University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
OP-6: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Part 1 

Institution’s dining services purchase food and beverages that meet at least one of the following criteria: 

• Local and community-based

And/or

• Third party verified to be ecologically sound, fair and/or humane

Food and beverage purchases that meet both criteria listed above (e.g. local community-based products that are Certified Organic) should not be double-counted. 

Local community-based products: 

• Are sourced from local community-based producers (directly or through distributors) 
• Contain raw ingredients (excluding water) that are third party verified and/or locally harvested and produced (e.g. bread made with Organic flour or local honey) and
• Exclude products from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), products that have minimal nutritional value (e.g. soda, chewing gum, candies made predominantly from sweeteners), and products from producers that have been convicted of one or more labor law violations within the previous three years 

Products that are not local and community-based must be third party verified to count. Recognized third party standards and certifications for food and beverages are outlined in the STARS Technical Manual. Institutions located outside the U.S. and Canada may use additional third party certifications to identify ecologically sound, fair and humane products, provided the certifications are reported in “Notes about this submission”.  

Part 1 of this credit includes food and beverage purchases for on-campus dining operations and catering services operated by the institution or the institution’s primary dining services contractor (e.g. Aramark, Bon Appétit Management Company, Chartwells, Sodexo). On-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and concessions are excluded from Part 1. 

Part 2 

Institution’s on-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and/or concessions purchase food and beverages that are third party verified and/or locally sourced (i.e. meet the criteria outlined in Part 1). 

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 

Institutions earn the maximum of 3 points available for Part 1 of this credit when a combined total of 75 percent or more of dining services food and beverage purchases are third party verified and/or sourced from local community-based producers. Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of food and beverage expenditures devoted to third party verified and locally sourced products. For example, an institution with third party verified and locally sourced purchases that account for 50 percent of its total food and beverage expenditures would earn 2 points (⅔ of the points available for Part 1 of this credit). 

Part 2 

An institution earns the maximum of 1 point available for Part 2 of this credit when 75 percent of the food and beverage purchases of on-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and concessions are third party verified and/or locally sourced (i.e. meet the criteria outlined in Part 1). Incremental points are awarded based on the percentage of food and beverage expenditures devoted to third party verified and locally sourced products. For example, an institution with on-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and/or concessions for which 50 percent of total food and beverage purchases are third party verified and locally sourced would earn 0.67 points (⅔ of the points available for Part 2 this credit). 

See scoring tables and example in the STARS Technical Manual.

Timeframe

Report the most recent data available.   

Sampling and Data Standards

Institutions may choose to track food and beverage purchases for a 12-month consecutive period or use representative samples. When using samples, institutions should accommodate seasonal and other variations in sustainable food and beverage availability and purchasing. 

Institutions whose students are running the Real Food Calculator may elect to report products identified as “Real Food A” and/or “Real Food B” in lieu of the criteria outlined above. 

Institutions that find it impractical to separate the purchases of on-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and concessions from those of its other dining operations (e.g. an institution with a single contractor operating all food services on campus) may report the overall percentage of campus food and beverage purchases that are sustainably produced for both parts of this credit as long as expenditures on sustainably produced food and beverages and total food and beverage expenditures are counted in the same way.  An institution that elects to report in this manner should document the rationale for doing so and methodology used in “Notes about this submission”.