2.5.4 Sustainable food purchases

In 2025, Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) continued to prioritise the purchase of products from local, sustainable sources. The university's procurement policy asks every unit to choose environmentally friendly products first, and its food comes partly from its own organic farm, a trusted source run by the university itself. Through its community projects, SWU also takes students, staff and participants to buy food and community products directly from local producers, and it creates new markets where local food producers can sell to the public. Together, these practices direct university spending towards sustainable sources and help to build thriving local economies and sustainable livelihoods.

A university policy that prioritises sustainable purchasing

SWU has a Policy on Promoting and Supporting the Procurement of Environmentally Friendly Products, which applies to all divisions and departments of the university and remains in force in 2025. Under this policy, any unit that plans a purchase is expected to prioritise environmentally friendly products. The unit writes environmentally friendly features into its specifications or terms of reference, and then checks whether suitable products and suppliers are listed in the Green Procurement database of certified products and services of the Pollution Control Department. If only one certified supplier exists, the unit may buy directly from that supplier; if there are two or more, it uses the selective method, so that certified products can be chosen ahead of conventional ones.

Where no certified product is available, purchasing follows the Government Procurement and Supplies Management Act B.E. 2560 (2017). Under this national framework, public agencies give preference to products made in Thailand and to Thai small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which supports domestic and local producers. In this way, the prioritisation of sustainable sources is built into the way the university buys goods and services, including food and catering for its activities.

Source: https://rankings.swu.ac.th/swu-sdgs/sdg-2/254

Food from the university's own sustainable source: CCAS FARM

Part of the food used by the university community comes from SWU's own farm. The CCAS FARM Organic Agriculture Learning Center of Bodhivijjalaya College (College of Creative Agriculture for Society, CCAS) at the Ongkharak Campus in Nakhon Nayok grows organic salad vegetables in smart greenhouses and organic rice in demonstration plots. The farm uses environmentally sustainable management of the land, with minimised exposure to manufactured herbicides and artificial fertilisers and no or low level of pesticides. Its produce is shared with university personnel for their own meals, so that staff can eat fresh, safe food from a trusted source only a short distance from where it was grown.

In 2025, the farm also opened its greenhouses to farmers and community members from the local area, who learned how to grow safe vegetables and took fresh produce home. By producing food close to campus and sharing both the produce and the know-how, the university shortens the food supply chain, cuts the transport of food over long distances and supports the protection of diversity of plants and soil life on its land.

Figure 1: Community members and university staff with fresh, chemical-free vegetables from the CCAS FARM smart greenhouse, Ongkharak Campus, 2025

Source: Bodhivijjalaya College (College of Creative Agriculture for Society), Srinakharinwirot University

Buying food and products directly from local communities

SWU's community projects give priority to local producers when food and products are needed during activities. The Social Service Office runs the Ongkharak Model school for older adults in Nakhon Nayok Province, and its field visits include stops at community markets and local producers, where participants can buy food and products directly from the people who make them.

On 9 April 2025, during the third session of the holistic well-being course, older adults from Bang Pla Kot and Pho Thaen subdistricts in Ongkharak District visited Nong Saeng Subdistrict in Pak Phli District. There they learned about leaf-printed fabric and healthy eating, and then shopped at the "Khak Di Mi Haeng" healthy food market at the Nong Hua Ling Nai Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital. The market sells chemical-free food whose main ingredients come from the community and which is made by people in the community, such as fresh mangoes, local vegetables, bamboo-tube sticky rice, crispy baked bananas and riceberry rice. Buying here means buying food from local, sustainable sources: it travels only a short distance, is grown with no or low level of pesticides, and its income goes straight to local older people, who gain both earnings and a sense of value.

Figure 2: Poster of the "Khak Di Mi Haeng" healthy food market, which sells chemical-free food made from community ingredients by people in the community, at the Nong Hua Ling Nai Subdistrict Health Promoting Hospital, Nong Saeng Subdistrict, Pak Phli District, Nakhon Nayok Province

Figure 3: Local sellers offering fresh mangoes (left) and local vegetables and bamboo-tube sticky rice (right) at the market, 9 April 2025

Figure 4: Community-made crispy baked bananas and snacks (left) and locally grown riceberry rice (right) sold at the market

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid0218CSPDDixVCFKSiWyFs7uDfHxRc5KDH7VRq5t7e62ij8zuxAQGV7AB2kh2i8oUJ5l

On 24 June 2025, the Social Service Office, under the Vice President for Social Planning and Strategy, took older students from Pho Thaen and Bang Pla Kot subdistricts on a study visit to the Phlapphla Chai Subdistrict Administrative Organisation in U Thong District, Suphan Buri Province, to learn about its school for older adults and good local management. As part of the visit, local older people presented products made in their community, such as hand-woven fabrics, bags and baskets, and the group purchased products from them, putting money directly into the hands of local producers.

Figure 5: SWU staff and older students from Pho Thaen and Bang Pla Kot subdistricts at the Phlapphla Chai Subdistrict Administrative Organisation, U Thong District, Suphan Buri Province, 24 June 2025

Figure 6: Older students learning about the Phlapphla Chai school for older adults and its local management

Figure 7: Local older people presenting hand-woven fabrics, bags and baskets made in their community, which the visiting group bought to support local producers

Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid0HEP8N483fRAyBrdL7tCHrJJgvcyxJ9E8Hn5kH6Yb76iLzGYwyXs7T1yafioeQKULl

Opening markets for local food producers

SWU also helps local producers find buyers so that local, sustainable products can compete with mass-produced goods. From 20 to 22 June 2025, the university held the Community Product Market at Central Ayutthaya with the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Provincial Cultural Council and Central Ayutthaya. Villagers and community enterprises from Uthai District sold food and community products directly to shoppers, without going through middlemen. The market encouraged the public to buy local products and helped producers earn a fair income from their work.

Figure 8: The District Chief of Uthai, SWU executives and partners at the Community Product Market, Central Ayutthaya, 20–22 June 2025

Figure 9: Project partners with villagers from Uthai District (left), and local producers selling their products at the market (right)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/swufofa/posts/pfbid02nWvfevcfAK1LjwwK5GdsPyhDXEKEiPmYAgnYFtLv6xThGCUgC6rXPPGmJrSLURPZl

Supporting local economies through everyday purchasing

Through its procurement policy, its own organic farm, direct purchases from community producers and the markets it creates, SWU makes sure that products from local, sustainable sources come first when the university and its community spend money on food and goods. These choices favour food produced with care for the land, support the avoidance of damaging or wasting natural resources and keep income within local communities, contributing to SDG 2: Zero Hunger.