Princeton University
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Princeton Dining Services provides three meals a day in five residential dining halls and at the Center for Jewish Life, late night snacks, meals at the Food Gallery at Frist and several campus cafes, as well as catering services for special events. While balancing the many demands of providing our core services, we also step back to consider the broader context of social and environmental issues surrounding food production, distribution, and preparation. This consideration has lead to several ongoing initiatives that shift purchases towards foods produced with lower environmental impacts, reduce dining hall waste, and strengthen our ties with the local community.

The University’s own definition of “sustainable” includes criteria that are not included by STARS, and are therefore not reflected in the 60 percent noted above. The additional criteria include the following: -Socially Just: Products must be either Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance Certified, or be produced by a company that subscribes to other significant socially responsible practices as defined by that company. -Humane: Products must be either American Humane Certified or be produced by a company that subscribes to rigorous humane practices as defined by that company. -Sustainable seafood: Products must be designated as sustainable by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. Note that all hamburgers in residential dining and ground beef campus-wide are not only local, but grass-fed. Also note that the purchases above are those made by Princeton University Dining Services alone; they do not include the purchases of the University’s primary dining services contractor, Restaurant Associates.