Unity College to Celebrate New Root Cellar on Friday, December 9 at 3 p.m., Project Featured in Book

     On Friday, December 9, Unity College will hold a ceremony and tour at 3 p.m. to celebrate the completion of a root cellar on its campus.  The root cellar is adjacent to the Maintenance complex, on the north end of campus, at 90 Quaker Hill Road in Unity.

     A root cellar is a traditional underground structure that is used to store vegetables and fruits.  Because the building is buried, temperature and humidity are regulated without the inputs needed for refrigeration.  The Unity College root cellar combines old-fashioned earth tempering with state-of-the-art control systems that automatically draw in cool nighttime air.

      Photo at right: the root cellar under construction.

     The root cellar project has already attracted attention for its unique qualities and statement it makes.  Author Julie Fryer wrote about the root cellar project in her new book entitled The Complete Guide to Your New Root Cellar: How to Build an Underground Root Cellar and Use It for Natural Storage of Fruits and Vegetables.

     A ceremonial ribbon cutting will be followed by an educational session about root cellaring in the Student Center on campus.

     The installation of a root cellar on campus is the latest food related sustainability initiative to take place on the campus of the environmental college, which is considered one of the most energy efficient college campuses in the United States.

     “Appropriate storage of local crops is an issue that farmers and sustainable food systems advocates across the country are working to address,” noted Sara Trunzo, Unity College Food and Farm Projects Coordinator.  “It’s great to see the College play a role in that work and to have the fruits of our labor benefit students and our food insecure neighbors.”

     The root cellar was constructed with student volunteer labor under the guidance of Unity’s Sustainability staff and Instructor Jim Merkel of Belfast.  Many of the student volunteers participated in the root cellar project as part of Merkel’s Environmental Citizen course.  The course examined sustainability, sustainable food practices, and included Unity’s community service values as a key component.

     Trunzo, Merkel and others at Unity College believe the new root cellar on their campus to be the first on a college or university campus in Maine.

     “Root cellars are a king-pin to regional food security,” Merkel said.  “In cold climates, they enable year-round locavore (the practice of eating food that is grown locally) eating.”  Such a focus on locally grown produce can save thousands of miles in food transport.

     The Unity College root cellar will be used to store vegetables, namely root crops such as carrots and potatoes, for campus dining services.  It will also be used by several local hunger relief organizations including the Volunteer Regional Food Pantry and Unity Barn Raisers’ Veggies for All project. 

     “The root cellar project is an example of campus-wide efforts to understand community food and agriculture issues,” Trunzo said.  “We have a unique opportunity to use this facility as a practical resource, teaching tool, and demonstration of our commitment to sustainable practices.”

     Unity College graduates are prepared to be environmental stewards, effective leaders, and responsible citizens through active learning experiences within a supportive community.

     In 2011, Unity College was named to the top 30 of the Washington Monthly college rankings, and was one of eighteen U.S. colleges and universities named to The Princeton Review’s 2010 Green Rating Honor Roll.