for SUNY Potsdam campus attendees. Fobare's Fruits has a "U-Pick" program and fall harvest-themed special events that are open to the public, including fall wagon rides.

PACES is a proud supporter of local businesses, seeking business collaborations and purchasing as much from regional and NYS producers and suppliers as possible.

In addition to working directly with local producers, PACES works with the North Country Grown Cooperative, a regional agricultural cooperative that provides fresh local foods and products to area schools and universities. As an early supporter, PACES helped to formalize the cooperative's Farm-to-School Program in St. Lawrence County. Dining Services also donated a cargo van in 2008 to facilitate getting produce from local farms to market. The North Country Grown Cooperative is owned and directed by area producers.

PACES also has established relationships with area suppliers, such as Renzi Foodservice, Puccia & Co., Battisoni Italian Specialty Meats, Paul deLima Coffee, Rich's Bakery and Pepsi-Cola Ogdensburg Bottlers -- all of which are locally or regionally based companies in New York State.

About PACES Dining Services:

Potsdam Auxiliary and College Educational Services Inc. (PACES) is a not-for-profit corporation operating under contract with SUNY Potsdam. PACES' mission is to offer high-quality products and services, while maximizing customer value and financial return, to the benefit of the larger SUNY Potsdam community. PACES Dining Services was rated the No. 1 dining service for comprehensive colleges in the SUNY system, in the Student Opinion Satisfaction Survey. For more information about what makes PACES No. 1, visit www.potsdam.edu/offices/paces.

Founded in 1816, and located on the outskirts of the beautiful Adirondack Park, The State University of New York at Potsdam is one of America's first 50 colleges. SUNY Potsdam currently enrolls approximately 4,300 undergraduate and graduate students. Home to the world-renowned Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam is known for its handcrafted education, challenging liberal arts and sciences core, excellence in teacher training and leadership in the performing and visual arts. Empowered by a culture of creativity, the campus community recently launched Take the Lead: The Campaign for Potsdam, which aims to raise $27 million by the College's bicentennial in 2016.

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