Fitchburg State U Removes Drinking Straw Option
(U.S.): In an attempt to improve waste reduction, recycling and composting, the university removed the straws, which are hard to spot when conducting post-consumer, dish room garbage separation.
Skidmore College Attains MSC Chain of Custody Certification
(U.S.): Haddock, pollock and cod at certain on-campus dining locations are now Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody certified, which ensures that the seafood can be traced back to a fishery that has been certified as sustainable and well-managed against the global, science-based MSC standard.
Portland State U to Increase Local Food Procurement
Under the new amendment developed by the Campus Sustainability Office and the university's food services provider, Aramark, PSU Dining will increase total local and third-party certified food expenditures each by 5 percent annually, based on purchases made in 2014.
U Utah Joins Real Food Commitment
Thanks to members of the campus community, the recently signed commitment means that University Dining Services will spend at least 20 percent of their total food purchases on real food, defined as local, nutritional, ecologically sound, humane and/or fair, by 2020, nearly doubling its current level.
Lehigh U Holds Seafood Awareness Event
In an effort to raise awareness of the impact from sushi's high demand, the university's Sustainability Office organized the reduced waste event in which students made their own sushi rolls, and learned about where the food came from and its ranking in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.
U Albany Recognizes Importance of Local Food
(U.S.): The university showcased its commitment to locally sourced foods through its participation in the inaugural Campus Crunch in which students, faculty and staff joined colleagues at 17 other schools and colleges across New York State to emphasize how universities can work with regional farms to promote sustainable food production.
U California Santa Cruz Converts to Staff Served Plates
(U.S.): Shifting from self-service, the new dining service was recently introduced in an attempt to minimize uneaten food scraps being sent to the university's compost facility. Preliminary measurements indicate a reduction of leftover food on plates.
U Oklahoma Students Request Real Food
Building on university Housing and Food's commitment to create a better food system, Students Against a Factory-Farming Economy sought signatures for the Real Food Campus Commitment, which asks for a university pledge to make 20 percent of all food sold on campus Real Food-certified by 2020.
Maharishi U Management Brings Local Food to Campus
(U.S.): Through new food purchasing standards, local farmers can now sell produce to the university that was grown without pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). By purchasing local produce to serve to students, the university saves money and reduces carbon emissions.
Gonzaga U Brings Local Food to Campus
Students can now expect more sustainable food options in the cafeteria thanks to a new partnership between the university and Local Inland Northwest Cooperative Growers. This partnership will contribute toward the Real Food Challenge pledge to source 25 percent of food from local providers by 2020.
U Utah Student Receives Sustainability Award
Kathleen Hunt, dining services sustainability coordinator and doctoral student, won the 2014 Green Champion Student Award for outstanding leadership, participation and promotion of sustainable effort in dining by the National Association of College and University Food Services (NACUFS).
Williams College Incorporates Real Food Metrics
Instead of using the Real Food Calculator to evaluate recent purchasing, the college recently decided to incorporate the criteria of the national food evaluation system into its menu management database in order to have access to real-time reports about how much sustainable food purchases are being made, and thus, begin a conversation about different ways of measuring sustainable food.
North Carolina State U Dining Hall Grows Rooftop Garden
Furthering its commitment to source more local food, staff started the garden to research ways to minimize water use while maximizing yield. The garden, which is based on organic gardening principles, has improved staff engagement and appreciation of food, which helps reduces food waste.
Shippensburg U Begins Food Recovery Network
(U.S.): Students from the university's social work discipline recently began fighting hunger in the surrounding community by delivering surplus food to a community meal program.
Hampshire College to Source Nearly 100% Local Food
The recent $50,000 grant from the Henry P. Kendall Foundation will support the university's Local Food Challenge, which will draw from the campus farm, the on-campus food management company's 40 farm shares, and will work to create collaborations with food suppliers within a 150-mile radius.
Montana State U Increases Local Food Procurement
In an effort to expand the university's Montana-Made program, University Food Services has hired a full-time staff member to grow relationships with current and potential vendors, gather baseline data, and create viable goals.
U New Mexico Establishes Student Food Pantry
Attempting to help students do well in school, the university's Dean of Students Office and local food bank are teaming up to provide students with healthy food on a regular basis.
Five Universities Win $5,000 Sodexo Grant
(United States): The Sodexo Foundation's Campus Kitchen Project video competition awarded the five universities funding for a Campus Kitchen, a student-operated kitchen that recovers quality food going to waste to provide nutritious meals for those in the community that are struggling with food insecurity. The winning universities are Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, St. Peter's University, Georgia Tech and University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.
UC Santa Cruz Procures Local Aquaponics Produce
(United States): Increasing the amount of local and sustainably-grown food, the university's Dining Halls are now serving lettuce that was grown without the use of chemical fertilizers, but instead fertilized by fish waste in a practice known as aquaponics.
U Michigan Attains Marine Stewardship Council Certification
The university recently achieved the MSC Chain of Custody third party certification, which supports sustainably-managed fisheries also certified by MSC standards. Five residential dining halls will offer seafood designated as MSC-certified.
Oklahoma State U Creates Healthy Food Labeling System
After receiving grant funds, the university's Dining Services program recently implemented the labeling system to indicate more healthful foods per U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. The system also labels more than 800 grab-and-go items with nutrition and allergen information.
Ten Universities Collaborate on Local Food Procurement
In an effort to procure more affordable locally-grown food, Yale University, Brown University, Connecticut College, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Rhode Island School of Design, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and University of New Hampshire gathered at Yale to discuss ways to take advantage of economies of scale in local food procurement.
Maryville U Dining Hall Recognized for Green Operations
The university's Gander Dining Hall was recently recognized by Green Dining Alliance of St. Louis for incorporating sustainable restaurant management and operational norms in the areas of recycling and waste reduction, awareness and education, sourcing and procurement, water conservation, energy conservation and efficiency, chemicals, and innovation.
Lafayette College Uses On-Campus Farm Produce in Dining Halls
The university's new food service provider, Bon Appetit, is now procuring 100 percent of produce grown at the student-run campus garden. Called the food loop, students have coordinated with Dining Services for the food scraps to be collected for compost that is reapplied on the garden fields.
Connecticut College Partners for Local Food Market
After a recent class focused on world food production, a student initiates the Sustainable Food Market, a partnership with community partner, Fiddleheads Co-operative, to provide the campus community with fresh, organic and local foods every Friday.
Three Universities Sign 'Real Food Campus Challenge'
Johns Hopkins University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and University of Montana, Missoula pledged to buy at least 20 percent real food annually by 2020. Johns Hopkins University pledged to source 35 percent.
Berea College to Open Local-Produce Grocery Store
The yet-to-be-opened store will offer organic fruits and vegetables, freshly prepared food, fish and humanely raised meat that are harvested, prepared and sold by Berea students as part of their jobs with the college. The goods will come from the college's on-campus farm.
U Maryland Partners for Sustainable Seafood
The university's Dining Services recently partnered with The Wide Net Project to contribute to restoration of the Chesapeake Bay's health and provide nutritious food to vulnerable communities.
Clarkson U Adds Reusable To-Go Containers
After a recent student project proposal indicated the desire for reusable to-go containers, the university's Dining Services/ARAMARK has implemented the reusable containers system to decrease waste sent to landfills.
Emory U Increases Local Food
In support of the university's sustainability goals, new dining options at Cox Hall include procurement of locally-sourced food and support of smaller, independent businesses.
Clarkson U Operates 100% Local Grill
In an effort to increase local food offerings, every ingredient used at the university’s Main Street Grill comes from a farm within 200 miles of the Quebec campus.
Brock U Initiates Fair Trade Purchasing
Building its inventory of fair trade products, the university now only sells Fair Trade Certified coffee at all non-franchise businesses. Three teas and one type of chocolate are also offered.
Harvard U Chef Recognized Nationally as Sustainability Pioneer
Food Tank, a non-profit think tank that explores environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity and poverty, has named the university's Healthy and Sustainable Food Program Director Barton Seaver as one of 11 chefs pioneering the movement toward sustainable food.
Rollins College Earns Fair Trade Status
Thanks to a student-led effort, the college is committed to purchasing fair trade products and encouraging its vendors to provide sustainable products created under fair working conditions. The school will also incorporate fair trade principles part of its curriculum.
U Arizona Harvests Campus Seed Pods for Flour
The university's Campus Arboretum has installed nets onto the trunks of mesquite trees to harvest the seed pods, which Dining Services will incorporate into dishes served on campus. Olives and citrus fruit will also be harvested in similar projects.
Hawai'i Institutions Join EPA Food Recovery Challenge
Hawai‘i Pacific University, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and Kapiolani Community College have pledged to reduce food waste as new participants in the national program. Around 35 million tons of food waste was generated in 2010, according to the Food Recovery Challenge website, 97 percent of which was thrown away into landfills or incinerators.
Hampshire College Embarks on Healthy Food Transition
(U.S.): In addition to working with its service provider to build menus around products harvested on its 15-acre campus farm, the college aims to use food to teach students, communicate values and experiment with new models of production and delivery that may help solve global resource challenges.
USA Today: Students Increasingly Searching out Local Food Sources
With a steady increase in farmers markets across the nation - 4,685 in 2008 to 7,864 in 2012 - USA Today reports a trend among college students to find out how their food is is grown, raised and processed. "My students increasingly are really thinking about the environmental consequences of the food we eat," says Laurie Thorp, program director of Michigan State University's Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment, in the article. "They understand that climate change is real, and that agriculture contributes to that."
