Saint Mary's College of California
OP-8: Sustainable Dining

Sodexo actively supports our on campus 1/2 acre garden, the Legacy Garden by sourcing herbs and vegetables from there whenever possible. Our dining hall has a designated station, the "Legacy Garden" Station highlighting food from the garden.

Yes, Sodexo Saint Mary's offers a Green Monday menu every Monday with a variety of plant-based food options in an effort to help dining guests reduce their carbon footprint.

Sodexo’s Supply Management Supplier Diversity Program

At Sodexo, Diversity and Inclusion is embedded in our business and our values. We believe that diversity in our workforce gives us access to the best talent, and our D&I culture provides the ability to attract and retain this talent. This belief transcends into our supply base. We know that working with suppliers that mirror our consumers and our communities makes our company more relevant in the markets in which we operate. We also know that we want to partner with companies that have the same convictions about utilizing talent in all its forms.

The Partner Inclusion Program leverages best practices from Sodexo operations around the world in support of a commitment that all countries will develop strong and sustainable relationships with suppliers in at least one of the following categories:
• Small-and medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s), including social and micro-enterprises
• Suppliers from minority and other under-represented and/or protected groups (as defined in country), with an emphasis on women-owned businesses
• Major Sodexo suppliers will demonstrate a diverse workforce composition, actively embracing diversity and inclusion and promoting local supply chain inclusion.
Sodexo has publicly committed to having an inclusion program and tracks their progress by country annually for both women and underutilized suppliers as defined in country as well as spend with local small businesses or SME (Small Medium Enterprise) with goals of 25% SME spend globally focusing on diverse SMEs by 2025.

Supplier Diversity Procurement Policy in the US
The use of diverse suppliers and partners throughout the organization brings better value to our customers, clientele and the communities in which we live, work, and serve. As a result, we will:
• Hold all management personally accountable for increasing Supplier Diversity spend through our Diversity Scorecard
• Include qualified diverse vendors in all RFP’s handled by Supply Management.
• Establish supplier diversity goals for the divisions and company, reporting our supplier diversity spend on a quarterly basis.
• Actively seek diverse vendors through Sodexo’s supplier diversity website, our membership in diverse organizations and our attendance at various events.
• Require all manufacturers to establish a supplier diversity program within one year of contracting.
• Include supplier diversity as part of the business review process.

Currently in the US, Sodexo utilizes over 3000 national, regional and local diverse and small businesses. Our vendors include those that directly service our operations as well as those that provide services or products to our regional and corporate headquarters staff.
Sodexo sources opportunities for current and potential diverse vendors through a number of methods:
• Identify and contract with new vendors:
• Continue to grow our contracted diverse vendors.
• Utilize top down and field up support of diverse vendors

During the summer of 2019, we hosted a plant-based training with the Humane Society of the US and our on-site culinary team as well as other Sodexo culinary teams in the area. This two- day, hands-on training allowed our teams to become more familiar with vegan ingredients and cooking techniques and to taste the delicious menu offers we have available. We are featuring a robust selection of plant based options daily at our Basil, plant-based station as well as throughout the dining location as well as a plant based bar from recipes in this training.

We host Green Mondays throughout the month of April.

Saint Mary’s College food service presented by Sodexo uses Food Management System which has over 1,000 vegan recipes; vegan items are on the menu everyday every meal at each format. Our “Mindful” program uses vegan side dishes exclusively; we do “Meatless Mondays”. We feature vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and allergen free options at lunch and dinner at our format “Legacy Garden”; we also feature local products, vendors and organic products from our on campus garden.

We use video monitors, counter signs, product icons, table tents, social media to promote our daily menus, including vegan items.

More specifically, the "Basil station" is a plant-based station featuring complete vegan options daily.
At our retail location, Louis Café, we also offer 2 to 3 vegan options daily.

Vegan (VG) and Vegetarian (V) offers are labelled throughout our dining facilities. During the year, we display educational materials regarding the carbon and water footprint of food choices as well as the impact of food waste.
Weigh the Waste or other educational programs to reduce waste are supported by Sustainability Interns.

Sodexo utilizes "LeanPath", to reduce organic waste through the use of the LeanPath tracking tool. LeanPath is a Sodexo approved supplier that helps Sodexo track and measure its food waste through the use of a food waste measurement tool.

Saint Mary’s College has been trayless since 2006. We also offer the option for guests to customize their meals by asking for smaller portions or the elimination of certain items (e.g. no bun for a sandwich or a stir fry without peppers).

Sodexo, our food provider, works with the Monument Crisis Center on a handful of occasions a year to donate unused food.

The largest category of compost is what we would categorize as food waste, most of which is generated in Oliver Hall. Saint Mary's food waste story is one we could do a better job of promoting. Our College's food waste program is an exciting closed-loop, food-to-energy system that utilizes a specialized machine called an anaerobic digester. All food waste from Saint Mary's campus is trucked first to Republic Service's transfer station in Martinez and then to EBMUD's wastewater treatment plant in Oakland. The rotting food releases methane (a greenhouse gas 30 x more potent than CO2), which is processed and captured in a series of anaerobic digesters rather than being released into the atmosphere. EBMUD uses the energy to power the Oakland plant and sells the excess electricity it produces back to the PG&E -- it was the first wastewater utility in the country to do so, paving the way for dozens of others to follow suit.

Our EH&S director provides a workshop for all of our food service workers on proper sorting of "prep waste". We also work with Monument Crises Center and White Pony Express to donate unserved leftovers.

At our disposal stations (at our main dining hall and at our cafe), we updated all signage and included a shadow box that illustrates what items go where. Consequently, we are for the first time composting post-consumer food waste on campus, and successfully doing so based off of visual audits.

Reusable service ware is provided in the dining halls.

This new program provides students, staff, and faculty with an option to take their food from Oliver Hall in a microwavable and dishwasher-safe to go container. After using the container, diners can simply wipe out any large food residue and return it to the Oliver Hall cashier in exchange for a clean one. Sodexo estimates that over 2,000 paper plates are being used and disposed of daily in the dining hall. This program will phase out paper plates altogether on Feb. 11, 2019, and the Choose to Reuse containers will be the new normal. Sodexo is generously giving away 100 reusable clamshell containers (normally $3 Flex/$3.50 cash/credit card) to the first 100 students who take the Choose to Reuse pledge. If you would like a free container, follow these simple instructions to take the pledge.
For more information: https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/eat-wash-repeat-and-enjoy-meatless-mondays

All First Years are given the reusable clam shell for free.
Additionally, a 20% discount is given for “Bring your own Mug”.