"Pathways to a Green Campus" Report

VIII. Dining Services and Food

A. Dining Service's Current Practices Relating to the Environment

Dining Services at Middlebury College prepare and serve food at Upper, Lower, and Redfield Proctor, and at the Student Dining Units, Chateau, Crest Room, Rehearsals Cafe, Snow Bowl lodge, Golf Course snack bar, Bread Loaf Campus, and most catered events at the College.

Dining Services has already made noticeable progress in reducing its environmental impact. While there are no existing Dining Services policies regarding environmental stewardship, there have been a number of incremental changes designed to reduce the impact of Middlebury's food services on the environment.

Below is a list of practices followed by Dining Services. None of these practices are written into dining policy, and they are subject to change with new price or feasibility considerations. These practices are listed for informational purposes only. They identify where the College has taken constructive steps and where there are gaps between our proposed policies and existing practices.

Treatment of Waste

• composts most pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste
• purchases food in bulk, when possible, to reduce packaging waste
• provides no paper or disposable cups or plates at dining halls (students should use their EQ mugs for drinks to take home). Paper cups and plates are still used at most all college catered events and for to-go purchases from the Crest Room. Paper products are the only option at the Snow Bowl, golf course, and Rehearsals Cafˇ.
• provides bins to compost napkins and other materials in dining halls and at catered events
• donates extra pre-consumer food from kitchen to local community groups

Food Purchasing

• orders food through the primary vending system (currently with Jordan's Foods) to increase efficiency and decrease transportation involved in supplying food
• supports local producers by purchasing their milk, yogurt, ice-cream, and seasonally available fruits

Other

• lights dining halls with candles on Wednesday nights in January to increase energy awareness and reduce electrical consumption
• provides vegetarian hot meals at lunch and dinner for students whose diets do not include meat
• provides soy-based milk for students whose diet does not include dairy products
• is a member of the National Association of College and University Food Services which collectively pressures vendors and manufacturers about issues concerning member schools

B. Relevant State and Local Laws

There are few laws that control how Dining Services can operate with regard to the environment. Below are the relevant laws that were identified.

• cannot serve post-consumer food leftovers (state health law)
• must recycle all recyclable waste (county and town waste management ordinances)
• cannot re-use plastic bread bags as lunch bags or for other purposes (state health law)

C. Proposed Environmental Guidelines For Middlebury Dining Services

The following are the recommendations of the Environmental Council. Many of the recommendations were developed from current practices at Middlebury and policies made at other colleges, including Hendrix College in Arkansas and Carleton College in Minnesota.

Middlebury Dining Services consciously works to promote a sustainable environment through its operations. Dining Services will continue to build on its past and work to:

1. Proactively reduce the waste generated by its operations. When purchasing food, a preference will be given to items that meet price and quality standards while containing a minimal amount of packaging. Reusable packaging materials will be returned to vendors. Food servers will avoid serving students more food than they require. Students should be encouraged to return for seconds and will be educated to take only the food they can eat.

2. Responsibly manage the waste it produces. Kitchen food scraps, food waste from trays, and paper products like napkins will be collected and composted when feasible. Recyclable materials handled by the College recycling program, including cardboard, metals, glass, and plastics, will be separated and recycled.

3. Find alternatives to disposable products at catered events and in small cash dining operations. Linen napkins, reusable or compostable flatware, and china dishware will be used when practical and affordable.

4. Use one food vendor for the bulk of its food purchases when financially feasable. This cost effective plan increases the efficiency of food delivery and requires less transportation to bring products to the College. As a large customer of a food vendor, Dining Services can exert pressures on suppliers and manufacturers to increase product quality and environmental standards.

5. Support local and sustainable agriculture with the purchase of available and affordable products like local milk, yogurt, ice cream, and seasonally available fruits and crops. Dining Services will integrate environmental considerations with existing price and quality criteria for food so the College can provide more high quality foods grown with organic and sustainable farming practices. When possible, these local and organic food purchases will be made through the primary vendor.

The largest barrier to organic food purchases today is the high cost of organic foods. Purchasing organic foods requires new funds and/or cuts in other foods and services currently provided by Dining Services. Hendrix College and Carleton College both provide very good examples of colleges that have committed themselves to purchasing local and organic food products while maintaining high levels of food quality and selection at an affordable cost.

6. Pressure food vendors and suppliers to provide affordable products that meet Middlebury College's environmental goals. Through the National Association of College and University Food Services and other available mechanisms, the College will work with suppliers to promote our environmental food service goals.

7. Increase awareness concerning organic foods and Vermont products. Promotions, advertising, and labels on food will challenge students to consider the importance of local and organically grown foods provided by the College.

8. Plan facilities upgrades to promote the environmental goals of Dining Services. This is particularly important in light of the proposed remodeling of our central dining facilities.

• A new dining facility should include a larger, more efficient hot-meal service area so students can return for seconds without having to wait in line. The current configuration often has long lines that encourage students to take too much food as a way to avoid waiting in a lengthy line for more helpings.
• A refrigerated loading dock would allow incoming food orders to stay cool. This would reduce food waste from spoilage.
• Added space for storage would reduce the required delivery trips currently made by our food vendors.
• Space for storing reusable shipping containers from vendors to promote packaging reuse.
• Room for a short-term recycling bin near kitchen area and long-term storage bin conveniently located for kitchen staff and recycling truck.

The recommendations in this report have evolved from suggestions and ideas made by the Environmental Council working with information supplied by the Dining Services and Food Subcommittee.

Dining Services and Food Subcommittee
Hillery N. Hinds, '96
Russell P. Hulst, Buyer/Assistant Unit Manager, Dining Services
Ted A. Mayer, Director, Dining Services
Eric A. Odell, '95
Peter Polson, '95, Chair
Sarah S. Rebick, '97

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