Environmental and Sustainable Practices

Buying Locally—Dining Services Commitment
Fair Trade
Composting – Pre- & Post Consumer Waste
Composting – Outdoor Events
Environmentally Friendly Equipment
Environmentally Friendly Practices
Recycling
Take –Out Containers
Policy for Personal Containers

Dining Services is committed to protecting our global and local resources and incorporating environmentally friendly and safe practices and sustainability into our dining program when operationally feasible.  We are committed to providing students with healthy and nutritious food and managing our waste in a way that minimizes our impact on the environment. 

Sustainability can be incorporated and achieved in many ways:

• Sourcing locally grown products
• Sourcing organically grown products
• Sourcing responsibly grown or harvested products
• Operating dining facilities in a way that:
• Saves water and energy
• Reduces packaging and recycles or composts everything from disposable dishware to food waste
  

Buying Locally—Dining Services Commitment

Mount Holyoke College Dining Services is committed to buying locally whenever possible and feasible.   With the help of our produce company, Fowler Huntting Produce Company, we will now be able to identify which produce items that we receive were procured from local farmers.  Look for this icon “   “on our menu item signs to identify which products contain any locally grown ingredients. 

New this year, Dining Services will now feature different and specific locally grown produce items monthly in various recipes depending on availability and seasonality:

September            Corn & Tomatoes
October                Peppers & Broccoli
November            Winter Squash & Cranberries
December             Potatoes
January                 Carrots
February               Apples
March                   Cabbage
April                      Blueberries

Additionally, we try to feature and include any available locally grown products for our gracious meals throughout the year.  We start the year with our annual Fall Harvest Gracious Dinner at the end of September where all the food served on the menu is not only locally grown, but will include vegetable harvested from our very own Mount Holyoke College Student Garden, Crops for a Closer Community!  For more information about the student garden, please go to http://mhcgarden.blogspot.com/.  Our Saturday evening Family and Friends Gracious Dinner during Family and Friends Weekend in October, was changed this year to a sustainable and locally grown gracious dinner.

Fair Trade

The coffee brewed daily in our dining halls is Certified Fair Trade and Organic coffee and is purchased from a local Massachusetts vendor that was the first to offer Certified Fair Trade coffee in the United States.  The company, Equal Exchange, was founded in 1986 and is a worker’s cooperative.  Fair trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade. Fair Trade helps producers achieve a sustainable future on the basis of fair wages.
Blanchard Café and Uncommon Grounds use Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. located in Waterbury, Vermont and have several selections of organic and fair trade coffee.  Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is an active supporter and participant in the Businesses for Social Responsibility (BSR), an organization dedicated to aiding business in Environmental and Social Stewardship. GMCR is also an active supporter and participant in the state chapter of this same organization (VBSR).
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters supports a wide range of organizations such as the United Way, the Salvation Army and the Red Cross, as well as libraries, religious organizations, schools, counseling centers and community food-shelves. The company extends its support beyond local communities to globally-oriented organizations such as Coffee Kids and The Rainforest Alliance.  Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is ever vigilant for opportunities to help a wide variety of charitable causes, in Vermont, in the U.S. and in many coffee-growing countries around the world.  They are committed to actions consistent with an environmental conscience in all aspects of their business operations.  Green Mountain Coffee Roasters are proud of their Environmental and Social achievements.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT CORE VALUES of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

1. In every decision, consider the environmental impact of our actions.
2. Encourage a spirit of continuous environmental innovation in our products, practices and programs.
3. Foster and promote programs that increase levels of employee environmental awareness and participation.

For more information about Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., go to the following website: www.GreenMountainCoffee.com
Fair Trade certified coffee contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers - especially in the South.
Key elements of fair trade include:

• Creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers
  Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system.
• Transparency and accountability
  Fair Trade involves transparent management and commercial relations to deal fairly and respectfully with trading partners.
• Promoting independence
  Fair Trade is a means to develop producers' independence. Fair Trade relationships provide continuity, during which producers and their marketing organizations can improve their management skills and their access to new markets.
• Payment of a fair price
  A fair price is one that has been agreed through dialogue and participation, which provides fair pay to the producers and can also be sustained by the market. Fair pay means provision of socially acceptable remuneration (in the local context) considered by producers themselves to be fair, and which takes into account the principle of equal pay for equal work by women and men. Fair Trade buyers, importers and intermediaries ensure prompt payment to their producers and other partners and, whenever possible, help producers with access to pre-harvest or pre-production financing (advance payments).
• Gender Equity
  Fair Trade means that women's work is properly valued and rewarded. Women are always paid for their contribution to the production process and are empowered in their organizations.
• Decent conditions of work
  Fair Trade means a safe and healthy working environment for producers. The participation of children (if any) does not adversely affect their well-being, security, educational requirements and need for play and conforms to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the law and norms in the local context.
• Respect for the environment
  As a strategy for sustainable development, Fair Trade requires a strategy that enables economic activity without environmental degradation; that maximizes the use of raw materials and packaging from sustainable sources, minimizes the pollution caused by transportation, minimizes waste and energy consumption and promotes the use of technology that respects the environment.
• Promoting Fairer Trade
  Fair Trade is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first.

For more information on Fair Trade, go to the following web site: http://www.ifat.org/dwr/definition.html

Composting – Pre- & Post Consumer Waste

During the spring semester of 2005, Dining Services started a composting program of pre- and post-consumer waste in all full and limited full service centers.  Since the napkins that we use are a 100% bleach free recycled napkin and are 100% post consumer, these can also be disposed of with our post-consumer waste.   For Dining Services staff, there are bins behind the scenes to compost pre-consumer food prep waste, including items such as potato peels, lettuce trimmings, and the like.  For students, there is a clear bin labeled “compost” at all of our dishroom windows for students to empty their food waste into before returning their dishes and one for excess liquids, labeled “liquids”.  The food containers or “paper boats” used in Blanchard are stacked at the recycling area and then picked up for composting as well.  The compost is picked up at these locations three times a week and brought to a farm in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

Composting – Outdoor Events

Dining Services is committed to providing students with healthy and nutritious food in a way that minimizes our impact on the environment.  To that effect, all of the foodserviceware used for our outdoor events (i.e. plates, cups, bowls, and utensils) are compostable.  This foodserviceware is made from special biodegradable cornstarch-based plastic.  These items are either all made from this special plastic or are “waxed” paper products that are coated with this special plastic, as opposed to the traditional “waxed” paper products which are actually coated with a think layer of non-compostable petroleum-based plastic.

Environmentally Friendly Equipment

• Shurflo Condiment Dispensing System in Blanchard Café

• In an effort to reduce the amount of waste in non-biodegradable packaging—Dining Services has implemented a “bag in the box” bulk condiment dispensing system.
• With your help, we can significantly reduce the need of using pre-portioned condiments.
• We encourage you to dispense any condiments directly on your food and only use the provided small “To Go” container if you have to.

• Low temp dish machines in all kitchens - use less detergent, water, and energy
• Have placed local hot water boosters next to dishwashers, enabling hot water heaters that heat the water for the entire residence halls to run at lower temperatures.  Heats only the water needed for the dishmachines.
• All new equipment is energy efficient
• Laundry vending machines

• The washing machines and dryers are energy efficient and more environmentally friendly:
• Use less water than a normal top loader
• Use less detergent
• Use less energy to operate
• Load capacity is 1.5 times larger that regular top load machines
• All of the washing machines and most of the dryers are ADA compliant

• Office printer prints two-sided pages - ß paper usage
• ß number of beverage vending machines and replaced with energy efficient machines

Environmentally Friendly Practices:

• Purchase pre-processed produce  - ß waste and Ý usable product yield
• Cooked-to-order preparation whenever possible to ß food waste waste
• Use of FoodPro (Dining Services food service software system) to minimize food waste
• Self-service on all serving lines to promote “take what you want, but eat what you take”
• Napkins

• Use 100% bleach free recycled paper napkins (100% post consumer)
• Napkins put in baskets on table so you take what you need
• Food Bank participation

• Decreased trash barrel size to use a smaller garbage bag – this will enable us to utilize more of the garbage bag
• Shutdown all refrigeration that is not being used during the summer months
• All dining halls have computers which have reduced the need for paper memos, hence ß paper usage.
• Torrey Grab n’ Go

• Minimize the use of containers but use some plastic packaging to be able to properly display and hold food items such as salads, side salads
• The containers used in Torrey are recyclable and can be rinsed out

• Re-using:

• We use permanent ware for our regular china, flatware, and glasses in all of our dining rooms that can be washed and reused.
• For the past several years, we have issued all 1st year students at orientation an insulated mug with a lid for beverages.
• We use reusable cleaning cloths in our dining rooms and kitchens.

Recycling

• 45-50 # per week of shrink wrap is sent weekly to our prime vendor Sysco
• Recycle cardboard, cans, mixed containers
• Recycle office printer and copier ink toner cartridges
• Collect all spent grease from our deep fat fryers and send it to local company to be recycled
• Recycle refrigerant —all equipment has been changed to new gasses which are more environmentally friendly
• Food containers or “paper boats” used in Blanchard are stacked at the recycling area and then picked up for composting

Take –Out Containers

• There will be limited take out service available in all dining halls for all meals
• Needed to provide a service for those students who were not able to eat in the dining rooms at our meal times – students are expected to use this option only when absolutely necessary
• Replaced $21,000 worth of china, glass, & silverware when this option was not available
• We will provide:
• Paper cups
• Paper tubs
• Plastic wrap
• Plastic ware
• There will be no styrofoam containers of any kind used
• All students are expected to use their Dining Services travel mug or another one

Policy for Personal Containers  (tupperware, china, paper products etc.)

Due to state law and local public health code requirements, Dining Services cannot  allow any personal containers, china, plastic or paper, to be brought into our dining rooms or kitchens.  These health codes were established to prevent any possible cross-contamination of food products that we serve.  Even though the container may be cleaned with soap and water, this does not ensure that it has been properly sanitized or stored in a sanitary manner.  Therefore, there is the possibility that bacteria could still exist on the container.  For example, someone puts food product into a plastic or china container with the provided serving utensil.  The container may not have been properly sanitized and that serving utensil touches the container. This is where there is the potential that the utensil, when placed back into the container, could contaminate the remaining product.  Paper products are not allowed either since Dining Services has not purchased the product or stored them.  This assures us of proper practices for handling in delivery and in storage. 

Dining Services is responsible for taking precautions against cross-contamination by using both chemical and heat (hot water) to destroy bacteria for cleaning all of our dishes and utensils.  The only exception that the local board of health will allow is personal wide mouth mugs and water bottles.  This is only allowed if the container, when placed on the beverage tray or drip pan, does not touch the nozzle of the beverage machine.  We encourage all students to use their “wide-mouthed” travel mugs for “take-out” purposes in the dining halls and Torrey Grab n Go.