Michigan State University
EN-5: Outreach Campaign

MSU's Clean Plates at State is an annual food waste awareness and audit program that started in the 2012 that targets both students and employees that use the dining halls. While the dining halls provide daily meals to students living on campus, a significant amount of MSU employees also frequent the dining halls. For FY19, 7,863 employee meal plans were purchased, which equates to 78,630 individual meals eaten by MSU employees in the dining halls. The goal of the Clean Plates program is to determine the amount of post-consumer food waste in the MSU dining halls, analyze its implications for culinary services, and raise awareness of food waste to students and employees. The program measures average food waste per person in ounces and number of zero waste patrons during the lunch period from 11:30am to 1:30pm and dinner period from 5pm to 7pm. Both ends of the tray return areas are blocked off and students/employees bring us their plates. We then condense any leftover edible food onto one plate. The one plate of food waste is equivalent to one patron. Three samples of each type of plate is used in order to account for the variability among plate weights because it is not feasible to weigh every single plate used at the dining halls. To count the number of “Clean Plates” or waste free plates, a volunteer would hold a clicker and use it to count the number of zero waste plates we saw during the measurement period. Waste free is defined as all edible food eaten; therefore, bones, peels, and other inedible pieces does not count against the patron. This program is currently suspended due to COVID but was running during FY19 and FY20 within the reporting period. Full social media campaigns and table tents were created to showcase this program to the students and staff and stickers were awarded to anyone that came back with and empty plate.

http://eatatstate.msu.edu/sustainability

In the Fall of 2019, 11,057 patrons that participated. This included students, employees and guests, with a zero waste rate of 29.5%. Patrons wasted 2.96 oz compared to 3.16 oz in 2018. Total pounds of food waste decreased by 24,982 lbs compared to Fall of 2018. Food waste was higher during dinner than lunch at 5 of the 8 dining halls. There was a total number of 2,658,575 swipes in the 2019 fall semester, down 41,775 swipes from fall 2018. It is estimated that $1,841,163 was lost due to post-consumer food waste, which equates to about 19.6% of the food budget. 57% of patrons went tray-less during lunch, while 53% went tray-less during dinner. We used posters and graphs to show the waste flows. Social interactions and stickers were given out to these that did their best to not waste food. We gained valuable knowledge of menu likes and dislikes the menu choices.

The positive impact from Clean Plate at State program created processes in menu development with the kitchen staff. They were able to work with the recipes to learn and adjust to the needs based on waste counts. The data was shared in menu planning and better training for portion controls. Overall, it was a financial savings to realize the amount of waste that was happening in the dining areas and have a positive way to curb it.

MSU's Pack Up. Pitch In. program has been in place since 1997. One part of the program is a non perishable food collections campaign. Each school year at fall move out, spring break and spring move out, students receive marketing explaining that they can donate non perishable food through Pack Up. Pitch In. to the local community organizations (e.g., MSU Student Food Bank, MSU Safe Place, local shelters and food banks). Communications are shared messaging via social media and a mailbox postcard. Students are asked to volunteer to help pack up the donations. Service centers in the residence hall are the drop off point for the food donations. Volunteers and building staff gather the donated items and the SLE/RHS Sustainability Offer arranges pick up. Pack Up. Pitch In. was never paused, though donations were unusually low in FY21 because of few students living on campus. Protocols aligned with CDC guidance, including storing donated items for 14 days before transferring them to local organizations.

Culinary Services has an All You Care to Eat dining plan in the dining halls. They also have an additional program called Combo Exchange that is designed to provide students with options to pick up food choices at specific campus locations. It is designed to help supplement food needs when students are not able to make the specific dining hours of operations. With this program over the years, we have seen an increase of students take advantage of this service and an increase in waste. Students raised questions on what to do with the excess non perishable foods and how they could donate to the local community. SLE/ RHS Sustainability worked with students and staff to expand the Pack Up. Pitch In. program to have a dedicated food collection component. Over 6,200 pounds of food was collected and donated in spring 2019. Prior to 2019, the food donation portion of Pack Up. Pitch In. was only captured sporadically, as it was in low volumes. Now with having a formal campaign, the food is collected, box up, and transported or picked up by local organizations in need. It makes connections from the MSU community to the local community, both filling a need and promoting understanding of the level of food insecurities present. This campaign continues to gain interest among students, especially with the increase in takeout dining and Combo Exchange use by students during the pandemic.

The Office of Sustainability and partners also coordinate several mini campaigns throughout the year, including during Sustainability Month in October and Earth Month in April. During these times, multiple events are offered and messaging is promoted to the campus community to get involved in sustainability programs like the MSU Sustainability Pledge, Green Office Certification or the Spartan Green Living Certification. In addition, the Office of Sustainability Sustainability worked with student groups to promote SDG Week (U.N. Sustainable Development Goals) in March 2021.

The Office has also coordinated campaigns with the Alumni Office for Earth Month and Garden Month. For the Earth Month campaign, just over $6,000 was raised across multiple sustainability-related funds at the university, including the: Campus Beautification Fund, Campus Sustainability Student Projects Fund, Horticulture Gardens, Institute of Water Research, Michigan Natural Features Inventory Expendable Fund, Michigan Pollinator Initiative, MSU Bike Service Center Fund, RISE--Residential Initiative on the Study of Environment, Student Organic Farm Program and the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden. In addition, 15 employees signed onto the MSU Sustainability Pledge as part of the campaign, committing to incorporating sustainable practices in their daily routines at work and home.

During Garden Month, the campaign raised nearly $5,000, including gifts made to the Campus Beautification Fund, Radiology Healing Gardens, Campus Sustainability Student Projects Fund, 4-H Children’s Garden, Tollgate Garden Fund, Hidden Lake Gardens, MSU Extension Master Gardener Program, Horticulture Gardens, and W.J. Beal Botanical Garden Fund. In addition, 47 people became pollinator champions through the campaign's promotions.

The Eco Reps, coordinated by SLE/RHS, also coordinated multiple virtual campaigns during FY21, which was a remote school year because of the pandemic. This included the "Seasons Greenings" campaign on how to be sustainable around the holidays, Spartans Take Action on Food waste campaign, and held an event called ""What does Earth day mean to you?.

The MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center had approximately 6,000 outreach engagements involving sustainability programming during the reporting period and reached an additional 17,200 people through views of their monthly Surplus and Recycling Townhall Webinar Series. https://msurecycling.com/town-halls/