Walking inside the IM Sports-Circle building, the old Michigan Agricultural College logo gracing the stone entryway stands out. The interlocking letters harken back to MSU’s agricultural roots, a legacy continued by members of Sustainable Spartans meeting inside.
Sustainable Spartans promotes environmentally sustainable practices on campus and the greater Lansing community.
Most recently, Sustainable Spartans volunteered at the MSU Student Organic Farm’s second annual Harvest Fest event.
“They have live music, cider, donuts, tours of the farm — it’s for students, families, and other people in East Lansing,” Sustainable Spartans Student Events Coordinator and psychology senior Kelsey Allan said. “The purpose of the event is to get people excited about local food, get everyone together around food and educate people about food.”
The Sustainable Spartans volunteer at Harvest Fest because of the benefits eating locally produced foods offers, Sustainable Spartans President and environmental studies and sustainability senior Allison Montambeau said.
“A lot of energy consumption goes into moving foods across the world,” Montambeau said. “When you’re eating more local foods you’re supporting the local economy and small farmers — it’s a plus plus all around.”
Sustainable Spartans works to make real, substantive changes in how the MSU community’s actions affect the environment.
“We’ve been working on a project for almost two years trying to work with Sparty’s to get more local foods involved in that,” Montambeau said. “It’s been a long road, but we’ve made some good progress toward making more responsible purchasing.”
Sustainable Spartans Vice President, Project Manager and environmental studies and sustainability senior Channing McKay said Sustainable Spartans is hoping to expand their involvement to outside of the MSU community in the near future.
“One of our big focuses this year is try to expand outside the MSU community and start expanding our borders and exploring the East Lansing and nearby Lansing communities,” McKay said.
McKay said future projects for the group will involve cooperation with many different organizations and events in the greater Lansing community.
“There are possibilities to work with the Greater Lansing Food Bank and maybe volunteer on a garden project with them, we also would like to try and get involved in East Lansing through events put on by them,” McKay said. “We will be involved in the post home game clean up on October 25 — we want to be a part of the planning and management of the waste stream at Taste of East Lansing in the spring.”
Interested students can attend group meetings, which take place at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays in room 112 of IM Sports-Circle.
