| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 67.18 |
| Liaison | Weston Dripps |
| Submission Date | Aug. 19, 2024 |
Amherst College
OP-8: Food Recovery
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
2.00 / 2.00 |
Weston
Dripps Director of Sustainability Sustainability |
8.1 Food recovery program
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s surplus food donation program:
Amherst College donates all surplus food from the dining hall three times a week to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. This organization subsequently distributes food donations to food relief centers across the Pioneer Valley. This initiative, led by the student club the Food Justice Alliance, ensures that all dining hall food that hasn’t touched the serving line goes to people dealing with food insecurity instead of ending up in a compost bin. With campus volunteers coordinating the repackaging of excess food three times a week, all of our food is redistributed throughout the year.
Do the institution’s dining services divert pre-consumer food waste from disposal for processing and use as animal feed, compost, and/or biofuel?:
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s pre-consumer food waste diversion program:
Dining Services collects all of its pre-consumer organic waste and sends to Vanguard Renewables. Vanguard mixes food waste with cow manure and places into an anaerobic digester. The methane produced is captured and sold as “green gas”, the liquid is used as fertilizer, and the solids as animal bedding.
Do the institution’s dining services divert post-consumer food waste from disposal for processing and use as animal feed, compost, and/or biofuel?:
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s post-consumer food waste diversion program:
Dining Services collects all of the post-consumer organic waste in the Dining Hall and at our cafe locations and also sends to Vanguard Renewables. Vanguard mixes food waste with cow manure and places into an anaerobic digester. The methane produced is captured and sold as “green gas”, the liquid is used as fertilizer, and the solids as animal bedding.
Do the institution’s dining services track and assess their food and organic materials management efforts on at least an annual basis to inform ongoing improvements?:
Narrative and/or website URL providing an overview of the institution’s food and organic materials management tracking and assessment initiatives:
Amherst Dining is on a 30 day meal rotation each semester. The Dining Hall team carefully tracks and weighs the amount of food put out for each meal and the amount left over after each meal, and then adjusts the amounts for the next rotation. This allows the team to optimize the amount of food produced to best match the demand. At the end of every semester, the five least popular meals are dropped from the rotation and replaced with five new meals. This allows for some variety and new dishes, while also providing stability in the meal planning and preparation. This approach has been very effective at helping minimize the amount of leftover food / food waste in the back of the house.
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