Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 67.00
Liaison Ken Foster
Submission Date March 15, 2018
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Vassar College
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.90 / 6.00 Maureen King
Senior Director of Campus Dining
Campus Dining
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on products that are third party verified under one or more recognized food and beverage sustainability standards or Local & Community-Based:
17

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):
No

Percentage of total dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional animal products (meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, and dairy products that do NOT qualify in either the Third Party Verified or Local & Community-Based category):
0

A brief description of the sustainable food and beverage purchasing program, including how the sustainability impacts of products in specific categories are addressed (e.g. meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, dairy, produce, tea/coffee):
Vassar’s efforts to increase the percentage of seasonal, locally grown and produced foods used in the dining halls began in 2002. Bon Appetit joined the Vassar campus in Summer 2017 and the college participates in their Farm to Fork program. The salad bars at the All Campus Dining Center and the Retreat Cafe feature produce and salad from the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, located on the Vassar Farm and Ecological Preserve. All of campus dining's Ground Beef and Eggs are Certified Humane. There is a monthly Local Foods Night in the All Campus Dining Center, celebrating the bounty of the Hudson Valley.

An inventory of the institution’s sustainable food and beverage purchases that includes for each product: the description/type; label, brand or producer; and the category in which it is being counted and/or a description of its sustainability attribute(s):
A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):
Manually track purchases using Excel spreadsheets and conduct research to confirm supplier claims of local and community-based production and/or third party verification. As Bon Appetit has been on campus less than a full year, the campus food inventory is based on all purchases since August 2017 through February 2018.

Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
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Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
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Which of the following food service providers are present on campus and included in the total food and beverage expenditure figures?:
Present? Included?
Dining operations and catering services operated by the institution No No
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor Yes Yes
Student-run food/catering services No No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands) No No
Convenience stores No No
Vending services No No
Concessions No No

A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :
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Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
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The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
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.