While we’ve talked about traylessness for a while, that’s not the only way to reduce college food waste. It appears that whether or not the food is self-serve or dished out by cafeteria staff makes a world of difference. At least it did at East Tennessee State.
One dining hall at the Johnson City school switched […]

While we’re all fired up about Seattle, let’s not forget how progressive San Francisco’s composting program is.
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I’m not quite sure what to think when a conscious food squanderer writes about changing her ways. I’m still trying to remain calm after struggling through the first part of her column.
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There’s a new campaign to avoid waste […]

Huzzah!
Before lighting out for Europe, President Obama issued an executive order banning the use of cafeteria trays in federally-funded all-you-can-eat facilities. All colleges and universities that accept government money will have until August to cease using trays or risk losing their funding and, possibly, accreditation.
Sorry to say it, but…April Fool’s!! Oh well. Maybe when I’m […]

The Dell Social Innovation Competition is on right now. The $50,000 competition calls on college students worldwide to come up with ideas to change our planet. A humble goal, but a noble one.
Anyway, one of the entries proposes to link food donors with food banks and soup kitchens via the Web. This joint venture by […]

Things are looking grim for a potential California bill that would allow catering customers to demand that their excess food be donated. After having her bill rebuffed last year, State Sen. Jenny Oropeza has decided to take a slow steady approach this year. It seems like a victory for the loose coalition of intertia, fear […]

Yesterday, I trekked up to Maine to see the traylessness facilitated by Bon Appetit at Saint Joseph’s College. As anyone who’s read this blog before would guess, I was enthralled by the approach to food there.
One of the subtleties I hadn’t considered was the way students approach their meals. From what I saw and heard, […]

Today I’m making a pilgrimage, of sorts. No, not to Mecca, but to Maine.
I’m visiting Saint Joseph’s College home of the trayless dining movement. There, I’ll speak with Stuart Leckie, the general manager of dining, who had the simple idea of removing trays to curb food waste. What began at this tiny Standish, Maine, school […]

Let’s say you’re a food service provider like Sodexo (bear with me). In the name of sustainability, you remove trays from a university dining hall. Then you save about $25K through avoided food waste and water/energy use.
Should you:
a.) Apply those savings to next year’s meal plan fees?
b.) Donate the savings to a local food bank?
c.) […]

It’s mid-March, which means it’s time for the ultimate collegiate competition. No, not the NCAA Tournament, RecycleMania!
That also means it’s time for my annual RecycleMania rant! The college recycling competition, which began 2001 under the auspices of the National Recycling Coalition, is generally a very positive undertaking. But, the “targeted materials” category of “food service organics” […]

Seven-Eleven stores in Japan are not allowed to discount food near expiration dates/times–essentially mandated to waste food.
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At U.S. bases in Iraq, food waste in Iraq is tossed and burned along with everything else. We can do better, says Army infantry captain Timothy Hsia in a Times op-ed.
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In addition to recovering a heckuva lotta […]