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.

Featured Resources

1209 resources

Fair Trade and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

  • University of North Carolina, Charlotte (NC)
  • Fair Trade Colleges & Universities

Fair Trade Campaigns is a powerful grassroots movement mobilizing thousands of conscious consumers and Fair Trade advocates on campuses and communities across the U.S. We are part of a ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
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Student Funded Initiatives & the Intersections of Social Justice & Sustainability

  • Portland Community College (OR)

This is going to address clear and tangible ways students can have agency and autonomy over some of their Student Activity Fees in order to create more than just a ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Decolonizing a College's Farm-to-Table Dinner

  • University of North Carolina, Asheville (NC)

This interactive workshop will explore how Whiteness and other form of dominant social power structures can be inadvertently reproduced within farm-to-table events when embedded assumptions in regards to the program ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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The Power of Process: Thoughtful Engagement for Successful Projects

  • Brown University (RI)
  • GreenerU (MA)

You probably know best practices in, say, composting. Maybe you have researched the best compost haulers, how composting food can reduce GHG emissions, and how it saves water and energy ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Sustainability Goal Setting at Universities: A Nitrogen Action Plan at the University of Virginia

  • University of Virginia (VA)

A nitrogen (N) footprint is the amount of reactive N released to the environment as a result of an entities' resource use. In 2010, the University of Virginia (UVA) became ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Projection and Scenario Analysis for Climate and Nitrogen Action Planning

  • University of New Hampshire (NH)
  • University of Virginia (VA)

Campuses are now calculating their carbon and nitrogen footprints together in SIMAP, a web-based platform launched in fall 2017. Once you have calculated your campus' footprints, how might you use ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Building and Supporting Social Movements for Institutional Change and Beyond

  • Real Food Challenge (MA)

Even as the campus sustainability movement has grown, the issues in our food system have continued to deepen. The average age of farmers in the U.S. is over 65 ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
  • Conference Presentations
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Student Funded Initiatives & the Intersections of Social Justice & Sustainability

  • Portland Community College (OR)

This is going to address clear and tangible ways students can have agency and autonomy over some of their Student Activity Fees in order to create more than just a ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Synergies in Sustainable Food Systems for Students, by Students

  • College of Charleston (SC)

In 2017, students, faculty, and staff at the College of Charleston were compelled by Charleston YOUth Count's data administered by the Joseph P. Riley Jr. Center for Livable Communities ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Urban green spaces connecting people and place

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

The following concept is a new project designed for the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus; the development and implementation of an urban green space titled The Lot @ ASU, that serves ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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The Campus Kitchens Project: Connecting the Campus and the Community

  • The Campus Kitchens Project (DC)

For more than 15 years The Campus Kitchens Project has been empowering students around the country to recover and transform would-be-wasted food into meals to feed members of their community ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Fighting Food Waste on College Campuses

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Aramark (PA)

BACKGROUND: An estimated 40% of food produced in the US goes uneaten, yet 1 in 8 Americans struggle with hunger. And that number may be even higher on college campuses ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Grassroots: Connecting Diverse Louisville Communities Through Sustainable Initiatives

  • University of Louisville (KY)

The environmental threat of food waste looms over the United States alongside the imminent threat of hunger. Watching food on campus being thrown away or composted, Erin and Henny believed ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Improving Inclusivity at Campus Farmers Market and Garden

  • University of Utah (UT)

The University of Utah Sustainability Office coordinates an on-campus farmers market and two edible garden sites that provide students, faculty, staff, and community members with local, healthy, and sustainable food ...

  • Posted Nov. 5, 2018
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Meeting the food waste challenge in higher education

  • Montana State University (MT)

Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing sustainability ...

  • Posted Oct. 23, 2018
  • Publications
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Making the Shift to Climate-Friendly Food Service

  • University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)
  • University of New Hampshire (NH)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • Friends of the Earth (DC)

The webinar will provide information covering broad menu-based strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of dining service. Friends of the Earth’s Food & Agriculture program consultant will introduce the ...

  • Posted Oct. 18, 2018
  • Videos & Webinars
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Campus Food Pantries: Insights From a National Survey

  • Temple University (PA)
  • College and University Food Bank Alliance (CUFBA) (MI)

Food insecurity is widespread on American college campuses. Students do not have enough food to feed themselves and sometimes their families as well. We created the College and University Food ...

  • Posted Oct. 10, 2018
  • Publications
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In planting campus gardens, university students root themselves in the larger world

  • George Washington University (DC)
  • Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (IL)
  • AASHE (PA)
  • The Washington Post (DC)

Campus gardens allow students an opportunity to tackle food deserts and take action on climate concerns they may have.

  • Posted Sept. 7, 2018
  • Publications
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FishChoice

  • Food Alliance (OR)
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium (CA)
  • Marine Stewardship Council (WA)
  • FishChoice Inc. (CO)

The FishChoice platform offers purchasers and STARS participants the ability to run seafood sustainability assessments and find products that meet sustainability standards such as Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, Fair ...


Food Recovery At UIC

  • University of Illinois Chicago (IL)

At the University of Illinois at Chicago's (UIC) dining facilities, there is much food that is prepared but not eaten. It goes to the landfill, but it could be ...

  • Posted Aug. 10, 2018
  • Case Studies
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Meeting the food waste challenge in higher education

  • Montana State University (MT)

Purpose: Food waste represents a major sustainability challenge with environmental, economic, social and health implications. Institutions of higher education contribute to generating food waste while serving as models in championing ...

  • Posted Aug. 10, 2018
  • Publications
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Princeton University Vertical Farming Project

  • Princeton University (NJ)

The Princeton University Vertical Farming Project, led by Dr. Paul Gauthier, uses a hydroponic and artificial lighting growing system to study the viability of feeding a rapidly growing world population ...


No food for thought: Food insecurity is related to poor mental health and lower academic performance among students in California’s public university system

  • University of South Carolina (SC)
  • University of Michigan (MI)

This study examined the relationships between food insecurity, mental health, and academic performance among college students in a California public university system (N = 8705). Structural equation modeling was performed to ...


Free Food Planters at University of New Brunswick

  • University of New Brunswick, Fredericton (NB)

To engage its campus community in personal and social change through sustainable urban agriculture, the University of New Brunswick Sustainability Office has established sustainable, self-watering, free food planters around the ...


Real Food Standards 2.1

  • Real Food Challenge (MA)

The Real Food Standards are a set of criteria and certifications that define Real Food. The purpose of these Standards is to incentivize purchasing from food producers who reflect the ...


Emory University supports local community project and skilled job training with commitment to purchase lettuce

  • Emory University (GA)

Emory University and the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta partnered on a project to create green jobs in a low-income area of Atlanta and help Emory achieve its 75% local ...


Emerson College Food Cam

  • Emerson College (MA)

The Emerson College Food Cam is a counter with camera mount that allows members of the campus community to share leftover food with others. Often used by campus catering, donors ...


Anabel’s grocery “for students, by students"

  • Cornell University (NY)

We love our Cornell University community so much! Thank you for all your encouragement and support this past week--it means the world to us. We worked tirelessly to make Anabel ...


Anabel’s grocery is “for students, by students

  • Cornell University (NY)

Come celebrate the end of the semester with Anabel's Grocery in Stocking Hall. Come relax and prepare for quick cheap meals you can make when you're busy studying ...


Anabel’s grocery is a low cost grocery “for students, by students”.

  • Cornell University (NY)

Anabel’s grocery is a low cost grocery provider on Cornell’s central campus that is “for students, by students”.


Anabel's Grocery

  • Cornell University (NY)

Anabel's Grocery student run grocery sells quality food.


ZipGrow Towers at Missouri State University

  • Missouri State University (MO)

In summer 2016, a basement storage room at Missouri State University was repurposed into a hydroponic growing room for the ZipGrow vertical growing towers program. Chartwells and MSU Dining Services ...


University of Pittsburgh BYO[Bag] Program

  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)

The University of Pittsburgh BYO[Bag] (Bring Your Own Bag) program launched through Pitt Housing & Dining in 2014 after more than five years of student initiatives to reduce plastic ...


Temple Tiny House

  • Temple University (PA)

The Temple University Tiny House project is a student designed and student constructed sustainable building located at Temple Community Garden on main campus. Completed in spring 2017, the 175 square ...


University of Dayton Composting Bins

  • University of Dayton (OH)

Students in the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute built two 4’x6’ bins to compost campus food.


Food Waste Composting Bin Construction

  • University of Dayton (OH)

Student leaders in the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute work with campus Master Carpenter to build two 4’x6’ bins to compost campus food waste.


Food Waste Composting Bin Construction

  • University of Dayton (OH)

Student leaders in the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute are building two 4’x6’ bins to compost campus food waste.


Edible Campus UNC Student Volunteers

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)

Edible Campus UNC at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a program of the North Carolina Botanical Garden that incorporates edible, medicinal, and pollinator-friendly plants into existing landscapes ...


Edible Campus UNC Student Volunteers

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)

Edible Campus UNC at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a program of the North Carolina Botanical Garden that incorporates edible, medicinal, and pollinator-friendly plants into existing landscapes ...


Edible Campus Garden at UNC Chapel Hill

  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)

Edible Campus UNC at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a program of the North Carolina Botanical Garden that incorporates edible, medicinal, and pollinator-friendly plants into existing landscapes ...


MSU ZipGrow Tower full growth

  • Missouri State University (MO)

In summer 2016, a basement storage room at Missouri State University was repurposed into a hydroponic growing room for the ZipGrow vertical growing towers program. Chartwells and MSU Dining Services ...


Solar Sheep at Antioch College

  • Antioch College (OH)

Since 2015, Antioch College has brought sheep to campus to live in a distinctly different location – the five-acre Antioch solar farm. The small “self-fertilizing lawnmowers” live within the fenced-in solar ...


Student enjoys a plate filled with plant-based proteins at Rice University

  • Rice University (TX)

Rice University's Housing and Dining department created an initiative called #ourplantbasedjourney to serve delicious plant-based proteins marketed to all students, not just those who self-identify as vegans or vegetarians ...


From Farm to Fork at Rice University

  • Rice University (TX)

Rice University chef Martin De Santiago shops for locally-sourced ingredients at the Rice University Farmers Market to use in a Farm-to-Fork dinner. The dinner was organized by the student club ...


Farm to Fork Dinner, Spring 2018

  • Rice University (TX)

Rice University student group Real Food Revolution teams with Rice's Housing and Dining department once a semester to host a Farm-to-Fork dinner, featuring a full menu of locally-sourced food ...


University of Dayton Composting and Recycling Bins

  • University of Dayton (OH)

The University of Dayton places composting and recycling bins outside dining facilities on campus to encourage composting and recycling and diverting “trash” from landfills.


University of Dayton Composting Bins

  • University of Dayton (OH)

Students in the University of Dayton Hanley Sustainability Institute built two 4’x6’ bins to compost campus food and plastic.


ANSI/LEO-4000, The American National Standard for Sustainable Agriculture

  • Leonardo Academy (WI)

The ANSI/LEO-4000 American National Standard for Sustainable Agriculture empowers the entire agricultural supply chain, from producers to consumers, to decisively advance sustainability in agriculture. It is a benchmarking standard ...


The Catastrophic Meal--Exploring the Food Systems and Cultures of the Future

  • Vestjyllands Højskole

Vestjyllands Højskole hosted The Catastrophic Meal to demonstrate both a utopian and dystopian view of future food culture. As part of the EU's Aarhus City of Culture celebrations, the ...


Francis Feast and Learn: Sustainability Teach-In and Local Foods Dinner

  • Loyola University Maryland (MD)

The Francis Feast and Learn is a sustainability teach-in and locally sourced meal, inspired by the life’s work of St. Francis of Assisi and Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si ...

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.

All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.

OP 7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

OP 8: Sustainable Dining

Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.

Food & Dining Partners