University Dining is proud to be a contributing partner in the University's overall goal to conserve energy, use resources wisely and reduce our carbon footprint. Among our initiatives:

Local/Organic Salad/Fruit Bar Fridays

Each Friday, our dining hall salad and fruit bars feature local and/or organic options. Options regularly included are broccoli, spring mix, red onions, green peppers, carrots, white mushrooms, baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, apples, grapes, and oranges.

Neomonde Baking Company

In 2009, our dining halls began featuring pita bread, dinner rolls, and artisan sandwich bread from Neomonde Baking Company, a Triangle-based bakery and Mediterranean deli. Neomonde uses natural products with the highest quality ingredients. Neomonde's large variety of breads and strong shelf life reduces the company's cost and waste.

Going Trayless

While drought conditions in early 2008 prompted us to conserve water by removing trays from our three dining halls, we decided to make the change permanent. Since then, we have conserved an average of 51,000 gallons of water weekly. Food waste and energy usage are down, too.

Recycled Cooking Oil

Prior to January 2008, University Dining paid a company to collect and dispose of our used cooking oil. Since then, however, we contracted Piedmont Biofuels to collect our oil waste (~1000 gallons per month) and convert it into biodiesel fuel. Not only is the oil being put to good use, but it also is collected at no cost to us, saving thousands of dollars each year.

Howling Cow Dairy Products - NC State's Own

University Dining serves milk and ice cream in the dining halls that is processed at NC State's dairy under the new name: Howling Cow. Using fresh milk from the local NC State research farms, the on-campus dairy plant processes the milk and delivers whole, skim, and chocolate milk as well as ice cream, to University Dining locations, where it is enjoyed by students, faculty, staff and visitors. As an added treat, we also serve hand-dipped Howling Cow ice cream at the Emporium C-Store in Talley Student Center and Creamery located at D.H. Hill library.

All Carolinas Meal

Each fall, University Dining's dining halls present the All Carolinas Meal, which features products grown or produced in North and South Carolina. As land-grant University with deeps roots in agriculture, we take pride in featuring locally produced items that students love, including turkey, pork, sweet potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and many vegetables. Products from House of Raeford, House Autry Mills, and many others are featured and identified as being local companies.

Earth Week

University Dining celebrates Earth Week in April by highlighting our sustainability initiatives and serving select locally grown and organic products in the dining halls.

Green Food-Service Partners

Many of our partners participate in green initiatives, too.

• Our Wilmington-based Port City Java franchise only serves only certified Fair Trade and Organic coffees.
• US Food Service, our main food distributor, buys locally in season, including tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, onions, strawberries, and collards. In addition, they provide employment for 600 people in the Raleigh area.
• Our Freshens franchise supports sustainable agriculture in Latin America, where it procures its Acai palm tree berries and bananas. It also sources IQF strawberries primarily through a domestic supply chain that provides a variety of environmental, financial, ethical and food safety benefits and sources IQF blueberries solely through a domestic supply chain that uses GIS information technology to monitor many environmental factors.
• The Coca-Cola Company has many sustainability initiatives, as outlined on their web site.
• Earth-Friendly Catering Guide The 2008-2009 Catering Guide was printed using recycled paper in an attempt to support environmentally-friendly practices. The cover was printed on a wildflower seed paper that can be planted in the ground.
• Our C-Stores carry the Saladelia line, which comes fresh from Durham. Saladalia is all about fresh homemade food from scratch, and they support local farmers and buy organic when possible. They use the best ingredients we can find, such as using only fresh, local, free-range brown eggs, all-natural grain-fed chicken, hormone- and antibiotic-free beef, wild-caught seafood, and rBST-free milk. Their desserts and pastries are made with locally milled organic flour, and their coffee and tea are fair-trade, shade-grown and organic. Saladelia is committed to reducing waste in our landfills. They recycle all of their unused containers. They collect our cooking oil for bio-fuel production, and their fresh vegetable peels and scraps go to a small local sustainable farm to feed livestock. They purchase paper and plastic products manufactured from recycled content and are always on the lookout for the most earth-friendly products.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

• Using reusable dinnerware at the dining halls instead of disposables
• Recycling of cardboard at all locations
• Recycling of office paper at all locations
• Recycling of plastic bottles and aluminum cans in most locations
• Upgrading HVAC controls at Fountain Dining Hall to improve energy efficiency
• Increasing use of electronic media to reduce paper use
• Operating the Cbord Food Management System, a sophisticated computerized food production system. It is designed to drastically reduce waste through "just in time" purchasing methods and eliminate wasted foods through overproduction. Even the re-use of leftover foods is a step towards sustainability

Research

University Dining has also conducted research into topics such as cage-free egg products, organically grown produce, composting and various conservation methods. These programs have yet to be implemented to date. As organic products become more main stream, it will be easier and less cost prohibitive to make use of these products. Similar to eliminating trans fats in foods available through main line food distributors, University Dining believes that organic foods will follow a similar path and be adopted into traditional food-delivery processes.

NC Choices

University Dining works with North Carolina Choices, a group that promotes local products, to feature pasture-raised pork sausage and ham at the dining halls. Robin Stout, from NC Choices, brought one of the local farmers to Clark Dining Hall to answer questions from students about the programs. University Dining displayed its promotional materials and ran a slideshow on the digital displays in Fountain Dining Hall.

BE A PART OF IT!

If you have ideas for or questions regarding the University Dining's environmentally friendly practices, please contact us by filling out our comments form.