Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 67.84
Liaison Noah Upchurch
Submission Date March 1, 2024

STARS v2.2

Catawba College
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.88 / 2.00 Noah Upchurch
Senior Sustainability Specialist
Center for the Environment
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainable dining initiatives

Local community engagement

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:
Yes

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:
Catawba's dining contractor, Chartwells, hosted a Fall Festival on campus on October 6, 2022. The event made available for sale to students, staff, and faculty local produce and other locally produced food items in a farmer's market. The items included produce, honey, cheese, beef jerky, cured ham, pickled vegetables, relishes, jams, jellies, and more. This event was the first of its kind for campus, but Chartwells and the College are working to make it annual.

In addition to the Fall Festival farmer's market, the College offers a course in Urban Agriculture that works on an urban agriculture project in the campus community each time the course is offered.

Sustainability-themed outlet

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:
No

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:
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Inclusive and local sourcing

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor support disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its food and beverage purchasing?:
Yes

A brief description of the support for disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:
The College and Charwells use Main Street Marketplace, a local non-profit social enterprise, to purchase lettuce and micro-greens for all dining areas. More information about Main Street Marketplace can be found at: https://www.marketandmeeting.org

Estimated percentage of total food and beverage expenditures on products from disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:
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Low-impact dining

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events or promote plant-forward options?:
Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events and/or plant-forward options:
Chartwells hosts a Chef's Choice station at lunch and dinner that features plant-forward options for vegetarian and vegan eaters. The station is identified by the contractor as a plant-based program.

Vegan dining program 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:
Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program:
In addition to vegan and vegetarian options within the Chef's Choice station at lunch and dinner, the College provides a salad bar with diverse vegan and vegetarian options. The Blue 51 alternative dining area (a café that is separate from the cafeteria portion of the College's dining services) also offers the Bowl Life program, which allows students, faculty, and staff to create their own power bowl. Dining area menus with labels of vegan and vegetarian options are made available to the campus community so that students can plan and view options. To further assist students, Chartwells' nutritionist offers one-on-one sessions for students to map out healthy, nutritious, and appropriate offerings for eating preferences.

Labelling and signage 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labelling and signage in dining halls?:
Yes

A brief description of the sustainability labelling and signage in dining halls:
The HowGood labeling and rating system is visible across monitors at every station within the dining hall. The labeling descriptions provide a low-impact analysis that shows meals made with an environmental and social impact score of better than 75%, 85%, and 95% of comparable ingredients. These labels show up as "good", "great", and "best". Labeling is based on multi-factor research completed by HowGood across eight impact areas including greenhouse gas emissions footprints, processing, water usage, biodiversity, animal welfare, soil health, land use, and labor risk. Each area for each recipe is assessed a 1 to 10 score based on negative or positive impact in that area of interest, which is then accumulated to create the overall recipe score.

Part 2. Food waste minimization and recovery

Food recovery program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:
Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:
Chartwells utilizes Waste Not 2.0, which is a web-based tool that allows for the tracking and measuring of food waste throughout the facility. Waste Not 2.0 allows for designation of food production as compostable, landfill, feeding animals, feeding hungry people, and industrial use. The metrics provided in Waste Not 2.0 are used to identify excess food and reasons for excess, which are used to limit overproduction, add to food safety, increase quality, and continue to improve upon reducing food waste through our post-consumptive composting and donation programs with Gallins Family Farm (Compost) and Kelly's Community Kitchen (Excess Food). Waste Not 2.0 is crucial to the training and continual retuning of efficiency programs to reduce food waste.

Trayless dining and portion modifications 

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:
Yes

A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:
All on-campus dining areas have implemented trayless dining as of August 2021.

Food donation 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:
Yes

A brief description of the food donation program:
In partnership with the local Kelly's Community Kitchen, Chartwells donates excess food to feed hungry people throughout the local Rowan County community.

Food materials diversion 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses?:
Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:
Chartwells uses two programs to divert food waste. The first program is our composting post-consumption program, which diverts food waste to Gallins Family Farm. Some of this compost is returned to the College and is used in our grounds management program. The other program is a partnership with Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions, which turns waste cooking oil into biodiesel fuel and works to help the College extend the life of our cooking oils.

Composting 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:
Yes

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:
Chartwells and the College maintain a partnership with Gallins Family Farms to divert food waste into Gallins' composting facility.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:
No

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:
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Dine-in service ware 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:
Yes

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:
Chartwells currently operates with reusable plates bowls, cups, and cutlery within the main Dining Hall.

Take-away materials 

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:
Yes

A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:
The Dining Hall provides reusable containers for to-go meals.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:
No

A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:
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Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:
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Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:
https://dineoncampus.com/catawba/rise-sustainability-platform

Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.