University of California, Santa Barbara
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Root 217 is UC Santa Barbara's sustainable food unit on campus; it focuses on food made from local, fresh, organic and natural ingredients. The concept was developed to bring farm-to-table eating into the University Center. Root 217 was awarded with the 2012 Best Practice Award for Sustainable Foodservice at the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference.

Campus Dining purchases from local small and medium sized enterprises including Burkdoll Farms, Sunrise Organics, Edna’s and others. We are delighted to support these companies and our local community. The enthusiasm and passion behind these farmers and business owners is illustrated in their excellent products. During education events in the dining commons we enjoy inviting these vendors out to showcase their products and get our students excited about their amazing products.

As a reflection of our values, Residential Dining has integrated a special event called Green Monday into its operations. Offered three times a quarter, Green Monday offers a vegetarian menu all day. Green Monday is a campaign to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our total meat consumption. See more at: http://www.housing.ucsb.edu/dining/nutrition-blog/green-monday#sthash.4nZL9Xjk.dpuf

Additionally, Residential Dining hosts Sustainability Week, Nutrition Week, and Earth Day once per year. During tabling events, students are encouraged to increase the consumption of plant-based options through choosing more whole grain, beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.

In our Retail Cafes, plant-based alternatives options are offered including the Southwest Chiptole Patty from Hungry Planet, and featured vegan soups made by the “Soup Guy”. Additional menu offerings include using vegan mayonnaise and offering many organic, partially organic, Fair Trade, natural, and locally grown or sourced products.

Other events that have focused on promoting plant forward options include our partnership with the Food, Nutrition, and Basic Skills Program. Campus Dining hosts at least four cooking demonstrations per quarter. Topics range from Fried Rice, Homemade Granola Bars, Preserving Food & Buying In Bulk, Plant-Based Breakfast Hacks, and much more. Our production team designs these cooking demonstrations to teach life skills, including basic cooking skills and information about nutrition. These opportunities allow our staff to connect with the student population and illustrate how easy plant-based recipes can be incorporated into anyones lifestyle. Campus Dining is proud to be a part of the core mission of teaching and research.

Residential Dining offers students complete-protein vegan options. Our mission is to promote a healthy lifestyle and increase an innovative variety of high quality, fresh, and seasonal plant-based meal options to our students. In order to assist students with dietary preferences, the University uses NetNutrition. NetNutrition is an online dietary tool that allows individuals to view nutritional information about items and filter food-based dietary preferences, such as vegan or vegetarian. For those pursuing a vegan diet, there are vegan options for every meal in all on-campus dining commons.
UCSB's NetNutrition: http://netnutrition.housing.ucsb.edu

Additionally, in our Retail Cafe’s vegan entree options are offered at every meal. As mentioned previously, the “Soup Guy”, focuses on offering vegan soups. Vegan soup options have included Vegan Pho Vietnamese with rice noodle, Vegan Corn Chowder, and Vegan Tortilla Soup with Tortilla strips.

We have created signs featuring our sustainable food options in our residential dining commons. Our signs allow us to share our story with our students by highlighting our sustainable efforts. Some of the food items we featured include organic and local produce, organic and fair trade coffee & tea, local honey, and organic milk.

To reduce food waste, Residential Dining cooks from scratch and also purchases in bulk, while ensuring that items are used before their expiration date and that too much food is never bought too far in advance. The dining commons staff batch cooks in smaller portions so that food is always fresh while greatly reducing the amount of food waste by only cooking what is needed to complete the meal period. When possible, prepped ingredients are used in multiple meals and high quality leftovers are able to be served again or repurposed for another menu item. For example, chicken bones and vegetable trimmings are used to make house-made stocks. All dining operations compost 100% pre-and post-consumer food waste, ensuring that it is not sent to the landfill but is re-purposed as compost instead.

Additional efforts have been made to track post consumer food waste. All residential operations track food waste one day (all meals) per week to fine tune portioning projections for future meals. But our desire to gain more knowledge and to continue to decrease our waste lead us to track post consumer plate waste. In 2019 Portola Dining commons started tracking post consumable waste daily. The act of tracking the waste has created additional awareness with staff and has helped to reduce food waste. Between October and December of Fall quarter we saw a 15% reduction in post consumable waste.

These programs allow our management team to engage with our staff but also our students. During Sustainability Week, our dining commons collected plate waste from one meal period and shared the collection with our student customers. The visual representation of waste brought attention to the impact of their actions which allowed us to ask our students to partner with us to be more sustainable.

To continue our efforts to address food insecurity and reduce food waste, in 2019 we started a pilot food recovery program. This program utilizes food items that would otherwise be composted from Portola Dining Commons and saves these items to provide at our on-campus Food Pantry. By redirecting unspoiled food, we can continue to be leaders in our community, supporting our students by continuing to address food insecurity while also reducing our environmental impact. We completed 11 food recoveries during the 19-20 fiscal year.

In the fall quarter of the 2009-2010 school year, Residential Dining removed trays from all four dining commons. The dining commons on campus are each labeled as a "Trayless Dining Facility" and do not provide students the option of using a tray. Since removing trays from dining facilities, UCSB has seen a 54% reduction in post-consumer food waste and a 37% average savings of total waste overall. There has been a reduction of approximately 2,400,000 pounds in solid waste. The amount of wasted food found on trays also went from 6 oz down to less than 3 oz. Further reductions included saving ~1,000,000 gallons/year of water, and chemical use from washing trays was also reduced substantially. Additionally, all trays were donated to various facilities, including local schools, the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, and UCSB Life Science and Biology labs. The total number of trays donated was 3,952. Food cost savings have allowed new sustainable programs to be implemented. Residential Dining was able to implement the purchasing of 100% Certified Fair Trade Coffee and 100% Certified Humane Cage-Free Eggs in all dining commons.

Additionally, our Retail operations will be moving to trayless dining once students return to campus.

At the University of California, Santa Barbara, Residential Dining Services actively donates leftover and surplus food products to local food banks. As mentioned previously our food recovery program will allow us to build off of our already successful food pantry by providing our students with more variety and support. During the fall ‘19 and winter ‘20 quarters, we have been able to utilize food items that would otherwise be composted from Portola Dining Commons, and save these items to provide at the Food Pantry. Items include scrambled eggs, rice, vegetables, soup, prepared entrees like flatbread, enchiladas, panini, sandwiches, and more. This program is convenient for our students, as all items provided by Portola Dining Commons can simply be reheated and enjoyed.

Our Retail operations work with a student run program called FoodCycling. FoodCycling addresses food insecurity and helps reduce food waste in our campus community by collecting food (prepared salad and sandwiches) from our Retail outlets and other operations on campus. The FoodCycling Club recovered 7,554 pounds of fruit across 6 gleaning events in 2017-2018.

Campus Dining diverts used cooking oil from the landfill. Used cooking oil is picked up weekly and used to create biodiesel. The biodiesel is then utilized on-campus for use in certain maintenance and groundskeeping vehicles. Used coffee grounds are also donated and used in an on-campus compost that is utilized in campus landscaping.

The University of California, Santa Barbara's Campus Dining composts 100% of pre-consumer food waste. In our dining commons approximately 36,000 pounds of food waste (pre and post) is composted per week. On the academic side of campus, the Retail operations compost all pre-consumer food waste, and post-consumer compost is available to the UCSB Community near the food service entities.
In response to the large amounts of pre-consumer and post-consumer food scraps generated at UCSB, as well as the recent introduction of compostable food service ware, UCSB worked diligently with MarBorg Industries and Engle & Gray to establish a new waste stream on campus for compostables and food scraps. All of the UCen’s eateries participate in this program, as well as several of the leased tenants. Post-consumer compost receptacles are strategically located throughout campus and are serviced by Associated Students Recycling.

The University California, Santa Barbara's Campus Dining composts 100% of all post-consumer waste. Additionally, 100% of the waste oil (all frying oil used in cooking) is purchased by a biodiesel company, RP Environmental, and converted into cleaner-burning biodiesel fuel used in vehicles.
In response to the large amounts of pre-consumer and post-consumer food scraps generated at UCSB, as well as the recent introduction of compostable food service ware, UCSB worked diligently with MarBorg Industries and Engle & Gray to establish a new waste stream on campus for compostables and food scraps. All of the UCen’s eateries participate in this program, as well as several of the leased tenants. Post-consumer compost receptacles are strategically located throughout campus and are serviced by Associated Students Recycling.

All dining common locations at UCSB provide reusable service ware for "dine in" meals. This includes dishware, glassware, and cutlery.

The University of California, Santa Barbara provides diners with reusable containers for to-go food at the Courtyard and Coral Tree Cafes. Diners can buy the Eco-Clamshells Reusable Containers in place of recyclable containers with their meal and subsequently exchange used containers for sanitized ones with the next meal purchase. Customers who use the Eco-Clamshells also receive a discount on their meal. Additionally, the University Center offers reusable containers for to-go food. No discount is provided at this time.

The University Center (UCen) staff has made a campus-wide policy that all food entities leasing space from the UCen must provide compostable food service ware. This mandate was added to the contracts for tenants interested in leasing and only applies to new, future contracts.
For to-go meals (offered at one dining commons), the operation provides a reusable container. Additionally, the food recovery program out of Portola Dining Commons utilizes a reusable container.

Catering operations utilize 100% compostable service wares and manage all waste at events to properly sort compost, recyclables, and landfill.

The University of California, Santa Barbara provides diners with reusable mugs at the University Center. Diners using reusable mugs receive a discount. Customers can also bring in their own drinking vessel and receive a discount. Additionally, Residential Dining Commons permit and welcome reusable mugs brought in by customers.