At Northern Illinois University, a serving of rice comes with a side of sustainabilityAt Northern Illinois University, a serving of rice comes with a side of sustainability

Sustainability is arguably one of the hottest topics in college dining segment and you’d be hard pressed to find a higher education dining program who is not looking for ways to go green. Northern Illinois University (NIU) in Dekalb, Illinois is no exception to this rule and when the school’s Executive Director of Campus Dining Daniel Koenen heard about a type of rice with an impressive sustainability profile (more on that later) grown locally, he was immediately interested. 

“[NIU] has an extensive sustainability plan, so I was looking at ways to become more sustainable in the dining program, and one of those is to try to purchase more locally, he says. 

Koenen and the team found out about Cahokia Rice Farm located downstate in McClure, Illinois. Fourth generation farmer Blake Gerard has been growing rice on this land for over 30 years. Several years ago, he bought the patent to grow a type of rice called Frontière which was developed by researchers at Louisiana State University.

Frontière is naturally higher in protein compared to other white rice varieties and it’s also better for blood sugar management.  

“Our white rice has a glycemic index of 41; most white rice has a glycemic index of between 70 and 90,” says Sales and Distribution Manager for Cahokia Rice Jason Homan. In addition, the rice is heavy metal and arsenic free. 

Farmer Blake Gerard has been growing and harvesting rice for over 30 years.

While growing and harvesting Frontière has been a more recent addition to Cahokia farm, the farm’s sustainability efforts have been happening for decades. Gerard employs several different sustainable practices at Cahokia including cover crops, no till methods and more. 

One of biggest ways Gerard is able to go green is through the help of local wildlife. The rice fields at Cahokia are teeming with different animals such as birds, snakes and frogs which constantly churn the soil with their movement to keep it healthy while preventing erosion. 

Gerard is hoping to pass the farm down to his children so implementing these green practices is essential to keeping the land healthy for the generations to come. 

“Everyone is going to have to learn how to do more with less,” says Gerard. “And if we have less farmable land, that's going to be a problem.”

Birds and other wildlife at Cahokia Rice Farm help keep the soil healthy and prevent erosion.

Today, Cahokia rice is used at both NIU’s residential dining locations and at a Qdoba on campus. Its residential eateries use about 300 pounds of the rice weekly, while the Qdoba goes through about 600 pounds. 

At residential dining, the menu item is incorporated into many different types of dishes, including chicken and rice and rice pudding. One of the most popular dishes that uses the rice, however, Koenen says, is a broccoli rice casserole (in case you had any doubt that NIU was located in the Midwest). 

The dish starts by sauteing onions on the stove until they’re soft. Then, flour, garlic and pepper and milk are added. The mixture is taken off the heat and mustard, paprika, salt, cream cheese and cheddar cheese are incorporated and stirred until melted. 

Meanwhile, broccoli and rice are boiled on the stove and are then added to a casserole pan along with the cheese mixture. The whole thing is topped with more cheese and then baked for 35 minutes. 

It’s only been a year since the rice has graced the menus at NIU and Koenen is interested to see what new ways the rice will be used on menus in the future.

“Each semester, we sit our chefs sit down and propose new recipes. So [the rice will] be part of that process,” he adds.