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

1210 resources

Community Garden Connections: strengthening resilience through university-community partnerships

  • Antioch University, New England (NH)

Our city identified food security as a priority issue given likely disruptions in the commercial food supply due to climate change and peak oil, in addition to food insecurity (hunger ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Fostering a Local Food Procurement System: UVa Dining's Relationship with the Local Food Hub

  • University of Virginia (VA)

Interest in local and sustainably produced food is at an all-time high on college campuses, as illustrated by the rising number of campus gardens and courses on local foodsheds. The ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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On-Campus Food Scraps Composting: Sustainability in Practice

  • Kean University (NJ)

It has been suggested that "harvesting food waste as a reusable resource is the next frontier in recycling."" This presentation will highlight the steps involved in creating a highly successful ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Meatless Monday at Johns Hopkins University

  • Aramark (PA)

Meatless Monday is a program that JHU Dining launched in November 2010. The national Meatless Monday campaign was launched in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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How can a college or university integrate sustainable and environmental friendly practices into their dining service program?

  • Marist College (NY)

As the movement for sustainable and healthy foods spreads across the United States and throughout the world, our campus food service operations are directly impacted. This program provides inspiration and ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Partnership and Collaboration: Establishing a farmers market program on a university campus

  • Arizona State University (AZ)

The campus farmers market is in its second year. Success has been largely due to cross-departmental cooperation as well as partnerships with third-party market association vendors and University dining services ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Greenhouse Provides Local Food and Research on Vegetable Production in Cold Climates

  • Clarkson University (NY)

A student team designed and built a 450 sq. ft. pilot greenhouse to test the feasibility of maximizing produce yields while minimizing energy requirements for local food production in cold ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Engaged Scholarship for Sustainability: University of New Hampshire's Initiative to Facilitate Regional Food System Collaboration

  • University of New Hampshire (NH)

Food Solutions New England (FSNE) is an example of a university-based effort to advance regional food system sustainability through collaboration using an engaged scholarship model. Engaged scholarship promotes mutually beneficial ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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CoFed: Student-Run Sustainable Food Centers

  • CoFED (NM)

Everyday, every student has three opportunities to create an identity as a passive consumer or as a participant in a sustainable alternatives. Creating a student-managed food business focused on sustainability ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student-led dining efficiency projects yield sizzling savings

  • Alliance to Save Energy (CA)

University student groups collaborated with dining services to achieve substantial savings through a multi-faceted project approach. Students launched a "de-lighted dining" campaign to have eating areas lit only by daylight ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Moving Millennials: Engaging youth with food and agriculture policy

  • Bard College (NY)

The sweeping environmental policies instituted in America during the 1970s were due in large part to the activism of students and youth. The Millennial generation, born between 1982 and 2000 ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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CHEFS: Estimating Life Cycle GHG Emissions from Campus Dining Services and Contributing to Vital Research

  • Clean Air-Cool Planet (NH)

Clean Air-Cool Planet created CHEFS, or Charting Emissions from Food Services, to help institutions estimate emissions from the entire life cycle of food they serve, from farm to campus. CHEFS ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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College of Menominee Nation Campus Grind Coffee Shop: A Case Study in Indigenous Entrepreneurship and Sustainability

  • College of Menominee Nation (WI)

The Campus Grind Coffee Shop, located at the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) on the Menominee Reservation, is an indigenous business created by two student organizations at CMN: Strategies for ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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College Dining Services uses Intern Program to Achieve Sustainability Goals

  • College of William & Mary (VA)

The College has made great strides in sustainability in a very short amount of time. Just three years ago, the College had no formal recycling program and sustainability was a ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Student Involvement & Institutional Food Systems

  • Green Mountain College (VT)

A closer look at how students get involved on campus to implement change within their institutionalized food system. Students interested in providing their campus community with more "good food""- local ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Designing An Edible Campus: Using the Charrette Framework to Create a Campus-Wide Initiative

  • Indiana University Bloomington (IN)

During the spring of 2011, a three part design series entitled, "Designing An Edible Campus" was conducted using the framework outlined by the National Charrette Institute. Most commonly, a charrette ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Implementation of Student Driven Sustainability Initiatives: Ithaca Dining Services

  • Ithaca College (NY)

How to put into practice initiatives that conserve natural resources, are economically friendly, that mirror a college's commitment to sustainability. Beginning in 2008, we have established numerous sustainability proposals ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Industrial Scale Composting at James Madison University

  • James Madison University (VA)

This project aims to provide James Madison University (JMU) with a sustainable means of recycling food waste generated at the dining facilities on-campus. To this end, an aerobic composting reactor ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Beyond Local: Food Purchasing Criteria, Student Farm Audits and the Veg Yourself Pledge

  • Luther College (IA)

Food purchasers have ever more considerations to keep in mind when making buying decisions. Which criteria are the most important? At some point it becomes important to define our goals ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Growing Veggies in Central Campus: Edible Landscaping at Luther College

  • Luther College (IA)

Discover how a campus with high aesthetic standards can incorporate vegetable production into the landscape of central campus. Edible landscaping can take many forms including raised beds near residence halls ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Seafood Sustainablility on Campus: Making it a Reality

  • Marine Stewardship Council (WA)

The sustainability of the world's seafood supply has become an issue of heightened public awareness, and for good reason. Reports of depleted fish stocks dominate the media. Decades of ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Partnerships in Food Waste Reduction at Michigan State University- Academics and Operations

  • Michigan State University (MI)

At Michigan State University, Being Green is what we do. The total campus population includes over 45,000 students, with approximately 17,000 living on campus with the Division of ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The importance of food waste recycling on campus

  • North American Trading House, LLC (NY)

Greening campuses through energy saving, implementing water efficiency and recycling is having a positive impact on our environment. When greening a campus there is one area that is regularly overlooked ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Eating our way to Carbon Neutral

  • Northern Arizona University (AZ)

At Northern Arizona University, Campus Dinning and the Office of Sustainability are teaming up with students, faculty, and staff to create a culture of food sustainability engrained into our curriculum ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Plant to Plate: A model for student-run urban gardens

  • Plant To Plate

Plant to Plate was born during the Fall of 2009, when two undergraduate students recognized a need for a hands-on means to educate students on local food systems and sustainability ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Developing and Sustaining Edible Urban Landscapes

  • Randolph College (VA)

Edible landscaping integrates species that produce edible roots, stems, flowers, leaves, fruits, or vegetables into human-made landscapes. Reintroducing edible cultivars into urban and suburban landscapes represents a strategy for promoting ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Soil Analysis for Sustainable Edible Urban Landscaping

  • Randolph College (VA)

"Sustainability" is a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society and its members are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Honey Bees: Pollinators as a Case Study in Sustainability-An Undergraduate Course

  • Southern Connecticut State University (CT)

Over 70% of the worlds flowering plants require a living organism for pollination. Many of these plants include the fruits, vegetables and grains humans consume, as well as feed for ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Campus Scale Biodiesel Production

  • Springboard Biodiesel (CA)

As the leading manufacturer of small scale biodiesel processors in a growing industry, Springboard Biodiesel has helped to install more than 6 mm gallons of annual biodiesel production capacity spread ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Leasing Land to Farmers to Support Sustainability

  • St. Paul's School (NH)

For land-rich institutions, leasing parcels of land to local farmers can support all facets of sustainability. Small farms gain acreage, enhancing the local food system; dining halls get direct access ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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EPA Expands its Sustainable Food Management Initiatives with Higher Education Institutions

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency through its national sustainable food management initiative, is expanding their outreach and support programs to colleges and universities throughout the country. The Agency is ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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From Presidents' Climate Commitment to the Real Food Challenge: Bringing Sustainable Food to Your Campus

  • University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)

Struggling to develop a sustainable food procurement policy at your school? Looking to engage students in sustainability measures on campus?

By uniting students across the country, the Real Food Challenge ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Students Recognizing Excellence in Campus Food Service: the Real Food Calculator and Awards

  • University of California, Santa Cruz (CA)

College food gets a bad rap. But there's also a lot to celebrate.

The Real Food Awards honor the people who produce, prepare, organize around, and coordinate campus food ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Partnerships for Food Systems Change

  • University of Florida (FL)

This presentation would include several examples of what we have accomplished at UF regarding food systems change at various scales and with varoious partners, and engage the audience in a ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Creating Sustainable Urban Infrastructure One Seed at a Time

  • University of Louisville (KY)

Rationale: Many students and universities are interested in the integration of sustainable systems but don't have a means to empower students, faculty and the wider community to take an ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The 'University Farmers' Market': Promoting Holistic Sustainability Through Community Partnerships at the University of Northern BC

  • University of Northern British Columbia (BC)

As one of the largest energy-consuming and emissions-producing sectors in the world, industrial food production is a significant contributor to climate change and other forms of environmental degradation (e.g ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Successful Composting-University of Tennessee-A Collaborative Compost Partnership-ARAMARK Volunteer Dining

  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (TN)

The food service industry produces large amounts of food during daily production. Although food service businesses strive to create minimal amounts of waste, items such as lemon peels, apple cores ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Integrating Food System Expertise into the Nutrition Professional's Curriculum

  • University of Vermont (VT)

The global volatility of food supply and prices; risky dependence on large scale monoculture of staple grains; inequitable food distribution and access with related social justice issues; and difficulty tracing ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Moving Beyond Carbon: A Nitrogen Footprint Model for the University of Virginia

  • University of Virginia (VA)

The human creation of reactive nitrogen by food and energy production has profound beneficial and detrimental impacts on people and the environment. Agricultural uses, including both food production and consumption ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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EcoMug™ History and Continued Program Evaluation

  • Western Michigan University (MI)

The EcoMug™ program began in 2009. It is, as far as we know, an unprecedented waste reduction initiative. During the first few weeks of school, each incoming student is given ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Campus Beet: A Student-Led Sustainable Café Initiative

  • Western Michigan University (MI)

Riding a surge of support for fresh, delicious, sustainable food on campus, The Campus Beet is an example of true cross-campus collaboration. Starting as the vision of a single student ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Taste Education: Sustainability through the Senses

  • Williams College (MA)

Food sustainability is only possible with knowledge: the knowledge of those who bring food to the table and the knowledge of those who eat it and how. Understanding more about ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Installing an Organic Garden on Campus

  • LaGrange College (GA)

Beginning an organic garden on a college campus poses more challenges than one initially assumes, as the community of LaGrange College quickly learned; issues that arose included administration buy-in, construction ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Sharing a Passion and Connecting Students to Sustainability Experiences

  • Saint Louis University (MO)

The Department of Nutrition and Dietetics exemplifies what it takes to launch a sustainability program by tapping into a passion. Its undergraduate dietetics program was added to the existing dietetic ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Aligning U.Va. Dining's Nutrition and Sustainability Efforts

  • University of Virginia (VA)

Since the advent of U.Va. Dining Service's Green Dining Campaign in 2006, food, environment, and health have all been linked to ongoing conservation efforts. The group's formal ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Implementing and Studying an Innovative University Food Waste Reduction Program

  • Loyola Marymount University (CA)

This session will describe the processes of planning, implementing, and studying an innovative food waste reduction program at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). With the challenges of limited space and the ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Forgotten Art: Art Toxins and Safety

  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (MN)

Dining plays a central role in campus life, as has been reflected in a plethora of recent dining-related initiatives—from trayless cafeterias to composting to community gardens on campus. A ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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NACUFS Sustainability Guide - Sustainable Solutions in Collegiate Foodservice Operations

  • University of Colorado Boulder (CO)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (MD)
  • University of Washington, Seattle (WA)
  • Ricca Newmark Design
  • Envision Strategies (CO)

On most campuses, Dining Services is the team relied upon to just get it done - somehow, some way... This often holds true for moving forward with green initiatives too - even ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Campus Organic Gardens On the Rise

  • Arizona State University (AZ)
  • Fort Lewis College (CO)
  • Saint Michael's College (VT)

Program organizers from several different colleges plan to lead an interactive discussion on different approaches to community and organic gardening on college campuses. Campus gardens are known for being one ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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CHEFS: Advancing the Carbon Footprinting of Food in North America

  • New York University (NY)
  • Aramark (PA)
  • Clean Air-Cool Planet (NH)

Dining plays a central role in campus life, as has been reflected in a plethora of recent dining-related initiatives—from trayless cafeterias to composting to community gardens on campus. A ...

  • Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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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