Northern Michigan University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

NMU Dining partners with the Hoop House, NMU’s solar greenhouse by purchasing all the produce they grow that isn’t being utilized elsewhere. NMU Dining is also in a partnership with the Indoor Agriculture program to purchase all the produce their storage container garden grows. NMU Dining diverts almost all of their pre-consumer compostable waste by partnering with a local farm, Partridge Creek Farm. Partridge Creek Farm has a network of gardens within the city of Ishpeming, MI that grow and distribute fresh produce to its community. NMU Dining also works with the Upper Peninsula Food Exchange to purchase food from local farms.

Sundre Snack and Supply Co., centrally located in Harden Hall, offers products that are Non-GMO, USDA Organic, Recycled, Fair Trade Certified, Local, Green-packaged, All Natural, Clean Label, Vegan, Vegetarian and more. Many products are also sourced locally and within the state of Michigan. Sundre also has a unique line of glass jar salads that are healthy, Vegan, Vegetarian and Gluten Free dining options. The program also allows the glass jars to be returned for a deposit so that they can be reused. Here is a link to the Sundre website. https://nmu.edu/dining/sundre

Current partnerships with local small farms/businesses: BSB Farms-Shell eggs Thill and Sons-Fish Superior Home Farms- Beef Ore Dock Brewing Company-Beverages Barrel and Beam-Beverages Keweenaw Brewing Company-Beverage Blackrocks-Beverages Superior Culture-Beverages Fresh Wind Farms-Microgreens Vollwerth’s-Sausages/Meats Jilbert’s Dairy-Dairy Laurie’s: Pasties NMU Hoop House: Produce Indoor Agriculture Department: Produce Social Enterprises NMU Dining partnered/assisted with in 2022: Social Justice For Us: Black History Month Native American Student Association: Native American Heritage Month and First Nation’s Food Taster SEEC Office: MLK Day celebrations Let’s Grow KI: Community Education Partridge Creek Farm: Community Education, Fund Raising Animal Club: Peas On Earth (a weeklong plant based eating celebration) Additionally, this past year NMU Dining spent approximately $35,000 on locally raised animals from the Marquette County Fair from local students participating in 4H.

Northern Lights Dining, our primary dining hall, has partnered with students in demonstrations that aim to reduce food waste and promote composting through signage and assisting in sorting waste. We conducted a waste audit in the Fall 2022, and are conducting a more in depth audit in Winter 2023 to continue working towards post consumer compost collection. We’ve partnered with the Animal Club on campus the last two years to host “Peas On Earth.” This is a weeklong event that highlights the health and environmental impacts of eating a plant-based diet. In 2021, this event won student event of the year. In 2022, we also hosted a plant-based tasting event where 3 of the 5 of stations in our dining hall offered plant-based options, so students could try products they normally wouldn’t. More than 30 NMU culinary professionals took part in the Forward Food Experience, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, which comprised of 16 hours of intensive training on plant-based diets.

In the dining hall Parsnip offers a hot breakfast, lunch, and dinner vegan option everyday, as well as soup. There are additional vegan options in the dining hall at 16 greens (the salad bar), and in Robin's Nook (the allergen friendly room). NMU Dining also offers several vegan options on every retail outlet menu and grab and go options are available at the convenience stores.

Northern Lights Dining has multiple digital screens and physical signage which rotate educational information, including the fact that a portion of offerings procured locally from local farms and suppliers, as well as in partnership with our local 4-H group. Additionally, all menus and food cards at Northern Lights Dining indicate food options that are either vegan or vegetarian. Throughout our restaurants and retail outlets on campus, food that is sourced locally is recognized on menus and signage.

Using the Oracle Micros software system, we carefully track the number of patrons and when they frequent our dining hall. Using this data, we are able to forecast more precisely how much food to make, minimizing waste. NMU Dining is committed to buying in bulk when feasible using bulk dispensers for various drinks, condiments and cereals, leading to a reduction in the amount of packaging materials used. Most of our dining purchases are made through one primary vendor, decreasing the amount of time and energy spent making deliveries.

NMU Dining no longer utilizes trays, which encourage over consumption, and implemented proper portion controls when plating food. Prior to this change, meat servings were 7-8 oz., and now portions are between 2-3 oz. By plating food upon request, and serving the appropriate portion sizes, food waste has been reduced dramatically. As a result, the water and chemicals used to clean trays and plates has also declined.

NMU Dining collects and donates food that would otherwise go to compost or trash to the Warming Center.

NMU Dining partners with Sanimax to remove and recycle oil used during the food preparation process. Sanimax removes this oil from our dining facilities and recycles it to be used in marketable products. For more information on Sanimax please visit http://www.sanimax.com/

NMU Dining employs a pre-compost program whereby we contract Partridge Creek Farm, a local urban farm, to pick up all of our pre-consumer compost materials for their compost and incubator programs.

Although NMU currently does not have a post-consumer composting program, the planning and implementation of such a program are well underway. It is the hope that pilot collection will begin as soon as February 2023. Post-consumer composting is also written into the university's interim strategic plan with tentative full implementation within the next 3-5 years.

In retail, service ware is reusable for "dine-in" meals. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the dining hall is still serving off of disposable ware, but as soon as staffing is such that washing service ware is possible again, there will be a switch back to reusable.

Almost all of our of our to-go containers and service ware used at restaurants and retail outlets are made from recycled materials and are compostable. We use biodegradable paper plates, recycled napkins, cornware utensils and Pepsi’s compostable cups. The only exceptions to this are items that are currently unavailable due to supply chain interruptions.

In concessions, guests are given a significant discount on fountain beverages and popcorn when they bring in their Wildcat cups and popcorn buckets. There are currently no other programs due to residual effects from the pandemic.

The cardboard containers for all shelled eggs, procured from locally owned BSB Farms, are saved and returned to the farm for reuse. Green cleaning products are used extensively throughout all NMU Dining facilities, improving air and water quality, and reducing waste and pollution.