Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 73.32
Liaison Heather Albert-Knopp
Submission Date March 1, 2019
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

College of the Atlantic
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.17 / 6.00 Andrea Russell
Sustainability Coordinator and Community Energy Center Program Manager
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"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

This credit requires:

  • A completed STARS Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory
  • An itemized inventory based on output from the Real Food Calculator, or
  • An alternative inventory that includes for each product:
    • Product vendor
    • Product label/brand
    • Product description
    • The category in which the product qualifies (Third Party Verified or Local & Community Based)
    • Information justifying inclusion: the standards met if the product is third party verified; ownership, size, distance, production methods for Local & Community Based products 

Part 1

Third Party Verified and Community Based Products

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:
26.48

Part 2

Animal Products 

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

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):
18.54

Food and Beverage Purchasing Inventory

Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

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):
Mission and Vision: COA Dining Services is committed to providing high quality, healthy, delicious and predominately hand‐prepared meals, incorporating the use of local and organic food products whenever possible. We offer affordable meals at Blair Dining Hall and Sea Urchin Café during the week and provide catering for college events, meetings, and celebrations. Dining Services are a vital part of the COA community and we want to promote healthy selections to support a healthy lifestyle. By considering the environmental, social, economic and political impacts of food, we are able to prepare meals that promote the values of the college while remaining committed to providing excellent and responsive service. We strive to be a center for food education and experiential learning for the COA community and beyond. COA is among the inaugural signers of the Real Food Campus Commitment, pledging that 20% of our food will be from organic, fair trade, and local sources by 2020. COA has met and exceeded that pledge already, with 30% of COA food sourced in the described manner and considered “real” by commitment standards.

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):
Work-study students track all food purchase receipts and enter each product into a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet denotes which products are local, organic, fair trade, and humane (components of "real food" as determined by the Real Food Challenge). The COA Foodprint class also participates in auditing our institutional food purchasing and analyzing this data.

If uploading output from the Real Food Calculator, provide:

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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Required if pursuing either part of the credit:

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 Yes Yes
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor No No
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

Optional Fields 

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:
All dining services are operated by College of the Atlantic: The College does not have franchises, convenience stores, vending services, or concessions on campus. Therefore, we do not separate the purchases of on-site franchises, convenience stores, vending services, and concessions as they are subdivided in this section. Data are from Fiscal Year 2018.

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.