Humber College
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Eat Local Now: Local Hero (month of October) showcasing homegrown and seasonal foods on our campuses is important to our clients and guests, and this is a concentrated national effort in which we as individual units and as a company celebrate Canadian farmers and producers.
Local Hero is a campaign that has two aspects:
- Chefs feature seasonal ingredients in a special menu, or a menu feature
- Host a local table, or display with products from the region
Marketing materials “Living Local” are used to help showcase the harvest season ingredients on the menu


Stop Food Waste Day:

This April, Chartwells campuses and schools across Canada demonstrated Excellence in Execution in the 2019 Stop Food Waste Day campaign. Whether it was posting messages and signage in unit and on social media, hosting engagement activities or executing “Root to Stem” recipes, our campuses and schools shared the message of food waste reduction and responded to the campaign in an impressive way.

Chartwells Stop Food Waste Day 2019 Celebration Picture Video - https://youtu.be/Q5LazWDbbPM

Humber College also has a Culinary program under ‘Hospitality Recreation and Tourism’ (HRT) department, through which students lead the following:
Humber Room
- Features ocean-wise seafood
- Fair trade coffee and teas.
Gourmet Express
- Promote Fair Trade coffee/teas
- Compostable disposables
- Composting coffee grounds
- No more black containers
- No more plastic straws
- Promote reusable mugs and water bottles
- Discount for customers who bring their own cup

During Vegetarian Awareness Day at Humber College, a local farmer and Humner Alumni who manages Zawadi farms was invited to discuss his urban farming business and the importance of buying local.

Cafe Linx and the Office of Sustainability are working towards selling a Humber Fairtrade coffee blend. The beans are from a small, local business named Birds and Beans: an organic, Fairtrade and bird-friendly cafe.

Humber’s HRT department supports local small business when purchasing produce and food items. i.e. Maher, Tatangelos, Primo Jardin, Qzina, etc.

During Humber’s annual Earth Week, we prepared a menu of vegetarian and vegan meals to highlight a healthy plant-based diet and promote reducing our meat consumption.

Chartwells offers Flexitarian meal options that allow students to regularly opt in to lower impact meals, primarily meatless meals.
Further to this, for those who wish to be part of a competition, we will hold Meatless Mondays over the course of a term, for which a card is stamped to indicate the participant opted for a meat free meal. Once the card is filled, the participant can redeem it for a specified prize.

Chartwells offers vegan and\or vegetarian meals at every meal period and grace periods across campus in all branded and non-branded locations. They may not however always include complete protein.

Powered by Pulses: Month of January
This campaign is developed in partnership with Pulse Canada to bring pulses to the forefront as a staple plant based protein and nutrition option to traditional meat based menus. While not exclusively vegan/vegetarian, the majority of features are intended to give students an alternative to meat option.
Educational signage support the menu including what pulses are, that they are Canadian, and packed with nutrients suited to every lifestyle.

Humber’s HRT program always offers one or more vegan meal options in the Humber Room and Gourmet Express.

Chartwells’ Wellpower program labelling defines which menu options are vegan, low in sodium, vegetarian, etc. to help our guests make a selection that is in line with their dietary needs and values. Fair Trade selection of coffees is available both through the Starbucks brand and Van Houtte Coffee.
We use a variety of communication methods to inform customers of good food choices through digital media, social media, posted menus, and website.

Fair trade signage is also seen at Gourmet Express and on the Humber Room menu through Humber’s HRT department.

Clear Waste Bin Program:
Kitchen food waste is any food item discarded during the food production process. The most frequent reasons for kitchen food waste are:
•Overproduction (i.e. making too much food)
•Trim waste (from cutting vegetables and fruits)
•Expired food

Reducing kitchen waste benefits both our clients and Compass Group Canada in the following ways:
•Reduces our environmental impacts at each unit.
•Helps control food costs.
•Reduces the amount of garbage to be picked up from the unit.
•Makes all associates aware of food waste and its implications for product cost (i.e. makes frontline associates part of the solution).
•Allows the chef to be aware of how much food is being wasted (e.g. through over-trimming) and provides an opportunity to train staff (e.g. on knife skills).
•Smaller storage area required for garbage bags and bins.

All associates are responsible for managing the food waste in their own areas.
The chef, supervisor or manager is responsible to ensure that food waste is being managed properly, including tracking and documenting food waste.

Project Clean Plate is food waste awareness campaign that raises awareness and engages students to reduce waste. The campaign has three key objectives:
Reduce food waste (including setting waste reduction goals)
Engage students (including communication, participation and involvement)
Make a positive contribution to the community (e.g. supporting a local charity)

Project Clean Plate focuses on reducing post-consumer food waste (i.e. waste that has already left the kitchen and servery). An effective communication strategy to students, along with active student participation are critical to ensuring success and reaching your campus’ specific waste reduction goals.
If the reduction goals are met, Chartwells food services on campus makes a donation to a community-based charity that feeds the hungry in our communities. Connecting the goals of Project Clean Plate to a local charity contributes to increasing participation amongst students, while also making a positive social impact. An example of Project Clean Plate and a short video on the campaign is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-3N3jrk-ek

Trays are not available on campus.

In April 2019 we completed an assessment with the support of Food Banks Canada to determine how much of the food in our cafeterias could be donated if it is unsold. The results show that while some food is left over from the pre-packaged good retail sections after the best before date is reached, it is past the safe point for consumption and further distribution. As such, it would not be accepted by Food Banks Canada, or its chapters which operate in accordance with the CFIA and Toronto Public Health. Further opportunities are being explored for one off situations such as snow days, or shut down periods which can result in overproduction.

HRT’s leftover food is donated to the Feed it Forward, a non-profit organization that runs the pay-what-you-can soup bar at Humber College.

Humber's primary food services provider Compass and the School of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism (culinary program) staff and students collect cooking oil throughout the year which is then sent to be converted to fuel. Annual volumes are included in our annual waste audits.
Oil & Grease 3 Rs program: Oil & grease is collected from food service areas across campus, and stored in dedicated containers. Service is provided by Rothsay as required. 6.7 tonnes of oil and grease is projected to be recycled with our existing program, and it is estimated that 100% of the waste produced will be diverted.

Pre-consumer food waste is collected from kitchens in food service areas for composting off-site. The North Campus has teaching kitchens for the Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism programs that also have a composting program in place to collect pre-consumer food waste. All pre-consumer food waste is collected in designated bins and is hauled to a composting facility nearby.
Chartwells food services at North Campus participated in a pilot study, using the Leanpath technology, to assess back of house food waste resulting from prep, overproduction, or other culinary practices. The demonstrated results show a potential to reduce food waste. The decision to invest in this technology are pending senior leadership.

Food court and food service areas collect post-consumer food waste by providing designated organics bins beside waste collection areas. Material is collected by a hauler Monday to Friday and taken to a nearby composting facility.

At Gourmet Express and Humber Room (Humber’s HRT department), all biodegradable food waste is composted.

China is used exclusively in residence and is available in catering as well.

In Spring of 2019 Humber college with the support of Chartwells completed a North Humber residence eco-container exchange program to assess value and operational feasibility. The initial program showed low adoption rates, and operational challenges which will have to be considered should such a program be implemented in the future.

Humber Room restaurant uses fine dining plates and China .

In an effort to reduce the use of take-out packaging, Gourmet Express (student-run cafe) and Ackee Tree (independent food outlet) offer discounts to customers who bring their own food container.

We offer the lug a mug program that provides the customer with 10-20% discount on their beverage purchase at all locations on campus.

HRT also offers a discount in Gourmet Express to customers who bring their own mugs, as well as $1 coffee in the summer if it is a Gourmet Express reusable mug.

Franchise data not include, data was not provided by Chartwells