Luther College
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

The Luther College Center for Sustainable Communities, Wellness Department and Health Care Fund collaborate to offer CSA rebates to all .75 FTE faculty and staff. Employees are permitted to select any local CSA share of their choosing and are reimbursed 50% of the cost (up to $100). Options include both traditional CSA options with weekly or biweekly deliveries and market shares where participants draw down an account with their CSA farmer at the Farmer's Market each time they shop. Employees are required to attend two "food education events," which include cooking classes (and virtual or posted videos, during COVID) book discussions and gardening classes.

Luther's dining contractor, Sodexo, hosts a "Supply Management Supplier Diversity Program," focused on working with suppliers that mirror the communities and consumers Sodexo works in. Vendors are responsible for including diverse vendors in all RFPs, and reporting results quarterly. A flyer about the program is attached under "additional documentation," below.

We have added meat alternatives to nearly every line, every day, to provide as many plant-based or vegan options as possible to encourage more of that type of consumption. This strategy is great because it has an impact every day as opposed to 1 day per week (which is the case in some places that offer a "meatless Monday").It also doesn't limit the variety of options our guests receive on any given day.

During Earth Week 2021 activities, Luther Dining Services provided a low-waste, plant-based (great taste) picnic on the lawn for all students, faculty and staff. Dining Services also provided a plant-based catered lunch for new employee sustainability orientation.

We offer a cold and hot vegan station in our resident dining facility every day that is complete with vegan protein options. Other stations frequently feature complimentary proteins such as rice and beans.

We always do our best to provide signage that highlights items that are procured from local producers or the Luther Gardens. Sometimes this is with indicators on the menus and other times it is with little signs that are placed out next to individual items on the line. That said, we do a better job of this some weeks, months, semesters and years than others. We always have information on our digital sign in the cafeteria about local producers and have done local food awareness events a few times over the past few years to highlight the items we are procuring.

The cafeteria requires all kitchen staff to weigh and enter all leftover foods in "Lean Path by Waste Watch" software. Weekly reports are sent to the Dining Services Director. Sodexo, the parent company, monitors results and compiles waste statistics as part of their annual sustainability reports. Sodexo has a target of a 50% reduction in food waste by 2025. Lean Path tallies items such as:
- Foods wasted
- Reasons wasted (entered by kitchen staff)
- Total waste value
- Value of expired food
https://us.sodexo.com/files/live/sites/com-us/files/our-impact/ABetterTomorrow2025Report.pdf

The Cafeteria utilizes a production sheet which contains the recipes we use for all our serving lines. This sheet explains how much food we should make of each particular type for each line based on several factors including historical guest counts and trends for popular menu items.

During production, any food by-products, (peels, rinds, etc...) are composted. All over produced food (e.g. extra pans of lasagna and pots of soup) are packaged up by student workers and volunteers twice/week and donated to the local food pantry through our Cafeteria to Community Program. In calendar year 2021, 5,345 pounds of food was delivered to food pantries. Significantly, Luther has considerably less food to donate because of the effective practices aimed at reducing food waste--in 2016-2019, as much as 16,000 pounds was donated per year.

Dining Services removed cafeteria trays back in 2007 to help reduce food waste and conserve resources. Cleaning the trays after each meal required 700 gallons of water and two hours of dish-washing time, which sustainability advocates consider an expensive ecological and financial cost to pay for dining convenience.

In the fall of 2013, Luther began a Cafeteria to Community Program. The goal of Luther’s Cafeteria to Community Program is to ensure that good food makes it into the bellies of those who need it. Through this program student volunteers work in close collaboration with dining services staff to package food into quart sized containers that will be labeled and delivered to the First Lutheran Church Food Pantry twice weekly. Donations include soup, main entrees, homemade pasta sauce, vegetables, salads and more. In calendar year 2021, 5,345 pounds of food was delivered to food pantries. Significantly, Luther has considerably less food to donate because of the effective practices aimed at reducing food waste--in 2016-2019, as much as 16,000 pounds was donated per year.

Luther College installed a pulper for our food waste in 2018. This has allowed the college to divert almost 90% of its organic waste from the landfill into a compost system hosted on our campus farm. https://www.luther.edu/headlines/?story_id=741309

Pre-consumer compost is collected in the kitchens of the cafeteria, Marty's, and Oneota Market. Waste is collected into buckets that is taken directly to the Union dock for pick-up and transport by the student recycling crew to the compost pile. With the addition of a pulper in the cafeteria dish room, all prep waste will now be run through the pulper before being sent to the college farm. This will remove water weight while transforming food waste into a more easily compostable material.

For decades Luther has offered post-consumer composting in the cafeteria. Students were asked to scrape the contents of their plates into either the landfill or compost bin. Waste audits demonstrated that there was a lot of contamination at the post-consumer level, despite good signage and educational efforts.

With the addition of the pulper in the dish room, protocol has changed. Post consumer bins have been removed and students are now asked to leave everything on their plate for sorting and processing by the dish room. Pre consumer plate waste is now all handled by the pulper. This is a process change but one that we feel will allow us to capture a greater percentage of plate waste. We recognize that from an educational standpoint, this process takes responsibility away from individual students and see that as a downfall to having all plate waste be handled in the dish room. We also have worked to ensure that nearly every building on campus (administrative, academic and residential) has a large collection container for compostable waste. Students and employees can elect to have a personal one-quart compost container to collect food scraps. Each container has a label on the lid that tells what can and cannot be composted.

All plates and silverware in the cafeteria are reusable.

Our dining services program offers reusable "Green N Go" polypropylene clamshell containers that can be used at the "Grab N Go window." These can be used by anyone for free. When the person is done with the container, they can bring it back to a designated drop-off container. The Dining Services "C-Store" sells reusable silverware packages, and gives away silverware in reusable cloth pouches, sewn by volunteers using donated fabric.

All campus cafés selling coffee (Oneota Market, Sunnyside Café and Nordic Brew) offer a discount to customers for bringing their own reusable mug. A coffee refill in a reusable mug costs $1.75, regardless of size. Coffee in disposable cups sells for $2.05/2.25/2.45 (12/16/20 oz.), so the discount amounts to 15/22/29%. Espresso drinks in a reusable mug receive a $0.50 discount.

Our Dining Services team has the following sustainability-related initiatives, including health and wellness initiatives, food waste initiatives, and raising awareness of local foods.

Luther College Dining Services helps guests on our campus select delicious, nutritious and satisfying meals, snacks and desserts by highlighting well-balanced menu choices and providing nutritional information and tips to help guests make choices that fit their needs.

An important part of our focus on health and wellness is the use of seasonal menus, featuring fresh and healthy ingredients—many of which are grown by local or regional farmers. Every season has its own unique produce that is showcased in delicious signature dishes to highlight the distinct flavors and natural appeal of seasonal items. Enjoy healthy choices on your campus throughout the year.

Simple Servings
Simple Servings, an award-winning wellness concept, features delicious, homemade meals, prepared without any of the FDA most common allergens of peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fin fish, sesame, wheat, soy, milk products and eggs. One of our most popular stations, students who simply prefer less complicated, but healthier recipes, line up to enjoy the dishes here. Expect to find favorites like roast pork, grilled chicken, baked sweet potatoes, steamed green beans, and a variety of delicious entrees and sides! 75 percent of Simple Servings items also meet our Mindful criteria, so don't worry about compromising health and flavor! Gluten-intolerant? No problem—additionally, all of our dishes served at this station are gluten-free.

"Sodexo 2022 Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report" showing food waste reduction goals on pp. 31-33: https://us.sodexo.com/files/live/sites/com-us/files/our-impact/ABetterTomorrow2025Report.pdf