Furman University
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

As part of the Eat Local Challenge, Bon Appetit offered a Farmers Market on the Dining Hall Lakeside Mezzanine in September.

Farm to Fork is a companywide Bon Appetit initiative to buy locally, formalized in 1999. Our first choice is to purchase seasonal ingredients from small (under $5 million in sales), owner-operated farms and ranches within a 150-mile radius of Furman’s campus — at least 20 percent of every dollar we spend. Our commitment to local food is about preserving biodiversity, protecting open space, supporting family farmers, and keeping money invested in our community.

In addition to supporting local farms, Furman sources 8% of its produce from the Furman Farm and returns 52 tons of compost from the Dining Hall back to the Furman Farm.


Map of partner farms that Furman sources from:
https://furman.cafebonappetit.com/farm-to-fork/

Yes, we host a number of low impact dining events, including Meatless Monday program and a Low Carbon Day.

Low Carbon Footprint Day was a big event held here on campus. With the help of our student fellow, Elise Dudley, we had a menu that reflected a low carbon footprint including cheeseless pizza, no bananas or pineapples, a build a better burger station that showcased meatless burgers including a smoked sweet potato burger or a falafel burger with local goat milk yogurt tzatziki.

Yes, we prioritize plant-based proteins in the dining hall and a complete protein vegan option is available to the campus community at every meal served in our dining hall. We communicate vegan options to our guests using the Vegan Circle of Responsibility icon, on both online menus and menus in the dining hall.

We inform guests about low impact food choices and sustainability practices in many ways. On guest tables and in signs around the cafe, we share information about pressing sustainability issues and relevant policies, including antibiotic use on animal farms, animal welfare issues, sustainable seafood, and farmworkers rights. Using our Circle of Responsibility (COR) program, we communicate sustainability attributes of ingredients through our online and in-café menus.

Menus are labeled with COR icons that denote the following (and more):
-if the dish includes local ingredients, and which farm they are from
-if the dish includes animal products from a farm with a third-party animal welfare certification
-if the dish includes seafood rated as Green or Yellow by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program
-if the dish is vegetarian and/or vegan

The Weigh your Waste Campaign highlights food waste and creates a visual for students to assess their own practices.

The Dining Hall keeps track of how much of each item is consumed and over-time has developed a system that very closely predicts how much of each thing should be prepared at each meal so as to reduce waste.

A "Cultural Life Program" was conducted on campus with a screening of "Wasted: The Story of Food Waste" complete with tastings of food that would otherwise be discarded or wasted to increase education about food waste on campus.

We reduce waste in our supply chain by purchasing through Bon Appétit’s Imperfectly Delicious Produce or IDP program – a program that was developed to create markets for cosmetically imperfect produce that would otherwise go to waste on farms and in processing.

We use an app that provides an opt-in text-alert when food is leftover from catered events to reduce food waste.

We are trayless in our dining hall, and train all servers in portion control in order to minimize post-consumer food waste.

We donate leftover food from the dining hall to the Loaves and Fishes program locally in Greenville. https://loavesandfishesgreenville.com/

Both the university Dining Hall and the P-Den dining services compost all pre-consumer waste with the Furman Farm.

The Dining Hall dining service composts all post-consumer waste with the Furman Farm.

All service ware in the Dining Hall is washed and reused.

We utilized compostable containers for to go meals, and have a composting program on campus that is able to accept those containers.

Yes, on-campus coffee shop offers the following incentives to customers who use reusable containers:
- 10% off coffee with the use of reusable mug.

During the course of the school year, Bon Appetit participates in a number of educational classes and lectures. They worked closely with the Philosophy and Sustainability departments to welcome students for a tour of the kitchen to see the inner workings of a professional kitchen, ask questions, and learn about the key ingredients of sustainable food service through sourcing from local farms and artisans, cooking from scratch, and minimizing waste. Similar events were offered for all students to attend.

An educational tabling series was conducted to teach students about the icons and signage to inspire healthy and sustainable eating habits. In particular focus in 2018-2019 was the In-Balance Icon marking meals with a well-proportioned mix of whole grains, fresh fruits and/or vegetables, and lean proteins, prepared with a minimal amount of healthy fat. Another focus was the weekly farm feature that spotlighted sustainable practices and what food they provide to Furman University through a chalkboard display in the Dining Hall. This included location, what food they supply to Furman, mission/vision of farm ,and their sustainable agricultural practices. Another tabling event showcased alternative milk options through offering alternative milk tastings with oat milk and almond milk while educating students about the carbon footprints of various milk options.

A bike smoothie station was utilized at Basketball Tailgates to inspire low-energy options for meals.

Students in the Sustainable Living Community (The Greenbelt) developed a Sustainability Cookbook that featured plant based recipes and featured items grown on the university's campus farm.