University of Wisconsin-River Falls
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Local farmers market is hosted twice annually on campus to expose and offer students and faculty the opportunity to purchase local produce, wild rice, cheeses, dairy, and honey that are grown/produced in this area.

The Student Alliance for Local and Sustainable Agriculture student organization also hosted an event where they gave out free produce from the campus organic garden.

Featured Grain Bowls on Fridays, Taco Tuesdays, Baked Potato Bars – each week features one –two days of low impact featured menus. These options include and emphasis on plant-forward options as well as messaging about low impact. Appropriate items also have signs noting they ae vegan or vegetarian.

With special dietary needs in mind, vegan and vegetarian menu items are available in Riverside Commons. These menu items include but are not limited to the following: soymilk varieties, tofu, hummus, rice, potatoes, soup varieties, select salad bar toppings and dressing, and fresh fruit and vegetables. In addition, we have a program designed to help identify vegan and vegetarian options in our cafeteria using icons on our menus.

There is signage throughout dining hall to educate guests on Fair Food programs, Monteray Bay Aquarian Seafood Watch, local products, and Imperfectly Delicious Product.

Marketing team collaborates with college sustainability club to support Love Food, Not Waste program. Through this effort, multiple food waste audits are conducted each semester.- On Pause for 2020-2021 due to COVID-19.

We do not have trays available for service. We have an AYCTE facility, but students need to fill their plate and come back if needed instead of loading a tray full of food. There are various sizes of plates and bowls located throughout the dining hall, so students can take as much or as little as their care to eat. Without trays, the guests can go back and take a clean dish if additional food is desired, but at the same time limit to just want they want to eat, and limit potential waste. This was implemented in 2008 and resulted in significantly less food waste.

Any leftover food that can be re-served is donated to local food bank or through campus ministries programs.

The Foodwaste Reduction System is fully customizable, designed to meet the unique needs of any facility from restaurants to hospitals, schools and other institutions. This system can process all organics including: produce, fruits, cut flowers, meat, fat trimmings, paper napkins, coffee grounds, spoiled milk, deli products and some soft plastics reducing organic waste volume by as much as 95 percent. Remaining product after drying will be composted by the University.
Used cooking oil is stored and then picked up in bulk to be converted into fuel.

Waste Not is used to track all pre-consumer waste by measuring and tracking all food waste due to production. Food scraps are measured in bins prior to disposing, and tracked weekly to find areas that may indicated poor production standards or poor yields, in order to increase efficiencies and reduce waste.

A food hydration system is used in the warewashing room. Post-consumer food waste is dehydrated down to food flakes. The dehydrated food flakes are then mixed into the campus organic compost pile and used in flower beds and gardens on campus.

We use stainless steel utensils to serve with and the students use stainless steel utensils to eat with. We wash according to health code and resuse continually.

The Freddy 2GO Program allows meal plan participants to take meals "to go" from Riverside Commons. The reusable 2GO container will provide an option for those students with busy schedules who don't have the time between classes, work or other commitments to sit down to eat in the University Center. By providing a non-disposable option, University Dining Services and Chartwells continue to pursue our commitment to improving our sustainability initiatives.

Discounts given in retail outlets for refills on coffee products. Freddy to Go program also features re-usable cup for refills as needed.

Menus of Change is a national, multi-year educational project developed by The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) and Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition that was launched in 2012. The goal of the initiative was to bring together representatives from all areas of foodservice – including everyone from chefs and nutrition and environmental scientists to farm and fisheries experts to foodservice executives and policy makers. It was this collaboration that inspired and informed the Menus of Change Principles.
Compass Group has been involved with Menus of Change since its inception and is a founding member of the Menus of Change Sustainability Leadership Business Council.
Beginning immediately, Compass Group has committed to adopting four key initiatives based on the Menus of Change Principles across its foodservice business portfolio to support the industry transformation that is necessary to ensure a sustainable future. These four new Compass initiatives, building on the existing commitments that Compass has already made towards addressing health and sustainability imperatives, include:
1) Increasing customers’ access to vegetables and fruits by focusing on globally inspired, largely plant based cooking.
2) Including recipes and concepts where meat plays more of a supporting role, reducing red meat portion sizes and offerings, and leveraging strategies from seasonal and local flavors, vegetable proteins, and global cuisines.
3) Increasing our offerings of grain options that are at least more than 50% whole grain.
4) Employing conscious menuing and messaging that promotes health and sustainability through inspiring menus, customer interaction at the chef’s table and telling the story about great food.
“Not only is this the right thing to do for a sustainable future, it’s also a progressive wellness benefit for our clients and a significant menu expansion for our customers,” says Rick Post, Compass Group’s Chief Operations Officer. “Compass Group serves seven million meals a day and adopting this program may benefit clients by improving healthy lifestyle choices of their associates and the health of the planet.”
Each week there are “superfood” recipes featured that highlight healthy eating options with rich superfoods such as cranberries, tomatoes, citrus, etc. Also, diverse ethnic dishes are featured through premium nights in which custom menus are created to focus on certain ethnic foods.