Overall Rating	Silver - expired
Overall Score	50.52
Liaison	Alicia Hodenfield
Submission Date	Feb. 18, 2021

STARS v2.2

Sonoma State University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	1.60 / 2.00	Daniel O'Brien Associate Director of Culinary Services Culinary Services

"---" 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?:

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

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?:

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:

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:

University Culinary Services believes in supporting the local community and sustainable business practices as is demonstrated by the following partners' list. While this list is not all-inclusive, it does provide a background of University Culinary Services' commitment to our local businesses and growers. We pride ourselves on our efforts to support our community and will continue to expand our efforts whenever possible.
University Culinary Services purchases the majority of their produce through the San Francisco company Fresh Point. Fresh Point focuses on sustainability through their waste management program, use of hybrid vehicles, and by using recycled water for their fleet washings. They are also currently being reviewed the by Green Knights group, who helps their clients “green” their business by focusing on sustainable energy use and business practices.

We also support the Santa Rosa Junior College’s Agriculture and Natural Resources programs by purchasing products from Shone Farm. Their 365 acres of land provides an opportunity for students to experience real-life, hands-on training relevant to their career choice. We also offer their CSA program to our campus community in the fall semesters.

Most of the dairy products carried by University Culinary Services are purchased through Clover Stornetta, whose main offices are located just a few minutes south of us in Petaluma. Clover Stornetta Farms is a dairy processor who specializes in both organic and conventional dairy products.

In the area of bread and pastries, University Culinary Services purchases their donuts from Jelly Donuts in Rohnert Park. We also utilize Sonoma’s Artisan Bakery for part of their pastry line. Artisan Bakery opened its doors on July 1992 and every item they produce is baked from scratch daily, using local products whenever possible.
University Culinary Services also makes bread purchases from Full Circle Baking Company, located just down the road in Penngrove. They can be found selling their products at the local Santa Rosa Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, as well as at Oliver’s Market in Cotati.

University Culinary Services carries a large variety of locally crafted beverages. Charlie Brown's Café offers products from Petaluma Coffee & Tea Company for our loose leaf tea program, and our popular Guayaki beverages come to us from the company headquarters in Sebastopol. They are a Fair Trade Certified Yerba Mate supplier who focuses on sustainable practices in all aspects of their business.

University Culinary Services uses United Natural Foods as a source of vegetarian, organic, sustainable, gluten-free, and natural products. These include products from Northern California such as Golden Pacific Island Foods from Healdsburg, Amy's Products from Santa Rosa, Fall River Wild Rice from Fall River Mills, Pamela's Gluten-Free Products from Ukiah, Lundberg products from Richvale, Annie Chun’s products from San Rafael, PJ's Burritos from South San Francisco, and Cliff Bars from Berkeley.

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?:

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

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:

In Kitchens dining room, there is a vegan option at every meal, as well as the other venues. Retail venues label the vegan options and catering always has a vegan option.

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 have compostable stickers that include information such as vegan, gluten free, etc. A large sorting sign with the physical objects attached to it was placed in all venues to educate customers on where to put their waste in order to reduce contamination.

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:

We have always tracked but recently started EATEC in order to more accurately track our waste.

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 more information, please visit: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140AB1826&search_keywords

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:

We do not have trays in our dining room as of 2013. We also plate certain food in order to reduce waste.

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 coordinate with JUMP, a campus volunteer group, to donate our leftover food from the dining commons twice weekly.

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 compost all food and, the fryer oils are transported to Yokayo Bio-fuels in Ukiah to be re-purposed into bio-diesel fuel. Once the used oil has been converted into fuel, it makes its way back to many Sonoma County businesses such as Laguna Farms in Sebastopol.

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:

We compost all of our preparing waste.

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:

The dining room has a pulper which takes all left over food and takes out the water, to go into a compost bin.

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:

There are four restaurants on campus that utilities reusable service 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:

We use World Centric, a local provider, for all of our compostable “to-go” 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:

We offer a 25 cent discount to anyone who brings in reusable container.

Optional Fields

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

We are working on gathering the Carbon footprint information currently. Most initiatives are listed below.

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

http://web.sonoma.edu/culinaryservices/initiatives/sustainability-initiatives.html

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.