Overall Rating	Gold - expired
Overall Score	65.09
Liaison	Matthew Liesch
Submission Date	Oct. 15, 2020

STARS v2.2

Central Michigan University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	1.80 / 2.00	Tyson Dubay Dining Services Director Aramark

"---" 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?:

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:

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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?:

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:

Below is a list of CMU Campus Dining's sustainable efforts in the category of Sustainable Food, from the CMU dining website attached in the notes section:

100% of coffee and espresso at the Java City Coffee House in the Park Library is certified sustainable, ensuring that farms and co-ops meet rigorous standards for protecting the earth, supporting their communities and creating goodwill among their workers.

We serve Folgers Coffee in all four Residential Restaurants. Folgers (part of the J.M. Smucker Co.) is committed to "improving the lives of the farmers who have grown their coffee for generations."

Our Retail Locations offer a wide variety of natural and organic products purchased from United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) - the largest publicly traded distributor of natural and organic products in the United States.

Serve local Michigan produce and other goods manufactured in Michigan whenever possible, based on seasonality and availability.

Purchase hormone-free dairy products from (Michigan) farmers through Prairie Farms Dairy.

Aunt Millie's, with bakeries in Coldwater, Jackson, Kalamazoo and Plymouth, Michigan, supplies breads and buns utilized in all our locations.

Hot Dogs and Sausage products are purchased from Kent Foods, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Our Ice Cream is Michigan-made Country Fresh.

Kellogg's cereals, Morning Star Farms products, and ice cream cones produced in Battle Creek, Michigan, are served in all locations.

We hand-dip a variety of fried food items, utilizing Drake's batter mix, produced in Marshall, Michigan.

Great Lakes Chips, produced in Traverse City, Michigan are served at all four Residential Deli Stations, and utilized in our Meals2Go program.

We have a strong partnership with our primary food provider, Gordon Food Service (GFS), a Grand Rapids, Michigan based company, dedicated to energy conservation and transportation efficiency, ensuring our purchasing program is aligned with our commitment to sustainability and food safety.

Much of our produce is purchased through a GFS partnership with Markon Cooperative, known for their 5-Star Food Safety Audit Program, and comes from several farms around the state of Michigan. Some of these farms include River Ridge Farms in Sparta, Skibbe Farms in Benton Harbor, Barry Creek Farms in Saginaw and Dreyer Farms in Allendale. GFS recently partnered with Pearson Foods to help connect with farmers in close proximity to the GFS distribution centers. Their goal is to assist GFS in maintaining their sourcing efficiencies while procuring items from local farms. This will give us additional opportunities to expand our purchases of local products whenever possible.

We use Cage Free Shell Eggs in all our Residential Restaurants and in the Down Under Food Court, (when available). These eggs come from the Amish/Mennonite farms in north-central Ohio. Cage Free Liquid Eggs will be utilized in all our Residential Restaurants starting in the Fall 2019.

Many of our Seafood products are approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program and Marine Stewardship Council www.msc.org/. In April, 2016, all locations switched to a hook and line caught Albacore Tuna and no longer purchase/use the purse-seine netted skip jack tuna.

All four Residential Restaurants utilize Zoye Fryer Oil for deep-frying needs. Zoye is 100% soybean oil, and is produced by Zeeland Food Services, Michigan's largest food grade oil refinery and a family-owned business with a strong commitment to sustainability.

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:

Central Michigan University practices Meatless Mondays. Each Monday, campus wide dining offers several vegetarian and vegan options in order to reduce the amount of animal products consumed on campus. This initiative is advertised around campus and on social media.

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:

All students have multiple vegan and vegetarian options available at each meal. These option include complex and complete proteins, if desired. Dining services works to ensure that all types of consumers receive holistic and nutritious meals.

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:

All dining has signage about health benefits of low impact options, nutrition information regarding each option and examples of healthy, sustainable living, available for each student, electronically. CMU also offers signage around campus, as well as at dining commons about the benefits of recycling, composting and eating diverse healthy meals.

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:

Central Michigan University participates in the annual food recovery challenge.

"As part of EPA's Food Recovery Challenge, organizations pledge to improve their sustainable food management practices and report their results. The FRC is part of EPA's Sustainable Materials Management Program (SMM). SMM seeks to reduce the environmental impact of materials through their entire life cycle. This includes how they are extracted, manufactured, distributed, used, reused, recycled, and disposed. Organizations are encouraged to follow the Food Recovery Hierarchy to prioritize their actions to prevent and divert wasted food."

Additionally, Central Michigan University has a zero-waste dining program. All food waste is transported to Morgan's Composting where it is made into soil, which is often purchased back and used on CMU grounds.

https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-challenge-frc

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 CMU dining commons have reusable dining ware. this includes all plates, glassware and cutlery. In the event that a dining common must rely on disposable materials, all backup materials are compostable.

Trays were eliminated in order to reduce food and water waste

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:

Central Michigan University works with the Isabella County Soup Kitchen to ensure that any perishable food items the University will not use in time, will be donated so that the people of the community may reap the benefits of nourishment.

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:

Central Michigan University diverts all unwanted/waste cooking oil to Darling Inc. to be converted into bio-fuels. No used oil within Dining Services is disposed of in a traditional manner.

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:

All pre-consumer waste generated on campus is composted within the University composting program. Central Michigan University features a zero waste dining program, campus wide. All food waste is transported to Morgan's composting in Sears, Michigan where it is made into soil, which is then purchased back and used on CMU grounds.

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

Yes

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:

All post-consumer waste generated on campus is composted within the University composting program. This process is also a function of CMU's zero waste dining program. All waste generated within the Dining Services is composted. All food waste is transported to Morgan's composting where it is made into soil, which is then purchased back and used on CMU grounds.

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:

All dine-in service ware is reusable. After each individual dines in, they are able to take service ware to a drop off location, where unwanted organic waste is composted and service ware is cleaned and set aside for reuse by others.

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:

All containers that are used for take-away meals from on-campus dining services use compostable packaging, compostable napkins, as well as compostable dining ware.

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?:

Yes

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

Individuals who bring in their own container, receive discounts on beverages offered on campus. This incentive promotes the reduction of disposable containers.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:

Central Michigan University strives to offer culturally diverse options in all dining halls. Items such as sushi, curry, Mediterranean, vegetarian, vegan, kosher, dairy free, gluten free and many other options are available throughout the year at each of the dining halls.

Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:

https://go.cmich.edu/lifeoncampus/pages/campus_dining.aspx

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

https://cmu.campusdish.com/Sustainability/WhatWeAreDoing

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.