Trayless Servery – Removing trays from the servery reduces amount of food waste. Implemented in 2010. Initial waste reduction of over 1000 pounds per week or over 17 tons per year.

Plated Servings – Meals that lend themselves to “piling” are plated by our culinary team to a specific portion size. In the same vein as trayless, this strategy reduces food waste, by limiting the amount of food guests countering the “eyes are bigger than the stomach syndrome.” 

Menus – The culinary team constantly assesses student feedback through comment cards and social media to determine customer contentment with present menu offerings, adjusting recipes and offerings in response. This decreases waste by providing desired foods. 

Replacing Disposable Cardboard with Reusable Plastic – Working with our local food vendors we have replaced the cardboard boxes normally used when sourcing through conventional sources with reusable plastic containers: totes, lugs, bins and buckets. This includes our produce (30%), meat (95%), poultry (6%), pickled products (82%), applesauce (100%) and French fries (50%) and conserves over 8 tons of cardboard annually. 

Recycling·

Steel - #10 Cans

Fryer Oil to Biodiesel 

Cardboard

Plastic Food Containers - #5 PP

Ink Cartridges in Office

Re-directing

Overstocked and ready to expire food goes to local hunger relief agencies

Broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts leaves and stalks, plus pumpkins are fed to local cattle.