Dalhousie University
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Each year food contractors at Dalhousie request that suppliers provide a purchase report and investigate what purchases qualify as Local & Community based. Using a spreadsheet developed by the Office of Sustainability, the food purchases data is analyzed by commodity groups and organized to sum local & community based and third-party verified purchases. The definition of small to medium based enterprise (1-499 employees) as provided by the Government of Canada was used in assessing community-based food and beverage purchases, in addition to the guidelines supplied by STARS.

Menus change with the season to allow for increased local produce offerings year round. Examples of strategies to incorporate local produce include hand cutting french fries from local potatoes in all four dining halls year-round and offering local apples only at all dining locations across campus. Food Services at Dalhousie sources food from many local farmers, growers and distributors. The list changes throughout the year depending on seasonality and availability. Aramark uses Keddy Brothers as a wholesale produce supplier because they are a Nova Scotian company that distributes local produce whenever possible. The Chef's Garden on Dalhousie's Agricultural Campus provides produce to the Agricultural Campus dining services and a portion of the produce used in Food Services on the Halifax Campus. It is a 1.1 acre plot that follows organic farming principles. In 2016, the farm produced 16,833 lbs of food, valued at approximately $13,000.

Aramark has committed to a sustainable seafood policy that incorporates ocean health, ethical labour, transparency, and a renewable seafood industry. In addition to a purchasing policy, they commit to education and tracking of sustainable seafood purchases. The policy can be found here: http://www.aramark.com/files/seafood-principles-policy

Fair trade tea and coffee are served at all dining halls and in many cafes.

See here for more information about Aramark's Green Thread sustainability program: https://dal.campusdish.com/BeingGreen

The Dalhousie Sustainable and Healthy Food Framework released in 2016 outlines purchasing targets and actions to achieve these targets for different food categories. See here for the framework, which guides work on sustainable purchasing:
https://www.dal.ca/dept/sustainability/programs/Eating_Sustainably.html

Information in this report is from dining operations and catering contracted to Aramark on the Halifax campuses and Chartwell's on the Agricultural campus. Data on food expenditures from franchises and vending was not included because this information was not provided by both food service providers.

Chartwell's also operates food services on the Halifax campus in the Student Union Building and caters campus-wide, but their purchases are not included in this inventory because they are hired by the Student Union, not the University. The University Club is another food service provider on campus that strives to purchase locally, but their expenditures are not recorded in sufficient detail to allow for inclusion in the STARS report.

Dalhousie University is exploring Fair Trade campus certification to reflect the widespread use of Fair Trade coffee, tea, and chocolate on campus.