Overall Rating	Silver
Overall Score	53.56
Liaison	Georgeann Moss
Submission Date	Dec. 22, 2021

STARS v2.2

Dallas College
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Status	Score	Responsible Party
	2.00 / 2.00	Brandon Morton Assistant Director of Sustainability Office of Social Responsibility and Inclusion

"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainable dining initiatives

Local community engagement

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a farmers market, community supported agriculture (CSA) or fishery program, or urban agriculture project, or support such a program in the local community?:

A brief description of the farmers market, CSA or urban agriculture project:

Dallas College has a goal to meet the objectives outlined in City of Dallas Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan (CECAP). One of the eight goals in the CECAP is, "All Dallas' Communities will have Access to Healthy, Local Food." The Dallas College Urban Agriculture Program and Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality Program are helping build local food supply chains demonstrating sustainability leadership for local businesses to support a more local food system. https://www.dallasclimateaction.com/cecap

Sustainability-themed outlet

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host a sustainability-themed food outlet on-site, either independently or in partnership with a contractor or retailer?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability-themed food outlet:

Dallas College Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality Program has a weekly lunch service every Thursday where the students in the program highlight dishes of international cuisine and employees, students and the public can experience the talents for Dallas' future chefs. The Culinary, Pastry and Hospitality program partners with Turn-Compost for composting all pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste generated from the chef classes and the weekly lunch program. https://www.dallascollege.edu/cd/credit/food-hospitality/ecc/pages/thursluncheons.aspx

Dallas College food service is outsourced to Subway. Subway has an aggressive sustainability and environmental policies and guidelines that include sustainable agriculture, sustainable packaging, resource conservation and climate action.
https://www.subway.com/en-us/aboutus/socialresponsibility/environmentalleadership

Dallas College catering is outsourced to America to Go (ATG). ATG has sustainability guidelines that allow for participating catering companies that meet Dallas College's sustainable food service criteria to be labeled with a green lead in the ATG log-in food ordering portal online. The sustainability criteria that caterers must meet is uploaded in this credit. https://www.americatogo.com/resources/whats%20trending%20-%20sustainability.pdf.

Dallas College vending is outsourced to Canteen. Canteen does have a published Green Practices that addresses sustainability and the vending machines include items that meet standards outlined by the WELL Building Institute: https://www.canteen.com/sustainability/

Inclusive and local sourcing

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor support disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its food and beverage purchasing?:

Yes

A brief description of the support for disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

Dallas College contracts catering services with America To Go (ATG), a hub of large, medium, small enterprises, including Minority, Women, and Veteran owned businesses.

Estimated percentage of total food and beverage expenditures on products from disadvantaged businesses, social enterprises, and/or local SMEs:

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Low-impact dining

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor host low impact dining events or promote plant-forward options?:

Yes

A brief description of the low impact dining events and/or plant-forward options:

Dallas College food service is outsourced to Subway. Subway offers vegan and vegetarian options. https://www.subway.com/en-US/MenuNutrition/Menu

Vegan dining program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a vegan dining program that makes diverse, complete-protein vegan options available to every member of the campus community at every meal?:

Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program:

Dallas College food service is outsourced to Subway. Subway offers vegan and vegetarian options. https://www.subway.com/en-US/MenuNutrition/Menu

Some campuses have celebrated a weekly event called "Meatless Mondays." The Brookhaven Campus Subway was a participant in the weekly event and helped to increase student and employee awareness of meatless options at Subways on Mondays.

Labelling and signage

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor inform customers about low impact food choices and sustainability practices through labelling and signage in dining halls?:

Yes

A brief description of the sustainability labelling and signage in dining halls:

Subway located on Dallas College campuses have Subway's sustainability goals posted on the bulletin board, on the menu, and/or next to the register.

Part 2. Food waste minimization and recovery

Food recovery program

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor participate in a competition or commitment program and/or use a food waste prevention system to track and improve its food management practices?:

Yes

A brief description of the food recovery competition or commitment program or food waste prevention system:

Trayless dining and portion modifications

Has the institution or its primary dining services contractor implemented trayless dining (in which trays are removed from or not available in dining halls) and/or modified menus/portions to reduce post-consumer food waste?:

Yes

A brief description of the trayless dining or modified menu/portion program:

The dining services provider Subway does not offer tray and has never offered trays. Subway recently switched from plastic bags to paper bags or no bags in some locations.

Food donation

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor donate food that would otherwise go to waste to feed people?:

Yes

A brief description of the food donation program:

Campus events for employee work teams, student clubs, or for everyone on campus will sometimes have leftover food. Generally, the leftover catering goes to students in the student life centers or campus food pantries or to employee lounges. If students do not need the leftover food, staff hosting the event are encouraged to contact Stephen Sturdivant from EPA Region 6 Office (sturdivant.stephen@epa.gov, 214-665-6673), who supports the local Dallas Region Food Recovery Network of food pantries, faith-based organizations, schools and other non-profit organizations. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food

Food materials diversion

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor divert food materials from the landfill, incinerator or sewer for animal feed or industrial uses?:

Yes

A brief description of the food materials diversion program:

Composting

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a pre-consumer composting program?:

Yes

A brief description of the pre-consumer composting program:

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor have a post-consumer composting program?:

Yes

A brief description of the post-consumer composting program:

Dine-in service ware

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor utilize reusable service ware for “dine in” meals?:

A brief description of the reusable service ware program:

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Take-away materials

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor provide reusable and/or third party certified compostable containers and service ware for “to-go” meals (in conjunction with an on-site composting program)?:

Yes

A brief description of the compostable containers and service ware:

The dining services provider Subway does not offer trays and has never offered trays. Subway recently switched from plastic bags to paper bags or no bags in some locations. The switch is helping to reduce microplastics in the local community from landfills.

Does the institution or its primary dining services contractor offer discounts or other incentives to customers who use reusable containers instead of disposable or compostable containers in “to-go” food service operations?:

Yes

A brief description of the reusable container discount or incentives program:

The dining services provider Subway will offer a discount on drink refills if people bring their own cup or re-use a Subway cup. This discount was impacted and cancelled due to COVID guidelines and will be revisited in the future.

Optional Fields

A brief description of other sustainability-related initiatives not covered above:

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Website URL where information about the sustainable dining programs is available:

https://www.dallascollege.edu/slife/pages/eating-on-campus.aspx

Additional documentation to support the submission:

Dallas_College_ATG__Sustainability_Criteria.docx

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

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