WATERLOO -- The University of Waterloo wants to serve students fresh, local food.

Unfortunately, it's not as simple as driving up to the farmer's market and picking up a pile of tomatoes each week -- not when that pile weighs 12 kilograms.

"Our kitchens can't go to each individual farmer to buy it, we need to have a distribution network," Food Services assistant director Jeff Chalmers said.

Six million dollars worth of food -- including 4,500 kg of tomatoes -- is purchased each year for students and staff, but no one actually knows how much comes from Ontario soil.

With a grant from the provincial government, Food Services will study it's economies-of-scale type food purchasing plan -- buying the most food, for the lowest price -- to figure out just how much is produced and processed locally, and how that amount can be increased.

There are 2,200 resident students eating at UW Food Services' cafeterias each year. The self-operating department works on a break-even budget, and spends about $500,000 on fresh produce each year.

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