University of Mississippi
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Institution’s dining services support sustainable food systems in one or more of the following ways. The institution or its primary dining services contractor:

• Has a published sustainable dining policy that includes specific criteria to support the procurement of environmentally and socially preferable food and beverage products and/or includes guidelines to reduce or minimize the adverse environmental and social impacts of dining operations;
• Sources food from a campus garden or farm;
• Hosts a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, and/or urban agriculture project, or supports such a program in the local community;
• Has a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal;
• Hosts low impact dining events (e.g. Meatless Mondays);
• Hosts sustainability-themed meals (e.g. local harvest dinners);
• Hosts a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer;
• Informs customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labeling and signage in dining halls;
• Engages in outreach efforts to support learning and research about sustainable food systems; and/or
• Other sustainability-related initiatives (e.g. health and wellness initiatives, making culturally diverse options available)

Part 2

Institution’s dining services minimize food and dining waste in one or more of the following ways. The institution or its primary dining services contractor: 

• Participates in a competition or commitment program (e.g. U.S. EPA Food Recovery Challenge) and/or uses a food waste prevention system (e.g. LeanPath) to track and improve its food management practices;
• Has 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;
• Donates food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people;
• Diverts food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses (e.g. converting cooking oil to fuel, on-site anaerobic digestion);
• Has a pre-consumer composting program;
• Has a post-consumer composting program;
• Utilizes reusable service ware for “dine in” meals;
• Provides reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program);
• Offers discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers (e.g. mugs) instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations; and/or
• Other materials management initiatives to minimize waste not covered above (e.g. working with vendors and other entities to reduce waste from food packaging).                                                                        

This credit includes on-campus dining operations and catering services operated by the institution and the institution’s primary dining services contractor.

This credit applies to all institutions that have on-campus dining services operated by the institution or the institution’s primary on-site contractor.

Each part is scored independently.

Part 1

An institution earns 0.125 points for each initiative outlined above up to the maximum of 1 point available for Part 1.

Part 2

An institution earns 0.125 points for each initiative outlined above up to the maximum of 1 point available for Part 2.

Timeframe

Report on current policies or programs at the time of submission.

Sampling and Data Standards

Not applicable