Food Service |
| Spring 2002: Sara Baguskas, Jamee Eriksen, Laura Matson
The ideal campus food service would have many characteristics, three of which being all organic food, absolute minimal waste levels, and green cleaners. By green cleaners what is meant are non-petroleum based cleaning supplies made of ingredients that, as Seventh Generation cleaning supplies write on their labels, "do not pose any chronic health risks and are safe for the environment", ingredients that are "not caustic and will not cause irritation if used properly", and ingredients that are biodegradable. These cleaners would not be tested on animals and they would be safe for septic and greywater systems. The cleaning agents would be derived from natural sources such as vinegar, corn and coconut-based surfactants. And these green cleaners would be the only cleaners used in an ideal campus food service system. In this year's food footprint group we are focusing on a few cleaners that the Bon uses. We are trying to get green cleaners used in place of one all purpose cleaner, one glass cleaner, and several other types of cleaners. The long term goal being that all cleaners would be green cleaners. The ideal campus food service would not only push for organic foods, but also supply food from local farms as much as possible. Organic foods are produced from an organic process. For example, the organic process of growing spinach means that the spinach collects its nutrients from the soil at a rate that is sustainable. by sustainable, I mean organic farming respects the ecological process and time that a plant needs to grow healthly. By contast, inorganic farming means that the soil is directly saturated with fertilizers and the plants then grow at a faster rate, against its ecological needs. An ideal food service would supports organic farms in the local communities who can supply the products. One of our steps to accomplishing this goal is by investigating organic suppliers in the Northwest. Some resources are the Community Food Security Coalition and Planting Partnerships, which is trying to connect Northwest colleges with locally grown food. The Planting Partnership offers more than the product, such as organic apples, but also offers the experience of farming. This is an ideal and creative solution to our concerns about supplying the bon with locally grown organic foods. Waste generation is another point of concern in the cafeteria. One major area of waste is food. In fact, statistics for the Bon Apetit cafeteria for Lewis and Clark College show that the average student wastes 1/3 of a pound of food a day. Bon Apetit donates leftover food to the St. Vincent de Paul Society twice a week. However, the company is not allowed to donate food after students have taken it on their plates. As such, a priority in our footprint group has been targeting diner’s food waste. For this we displayed the waste generated in one day in the cafeteria and hung up posters with information about food waste. Other schools have established a better system for preventing food waste. At Reed College students purchase items individually; it is not an all you can eat meal system like Lewis and Clark. Consequently, since students pay for everything they take, they have an increased incentive for eating all that they take or, more importantly, taking less. In addition, there are students who choose not to purchase food and just eat others' leftovers. These students prevent much food from being wasted. At Middlebury College the meal service providers track where and what students are eating so they prepare more appropriate amounts of given dishes. With the new system in place, the food service providers save both money and food. In addition to food waste, organic (waste that can be composted) is another issue of concern. One thing out footprint group did was revive a composting program that was started by SEED. The kitchen staff saves organic matter that can be composted and students come and take the refuse to an on-campus garden. Other schools have similar programs. Some schools compost all organic material. Lewis and Clark College does not have the facilities to compost all of the organic waste generated in the cafeteria. Finally, recycling in the cafeteria is a point of concern. Although the kitchen staff does recycle cardboard boxes and glass jars in which food is transported, they do not have to staff to support recycling tin jars. In the past, recycling these jars was a project supported by federal work-study funds. Another attempt of our group was to restart this program. Other schools place a higher priority on recycling and therefore have the staff and facilities to support recycling all materials. |