aashe stars conference community hub bulletin
Login Create an Account Become a Member

AASHE Campus Sustainability Hub
Browse All

Food & Dining

Introduction

Modern industrial food production often has deleterious environmental and social impacts. Institutions can use their food purchases to support their local economies; encourage safe, environmentally friendly and humane farming methods; and help eliminate unsafe working conditions and alleviate poverty for farmers. These actions help reduce environmental impacts, preserve regional farmland, improve local food security, and support fair and resilient food systems. Dining services can also support sustainable food systems by preventing food waste and diverting food materials from the waste stream, by making low impact dining options available, and by educating its customers about more sustainable options and practices.

View all Food & Dining Submit a new resource

Featured Resources

New Resources

1116 resources

Food Justice Fellowships - Rooted in Community

  • Saint Mary's College of California (CA)

Food insecurity is defined as the state of being without reliable access to sufficient affordable and nutritious food. Food insecurity in the San Francisco Bay Area (and our state, country ...

  • Posted Sept. 20, 2022
  • Case Studies
  • View more
UMass Lowell students harvest herbs from the Rist Green Roof at University Crossing

UMass Lowell Rooftop Urban Agriculture

  • University of Massachusetts Lowell (MA)

Rooftop Urban Agriculture - The Office of Sustainability at University of Massachusetts Lowell has developed an innovative urban agriculture program in partnership with Mill City Grows, a local food justice non-profit ...

Portobello “Pot Roast” ingredients during live recipe testing in front of the students from the USC Village Dining Hall 100% Plant Based Station

USC recognized as a top performer in sustainable food and dining

  • University of Southern California (CA)

USC is among the Top Performers under the Food & Dining impact area in the 2022 Sustainable Campus Index.

UMN Morris works with partners to launch county-wide composting program

UMN Morris works with partners to launch county-wide composting program

  • University of Minnesota, Morris (MN)

UMN Morris helped launch the new countywide composing program. UMN Morris hit a milestone of diverting 1 million pounds of organic material from the landfill with its onsite cold-weather system ...

Stanford students enjoying the seared salmon, sauteed spinach, and roasted heirloom potatoes dish they cooked in their R&DE Teaching Kitchen class.

Teaching Kitchen Photo

  • Stanford University (CA)

Stanford students learn how to create delicious, nutritious, and environmentally conscious dishes in the R&DE Teaching Kitchen at Stanford. The teaching kitchen provides cooking classes to students, staff, and faculty ...

Stanford undergraduate students at New Student Orientation

NSO Stanford Dining Students

  • Stanford University (CA)

Students enjoy fresh fruit and fresh air at New Student Orientation

Spicy coconut broth poured over egg noodles, tofu, radish, cabbage, bok choy, roasted summer squash chili with mint garnish.

Malaysian Tofu Laksa

  • Stanford University (CA)

Malaysian Tofu Laksa is one of R&DE Stanford Dining’s student favorites

Jeong Kwan and her assistant Yoon Hee Kim at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm.

Jeong Kwan and her assistant Yoon Hee Kim at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm

  • Stanford University (CA)

Jeong Kwan–a world-renowned chef and Buddhist nun–teaches students, faculty, and staff about plant-forward Korean Buddhist temple cuisine at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm, at an event ...

Stanford students at R&DE Stanford Dining’s Neighborhood BBQ

Stanford students at R&DE Stanford Dining’s Neighborhood BBQ

  • Stanford University (CA)

Students enjoy their meals outside Crothers Hall on Stanford’s campus during one of Stanford Dining’s Neighborhood BBQs, fostering community and belonging as part of the campuswide ResX initiative.

O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm

Class at the O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm

  • Stanford University (CA)

Class at the O'Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm

Bennington College Commons Dining Hall (Exterior)

Sustainable Food & Dining at Bennington College

  • Bennington College (VT)

Interior and exterior views of Bennington College's Commons Dining Hall, which serves locally sourced and sustainably produced food. Also featured is the on-campus Purple Carrot Farm, which is student-led ...

Campus Cornucopia Food Forest

Cascadia Cornucopia Food Forest

  • Cascadia College (WA)

The main sign and welcome space for the campus food forest. The Cascadia Cornucopia Food Forest is an open foraging and growing spot for the campus community to learn about ...

Sustainable Catering@Penn

  • University of Pennsylvania (PA)

Sustainable Catering@Penn - A newly designed webpage at University of Pennsylvania provides search functionality for information about Penn’s Preferred Contract Caterers. Through Catering@Penn, users can now search for ...

Sustainable Food and Farming (Online Certificate)

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

The 15-credit Certificate in Sustainable Food and Farming is designed for adults looking to make a career change, returning Veterans, or those pursuing a lifelong interest related to food, gardening ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Civic Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) Minor

  • Virginia Tech (VA)

The Civic Agriculture and Food Systems Pathways minor embodies a commitment to developing and strengthening an economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable agriculture and food systems through building community capacity, using ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Sustainable Food and Farming BS

  • West Virginia University (WV)

Sustainable Food and Farming is the study of relationships among organisms and habitats in agricultural ecosystems. Climate and soil properties, activities of other organisms, and management practices affect the growth ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Plant Pathology MS

  • West Virginia University (WV)

The Plant Pathology graduate program is ideal for students who desire a career in plant health, food security or the environment. Graduates will be prepared to be leaders and productive ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Crop Management Minor

  • Cornell University (NY)

The minor enables students with majors in fields such as applied economics and management, communication, ESS, IARD and sociology to gain technical and scientific knowledge for careers in areas such ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Sustainable Food Production Certificate

  • Missouri State University (MO)

This certificate provides information to grow plant-based produce for human consumption using sustainable cropping system practices. Students who complete this certificate will obtain fundamental knowledge of successful plant production systems ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

MS in Environmental Health Science Food Safety Management Track

  • University of Sharjah

The Department of Environmental Health Science has launched its graduate program, Master of Science in Environmental Health, in Fall 2020-2021 after receiving its initial accreditation from UAE Ministry of Education ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Master of Agriculture and Environment

  • University of Sydney (NSW)

The Master of Agriculture and Environment trains students to solve the big challenges in the world: food security, climate change, and management of carbon, water and the environment. With lots ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Major (B.A.)

  • University of New Hampshire (NH)

This B.A. degree program is ideal for students interested in developing a broad base of knowledge and experience in modern agricultural and food systems with the flexibility to take ...

  • Posted June 10, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more

Applied Local Food System Minor

  • Butler University (IN)

The Applied Local Food System (ALFS) minor and concentration is a truly cross-disciplinary program where students, instructors, community internship host sites, and community members learn through collaboration. As a cohort ...

  • Posted May 23, 2022
  • Academic Programs
  • View more
First Food Donation Pick-Up!

We Feed Aggie Animals

  • Texas A&M University (TX)
  • Chartwells Higher Education (NY)

Texas A&M Aggie Dining launched a new "We Feed Aggie Animals" food waste initiative to enhance goals of eliminating food waste while supporting the campus community. Starting in January 2022 ...

Evaluating Food Packaging Waste in Schools: A Systematic Literature Review

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

Public schools in the U.S. generate about 14,500 tons of municipal solid waste daily, and approximately 42% of that is food packaging generated by school foodservice, contributing significantly ...

Food sustainability perception at universities: Education and demographic features effects

  • Università degli Studi di Torino
  • Università degli Studi di Palermo

The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations merged in 17 goals the strong need to change the pattern of human life on the planet in a path of strengthening sustainability ...

Development of the University Food Environment Assessment (Uni-Food) Tool and Process to Benchmark the Healthiness, Equity, and Environmental Sustainability of University Food Environments

  • Monash University (VIC)
  • University of Sydney (NSW)
  • Deakin University
  • University of Melbourne (Victoria)
  • University of Wollongong (New South Wales)
  • University of Tasmania
  • Flinders University

Globally, there is increasing interest in monitoring actions to create healthy, equitable and environmentally sustainable food environments. Currently, there is a lack of detailed tools for monitoring and benchmarking university ...

Learning from the Dirt: Initiating university food gardens as a cross-disciplinary tertiary teaching tool

  • Macquarie University (NSW)

Food gardens are an underdeveloped resource for teaching and research in Australian universities. While some campuses have food or botanical gardens, outside the biological or physical sciences food growing is ...

Information Disclosure and Climate-Friendly Consumption: Assessing the Impact of Carbon Labelling at a University Dining Hall

  • University of California, Berkeley (CA)

Global dietary patterns are increasingly reliant on animal products, which are highly carbon intensive and significantly contribute to climate change. While transitioning towards plant-based diets is regarded as an important ...

Contactless Food Box Deliveries: Driving Down Food Insecurity

  • University of California, Merced (CA)

The University of California, Merced (UC Merced) launched the Contactless Food Box Delivery Program in December 2020 which continues to this day. 5-10 boxes are delivered every week to those ...

Washington and Lee Quick Hits: Sustainability Leadership Trip Explores Local Food

  • Washington and Lee University (VA)

Washington and Lee University takes student leaders in sustainability on a trip to explore local foods and dining waste. It features the students visiting the campus's local garden that ...

  • Posted May 19, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

Students’ knowledge and expectations about sustainable food systems in higher education

  • University of Kassel
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • University of Copenhagen
  • Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego (Warsaw)
  • ISARA Agro School for Life
  • Eesti Maaülikool, EMÜ
  • FH Münster
  • University of Gastronomic Sciences (Piedmont)

To clarify needs and requests of the young generation to the contemporary and future education on food systems, this paper aims to examine the following issues: students’ background knowledge, students ...

The Perceived Importance and Intended Purchasing Patterns of Sustainable Foods in Australian University Students

  • Western Sydney University (NSW)
  • University of Tasmania

Although there has been considerable research on consumers’ opinions about sustainable foods and purchasing behaviors, the experience of university students remains unclear. This study aims to characterize university students’ perceptions ...

Higher education institutions, SDG2 and agri-food sustainability: lessons from Chulalongkorn University and Thailand

  • Chulalongkorn University

This paper examines higher education efforts linking United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and agri-food system sustainability given reports of stagnant movement for SDG2 in Southeast Asia and lack of ...

A comprehensive approach for the feasibility assessment of on-campus food waste composting

  • American University of Sharjah (Ash Shariqah)
  • German Jordanian University

Food waste management is increasingly emphasized globally due to its economic and environmental impacts and the strategic transformation towards sustainability. This can be observed from the increasing number of Zero ...

Integration of food waste composting and vegetable gardens in a university campus

  • University of A Coruña (a Coruña)

Local composting (household, community and small scale applications) is considered a sustainable option for bio-waste recovery and is receiving increasing demand from society. Higher education institutions are no exception, but ...

Reducing the environmental impact of food service in universities using life cycle assessment

  • Eckerd College (FL)

This study aims to use life cycle assessment to determine the environmental impact of food purchases at a small, liberal arts college. The authors also use the results to develop ...

From tensions to transformation: Teaching food systems in a graduate dietetics course

  • University of Toronto (ON)

Dietitians are deeply embedded within food systems, so food systems concepts are becoming an essential component of dietetic education in Canada. Yet how can we, as educators, better prepare future ...

A Discussion About Environmental Justice in Vermont

  • University of Vermont (VT)

Project Green Schools was delighted to host A Discussion About Environmental Justice in Vermont in partnership with Vermont House Speaker, Conor Kennedy, Shelburne Farms, VT FEED, Hunger Free Vermont, VEEP ...

  • Posted May 9, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more
BC Dining Waste Sorting Game on the Quad for Green Week

Boston College Green Week: BC Dining Hosts Events to Promote Sustainability Initiatives

  • Boston College (MA)

Each year, to celebrate Earth Day, Boston College clubs and organizations collaborate to host Green Week. With different events, pop-ups, and educational resources, students are able to see all of ...

sustainNU Hosts Reuse & Repair Fair

  • Northwestern University (IL)

Northwestern's Office of Sustainability hosted a Repair and Reuse Fair featuring a variety of on-campus and local vendors, including a local bike shop, clothing mending organization, tool library, zero-waste ...

CFR 7/22 Higher Education Webinar: Campus Sustainability and Climate Change Mitigation

  • Mount Holyoke College (MA)

V.S. “Raghu” Raghavan, director of sustainability and associate director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke College, discusses actions campuses can take toward greater sustainability ...

  • Posted May 2, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more
As part of JMU's Greening Your Event Program, organizers for the annual School of Integrated Sciences Senior Symposium selected a catering menu that supports their commitment to climate action.

Earth Conscious Menu at JMU Senior Symposium Event

  • James Madison University (VA)

On Earth Day, students in JMU's School of Integrated Sciences presented their work at the annual Senior Symposium. This year, the SIS Senior Symposium was recognized by JMU's ...

JMU Geography Students Celebrate 10 Years of Gardening at Local Elementary School

JMU Geography Students Celebrate 10 Years of Gardening at Local Elementary School

  • James Madison University (VA)

JMU Geography faculty and students celebrated Earth Day with students from an elementary school in Harrisonburg, Virginia as a continuation of 10 years of gardening together. Dr. Amy Goodall and ...

Queens College Student Association and Mangia Fresca showcase new food biodegradable/compostable food containers

Queens College Reduces Single-Use Plastics In Our Dining Halls

  • City University of New York, Queens College (NY)

Queens College, a college within the City University of New York system, recently launched an initiative to reduce single-use plastics in our campus dining halls. Our food servicer, Mangia Fresca ...

A Food-Themed Cross-Disciplinary Faculty-Staff Learning Community Enriches Place-Based Experiential Learning Curricula

  • Butler University (IN)
  • Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) (IN)
  • Indiana University

This document contains instructional resources to facilitate an 8-month Faculty-Staff Learning Community (FSLC) focused on learning and discussion to support the creation of campus farm-situated place-based experiential learning (PBEL) lessons ...

  • Posted April 25, 2022
  • Course Materials
  • View more
Neumann University Earth Day Mass

Neumann University Earth Day Events

  • Neumann University (PA)

Neumann University's Earth Day events started with a mass outside in the Rose Garden. We also had a demonstration of mat weaving recycling plastic bags to give to homeless ...

  • Posted April 25, 2022
  • Photographs
  • View more

Sport Goals Are Sustainably Goals

  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)

The University of Tennessee Knoxville's football stadium has a capacity of 102k fans. With the amount of fans each game brings, there is bound to be a lot of ...

  • Posted April 18, 2022
  • Photographs
  • View more
On-site testing of new waste bin signage at UT Austin.

Creating Effective Waste Bin Signage

  • University of Texas at Austin (TX)

A University of Texas at Austin Zero Waste Working Group used a comprehensive process including signage studies, waste composition data, and a progression of testing to design a new campus-wide ...

  • Posted March 10, 2022
  • Case Studies
  • View more

EPA P3 Funded Project to Build App to Address Food Waste and Insecurity on College Campuses

  • Baldwin Wallace University (OH)
  • AASHE (PA)

Food waste and insecurity are significant issues with the national average of food insecurity standing at approximately 28% on college campuses. Our student population matches that figure based on a ...

  • Posted Feb. 17, 2022
  • Videos & Webinars
  • View more

This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community. Additional content and advanced benchmarking tools will be added to this tab over time.

Benchmarking Data

The following links connect to specific Content Displays on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).

Programs and Initiatives

The following links connect to specific Content Displays on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).

Scores

The following link connects to the Score Display on the STARS website (AASHE membership and log-in required).

Food & Dining Partners

All Material Copyright © 2005–2022 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
AASHE reserves the right to control the reproduction and use of all material posted on this website.
For questions about this site, please email resources@aashe.org — Privacy Policy

About
Finding Resources
Submission Guidelines