Bon Appetit at Lesley university

For more information about Bon Appetit and their sustainability initiatives-please take a look at the Circle of Responsibility website.

Low Carbon Diet

Estimates from the US Environmental Protection Agency suggest that at least 18% of all municipal solid waste that reaches landfills is food. That waste amounts to 31 million tons a year. Researchers estimate 40 to 50% of the food produced in this country is never consumed, owing to losses along the entire supply chain.

Organic waste decomposition creates methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. Landfilled food waste in the US generates one third of human-related methane, and livestock agriculture produces another 30%, making the food system responsible for almost two thirds of all methane emissions in the US.

Consumers produce an estimated food waste quantity of 3 ounces per person per meal. Using this estimate as a comparative baseline for Bon Appétit’s guests equates to 150,000 pounds of food waste each year in our cafés (and that doesn’t even include what goes on in our kitchens).

Waste Reduction is a Key Principle of The Low Carbon Diet Program

Food waste reduction is one of the major principles of the Low Carbon Diet. Our stated goals are a reduction in food waste by 25% by April 2010, as well as a shared sense of responsibility for food waste, among both staff and customers. Major changes in consumer behavior are required to meet these goals. Practices in many of our kitchens need to be improved as well. We need to start now and that’s the point of this initiative.

Objectives and Methods

Our overall food waste reduction target set out in the Low Carbon Diet is 25%, to be achieved by 2010. The food waste in this target includes both kitchen and consumer food waste, so these are the two objectives of this program:

Objective 1 - ReducProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 oxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 Kitchen Food Waste

Kitchen food waste includes food wasted during preparation, overproduction waste, and catering waste. In order to reduce waste in all of these categories, staff must be educated about the many ways that daily operations can lead to wasted food. This education is essential to making any significant change to the level of kitchen waste in your café.

Objective 2 - Reduce Consumer Food Waste

In order to reduce consumer food waste, we must raise awareness among consumers about the problem of food waste. The marketing collateral reinforces our commitments and strengthens the existing consumer awareness of the LCD Program.

The campaign provides information to consumers about the following:

• current levels of food waste being produced at their location and worldwide

• environmental impacts produced by this waste

• ways in which this campaign will reduce levels of food waste

Educating consumers about the campaign’s goals and the negative impacts of food waste will influence consumers to change their behavior and reduce their overall food waste.

White Hall Dining Commons has gone "Trayless" - Fall of 2008

In November of 2008, due to a high interest from the Student Government Association, Lesley University decided to pull all trays out of the White Hall Dining Commons. The theory behind going "trayless" is- the less food you can carry with your two hands - the less food that will be thrown away by not being eaten. With using a tray, we tend to have the syndrome of our "eyes are bigger than our stomachs" -so therefore we load up a tray full of food - we don't end up eating it all, and then we throw it out! By going "trayless" we are decreasing the amount of wasted food and money spent on uneaten food.

There are trays available behind the White Hall Dining Commons cashier - for anyone with a special need to use a tray.

White Hall Dining Commons expanded food composting with Save That Stuff - Fall 2008

White Hall Dining Commons expanded their

Eat Local Challenge - 2008

Lesley University celebrated the Eat Local Challenge with the theme of a traditional New England clambake. Executive Chef, Brian Dagnall came up with a menu of local shellfish from Ipswich and grilled chicken sausages from a farmer at Butterbrook Farms. Exposition Cook, Jermaine Henry manned the Expo station, featuring homemade smoothies with peaches from Butterbrook and Stoneyfield Yogurt from New Hampshire.

Organic farmer Guy McKay visited the cafe and talked to students about his farm while he passed out samples of his apple cider. Cooks Hemadou Cisse, David Owen and Andre Lucas took turns manning the tow charcoal grills they had for the steamers, corn on the cob, locally made chicken sausages, as well as potatoes. First Cook Yolanda Encarcion made the fresh cranberry apple brown betty, using local honey as the sweetener for the dessert. Students and staff were very happy with a meal and many took extra time to talk to Guy about his organic farm.