Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	68.64
Liaison	Kimberly Post
Submission Date	Feb. 22, 2022

STARS v2.2

Saint Joseph's College - ME
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.00 / 2.00	Maya Atlas Program Director, Stone Barn Event Coordinator Institute for Local Food Systems Innovation

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainable dining initiatives

Local community engagement

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:

Yes

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:

SJC runs a freight farm project (urban agriculture project) to supply dining services and local food banks.

Sustainability-themed outlet

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:

Pearson's Cafe (primary dining outlet) and Baggot St. Cafe (secondary food outlet) have educational signage, composting stations, food labeling for sustainable sourcing, and regular events ("meatless Mondays") promoting sustainability practices

Inclusive and local sourcing

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor support disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its food and beverage purchasing?:

Yes

A brief description of the support for disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

SJC employs a broker to arrange food purchases from local SMEs

Estimated percentage of total food and beverage expenditures on products from disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

Low-impact dining

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events or promote plant-forward options?:

Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events and/or plant-forward options:

The EcoReps on campus have institutionalized a Meatless Monday program. Other events such as the Eat Local Lunch and events during campus sustainability month (October each year)

Vegan dining program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:

Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program:

Our Vegan offerings are plentiful everyday. We make sure that a lot of our side dishes are vegan especially vegetables and starches. We also offer a vegan pasta sauce everyday, an entree and a rotating soup from vegetarian to vegan. We have at least 4 vegan house made salad dressings daily. Because of our from scratch philosophy vegans have plenty to choose from whilst dining at Pearson's Cafe.

Labelling and signage

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labelling and signage in dining halls?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability labelling and signage in dining halls:

We offer an extensive labeling program.
Gluten Free
Dairy Free
Allergen Free
Healthy Choice
Low impact

Part 2. Food waste minimization and recovery

Food recovery program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:

Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:

The kitchen actively weighs its waste. Keeping track of Pre-Consumer and Post-Consumer waste. All food waste from the dining services is then composted with a local composting contractor

Trayless dining and portion modifications

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:

Yes

A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:

Our trayless program started in August of 2007. I believe we were the first college to go completely trayless dining.

The year before we did a trayless day of dining and monitored the results. It was about 25% less waste on the trayless days. Basically we just implemented the program upon return. The biggest complaints came from faculty and staff but after one week it was all good!!

Food donation

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:

Yes

A brief description of the food donation program:

We have a food salvaging program in place. Each meal period leftover food is salvaged from the hot line and placed in metal, oven proof containers. Food is donated/transported to the Standish food pantry. During the pandemic, we delivered freight farm supplied meals to local food pantries and elderly housing facilities.

Food materials diversion

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses?:

Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:

We recycle all our oils used for cooking to Restaurant Technologies, a Bio-Diesel company.
All waste food from dining service operations is composted.
There are also compost stations around campus in high retail food areas.
Compostable materials go to Garbage to Garden, and November Harvest Farm, a local farming and food supply operation, receives some green compostables which they add to their animal feed stock

Composting

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:

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Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:

Yes

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:

Students are encourage to scape their plates in front of the dish return including their paper napkin. The dish washing crew will also scrape plates from the other side for those that chose not to. All of this post-consumer waste goes to Garbage to Garden, a composting contractor.

Dine-in service ware

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:

Yes

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:

We do have and use reusable service ware; the pandemic has forced some temporary changes in service, but any non-reusable ware is compostable. As soon as public health protocols allow, all ware will return to reusable. We also have a program to reward patrons for bringing their own reusable ware.

Take-away materials

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:

Yes

A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:

The board plan offers a TO-GO program where the student purchases a reusable container for $5.00. This container can be used at any meal period for a swipe of their meal card. When they bring back the container dirty we replace it with a clean one. We also offer compostable to-go containers, with stations for collection of those containers.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:

Yes

A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:

Any reusable mug can be refilled for free.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:

The health and wellness program on campus runs a series of programs around dining related topics such as;
How to eat healthy around the Holidays
Know where you fish comes from
Essential Oils for your body

We also bring in various vendors to demonstrate new sustainable products. Such as frozen yogurt, Kelp smoothies etc

Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:

https://www.sjcme.edu/life-and-community/dining-services/

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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