Overall Rating	Gold
Overall Score	71.99
Liaison	Aaron Klemm
Submission Date	Jan. 19, 2024

STARS v2.2

San Jose State University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.00 / 2.00	Paul Cingolani Director of Operations Spartan Eats

"---" 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:

n 2014, the SJSU Campus Community Garden was established as a result of a student-led initiative. The garden was created to provide students a space to gain access to health food, learn about sustainable organic garden practices and earn service learning hours.

The garden is located at 372 E. San Salvador Street (across from the Dining Commons)\

The garden is on a quarter acre of land and it includes multiple fruit trees, compost and gray water system. The garden exists to provide the SJSU students, staff, faculty, and the surrounding community with an opportunity to participate in food justice, accessibility to fresh and healthy food while engaging in cultural exchange and cooperation. While at the garden, SJSU members learn the ins and outs of a maintaining a small garden. SJSU members will learn how to harvest, prune, water and seed vegetable starts in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. Garden volunteers are allowed to take home produce harvested after a workday!

The community garden is a place where students can learn and participate in the process of growing food sustainably, but it does not end there! Students can also harvest and enjoy organic, free, and locally grown produce. This space provides a place for student initiative, cooperation and cultural exchange using the growing of food as an exploration of community involvement.

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:

The Dining Commons has recently been certified as part of the Green Restaurant Association and complies with Compass Group's mandate for farm to fork purchasing through our distributors, as well as follows all of FoodBuy purchasing guidelines as outlined in our sustainability and purchasing reports.

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?:

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

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

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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:

Operating a plant-forward location: Rooted Dining, creation of a plant-forward catering menu.

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:

All locations currently offer a vegan option as part of menu programming. Rooted - Plant Based internal retail location, all services.

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:

Partnership with How Good on climate-friendly labeling for recipes in coordination with Chartwells Higher Education for all meal services.

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 CSU participates in diverting commercial and post-consumer food waste from landfills and incinerators through its Organic Recycling program. It also is mandated to report annually the amount of food waste generated and types of programming focused on minimizing the amount of organic waste generated on site to the CalRecycle State Agency Reporting Center (SARC), per AB 1826 Solid Waste: Organic Recycling.

For AB 1826 Bill Text and more information, please visit: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1826&search_keywords

The California State University Sustainability Policy (https://calstate.policystat.com/policy/6987526/latest/) states under Part H. Sustainable Food Service: “All campus food service organizations should track their sustainable food purchases. Such tracking and reporting will be grounded in the Real Food Challenge guidelines, or equivalent, with consideration to campus requested improvements. Campuses shall strive to increase their sustainable food purchases to 20 percent of total food budget by 2020.
Campuses and food service organizations shall collaborate to provide information and/or training on sustainable food service operations to staff and patrons.”

Spartan Eats/Compass Group utilizes our nationally trained Waste Not program.
This utilizes specific transparent and marked waste receptacles which offer chefs the opportunity to work with cooks to minimize waste. This waste is weighed by product and tracked in a financial system to analyze waste and opportunities over the course of the year.

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:

All SJSU dining facilities remain tray-less.

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:

Spartan Eats/Compass Group at SJSU donates:
- day-old breads, pastries and snacks to several clubs on site which provide breakfast and snacks for hungry students daily
- product and cash donations to the new Spartan Food Pantry
- product to local charities, churches, and donation banks
- mandatory volunteer time at the local Second Harvest Food Bank
- Encourages students to donate meal swipes through the Swipe out Hunger program

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?:

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:

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Composting

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

Yes

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:

Waste Not 2.0 hardware and software measures and tracks all pre-consumer composting to properly allocate it versus landfill.

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:

Greenwaste supplies all off-site composting due to the single-stream program at SJSU.

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:

All service ware for the central dining facility is reusable
All locations sell reusable flatware

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:

All to-go materials purchased and available for the locations on campus are compostable.

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:

Reusable mug program
Green Eco-Box available to all diners at the Commons - one time purchase to bring back, collect a new one and take food to go.

Optional Fields

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

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

https://dineoncampus.com/sjsu/sustainability

Additional documentation to support the submission:

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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.