Food Waste Evaluation

1
Food Waste Evaluation

• Virginia Weihs
• Jonathan Schumann
• James Rapore

2
Goals

• Establish an understanding of how the college
  food service system functions.
• Quantify food and food-related resource waste
  produced by the students and by the serveries.
• Make suggestions of measures to reduce waste.

3
Interview Results

• Purchasing and Menus
• Julie Bogar
• Labatt Foods
• Individual Chef orders
• Rotating Menu
• Student Feedback/Nutrition

4
Interviews (Cont)

• Food Delivery Preparation and Disposal
• Timetable (Delivery and Preparation)
• Amount
• Flow
• Student Factors
• Sanitation/Leftovers

5
Assessment of Servery Waste

• Procedure
• System
• Finances
• Service
• College system
• Student satisfaction

6
Conclusion and Suggestions

• Communication
• Open to feedback
• Seminars, increased knowledge
• Environmental ethic
• Preparation
• Brown University study
• Computer Program

7
Conclusion and Suggestions (Cont)

• Leftovers
• Other opportunities for reuse?
• Compost
• Packaging and Purchasing
• Servery specialization?
• Individually packaged food items
• Local/Organic purchasing
• Middlebury College

8
Food Audit

• South Servery Audits
• April 7th 2004
• 261 people swiped their cards
• 25 Pounds non-food waste
• 42 pounds food waste
• April 9th 2004
• 233 People swiped their cards
• 19 pounds non food waste
• 34 pounds food waste

9
Food Audit (cont)

• Lovett College
• April 19th 2004
• 167 people swiped cards
• 13 pounds non food waste
• 23 pounds food waste

10
Fun Facts

• One slice of bread weighs about an ounce. 99 (42
  3423) lbs is equivalent to 1,584 ounces, or
  1,584 slices of bread.
• In one day, a person with a balanced diet who
  consumes about 2,200 calories a day would eat 9
  ounces of bread, 4 ounces of vegetables, 3 ounces
  of fruit, 3 ounces of milk products, and 6 ounces
  of meat or proteins (in total, 25 ounces or about
  1.56 lbs)see reference in Appendix. If the
  food waste in the trashcans on Wednesday, Friday,
  and Monday consisted of various food items in
  those proportions, it would be enough food for 63
  more people with similar eating habits to eat for
  an entire day.
• If everyone who swiped threw away their food in
  our trashcans, the average diner would have
  thrown away 2.40 ounces of food, or about 2.4
  slices of bread, or 1.4 cups of spaghetti, or 2.4
  cups of salad greens.

11
Waste Per Person

• Average Amount of Food Waste per Person
• Hanszen Wednesday 2.57 oz
• Hanszen Friday 2.33 oz
• Lovett Monday 2.20 oz
• Average Amount of Non-Food Waste per Person
• Hanszen Wednesday 1.53 oz
• Hanszen Friday 1.30 oz
• Lovett Monday 1.25 oz

12
Variables and Explanations

• Food waste
• Variables
• Numbers swiped versus number thrown away
• Procedural
• Explanations
• Our presence
• Setup of serverys

13
Variables and Explanations (Cont)

• Non-Food Waste
• Associates Night at Lovett
• Large Amount of disposables at Hanszen

14
Internal Food Waste

• Hanszen/Wiess
• Wednesday 70.3 Pounds
• Friday 54.8 Pounds (Missing Data)
• Servery waste versus student waste
• Wednesday 42.8 versus 42
• Friday 42.6 versus 34 (Easter Weekend)

15
Student Survey

• What percentage of the Food that you take do you
  usually Eat?
• Breakfast 92.3
• Lunch 79.2
• Dinner 44.3
• How often do you throw away food?
• Always 15.1
• Often 22.5
• Sometimes 35.7
• Rarely 13.22
• Never 13.48
• Sid was the college that had the most people say
  they throw away food Always (22.79) and Often
  (27.98).
• If so why?
• 1- Got too much food 26.13
• 2- Food tastes bad 72.19
• Other 1.68
• At Sid, one of the respondents that marked
  other wrote The food tastes like sht.
  Responses similar to this were figured into the
  second category. This was the reason that there
  were very few responses in the other category.

16
Student Survey (Cont)

• Are there some types of food you throw away more
  then others? (Some respondents marked multiple
  entries)
• Meat 26.735
• Vegetables 20.34
• No 18.89
• Bread/Grain 13.11
• Dessert 8.18
• Fruit 7.32
• Other 4.11
• How much food do you think you eat compared to
  the average Rice student?
• More 69.1
• Average 20.1
• Less 10.8

17
Student Survey (Cont)

• How often do you use disposable dishware?
• Always/Often 37.5
• Sometimes 24.5
• Rarely 23.6
• Never 7.4
• Do you think students as a whole are wasteful of
  food?
• Always 10
• Often 49.49
• Sometimes 36.71
• Rarely 2.5
• Never1.3
• On a scale of 1-5, how well do you feel serveries
  fulfill students desires/needs?
• (Worst) 1 18.23
• 2 30.71
• 3 23.12
• 4 15.22
• (Best) 5 10.10

18
Conclusions

• Percentage of food wasted
• 92.3 for breakfast
• Proves reducing food waste is possible
• Students that eat breakfast are more aware?
• Breakfast is a universal meal
• Dissatisfaction
• Students are already aware
• Campaign's do not have to start from nothing
• Awareness might not be the best policy

19
Assessment of Student Waste

• Food Waste
• Communication
• Dissatisfaction
• Overuse of Disposables
• 43 percent of total waste
• Returning non disposables