Food Service/Cafeteria

School district food service managers are constantly looking for new and better ways to meet the nutritional needs of their students while also cutting costs and minimizing overhead expenses. One of the ways a school district’s food service department can increase overall efficiency and save money is through improved integrated waste management practices.

• Introduction
• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Purchasing Considerations
• Publications
• Resources

Introduction

This section of the site is designed to help school district food service providers reduce waste generation, practice pollution prevention, and conserve energy and other natural resources. Small changes to current operations can lead to large savings and can make the difference between long-term profit and loss.

The Davis Joint Unified School District realized a net savings of $4,695 dollars in one year by implementing "offer versus serve" in three schools, separating organic food scraps from the cafeteria for vermicomposting, and using recyclable trays. By starting the program at the beginning of the school year, Davis estimates that a gross savings of $16,250 may be attainable. Cost savings from reduced custodial labor should also be taken into account.  Think of the possibilities if all the schools in the district implemented these programs! For more program details, see the Davis Joint Unified School District case study and other food scrap reduction case studies.

The food waste management strategies provided below are prioritized based on a food waste management hierarchy supported by the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) and the U.S. EPA:

1. Practice food waste prevention.
2. Feed edible food to hungry people.
3. Use inedible food as animal feed.
4. Compost or vermicompost inedible food.

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Reduce

The best place to start in reducing food waste is to not create it in the first place. School district kitchens and cafeterias can minimize disposal and procurement costs by implementing simple waste prevention procedures. Consider the following waste prevention strategies when developing a waste reduction program for your school district’s food service operations.

Offer Versus Serve allows students to decline lunch items they do not intend to eat. This strategy reduces food waste by not insisting that students take food they do not like or will otherwise not eat, while still meeting federal nutritional standards.

Zero-Waste Lunches avoid waste generation by eliminating packaging that creates waste.  In addition, with careful planning, little or no food waste should be created.  Zero-waste lunches require a little extra thought when packing, but create considerably less waste and reduce costs in the long run.

Zero Waste Lunch Activities For Schools

• Incorporate the concept of a zero-waste lunch in economics, science, and environmental curricula.
• Encourage competitions based on which class can produce the least waste from lunches per student.  Students could also weigh the garbage from the cafeteria, post and regularly update a wall graph demonstrating their success in reducing waste.
• Sell zero-waste lunch kits, which could include a durable bag, thermos, and durable sandwich and snack containers, as a fund-raiser.

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Reuse

Food waste is not only unfortunate in terms of lost opportunities to feed hungry students but also its negative effects on our environment. The nation spends an estimated $1 billion a year to dispose of excess food. That is a waste of both food and money. It also presents the opportunity to get excess food to those that need it. Not all excess food, however, is appropriate for human consumption. Livestock farmers use some excess food as animal feed. Additionally, renderers and other businesses recycle many forms of excess food into other products. Food scraps can also be composted to create a valuable soil amendment.

The food waste reduction hierarchy, 1) feed people 2) feed animals 3) recycle and 4) compost, shows how productive use can be made of excess food that currently contributes to leachate and methane formation in landfills. The following food waste reduction strategies outline how school districts can reduce solid waste by facilitating the donation of wholesome surplus food.

Food Donation (also called Food Recovery). School cafeterias generally have leftover food in spite of the most careful planning.  Excess edible food that has not been served or is packaged can easily be used to feed hungry people. Schools are a natural choice for such food recovery efforts since food service managers have the expertise to handle and store recovered food until it can be delivered safely to organizations that serve the needy. Food recovery can make a significant contribution towards reducing hunger in the local community as well as save the school district money in avoided disposal costs.

Animal Feed. Leftover food not suitable for human consumption can be used to feed animals. For more information, see the CIWMB fact sheet on Food Diversion Through Animal Feed. This option may only be viable for school districts located near one of these farms. However, schools that have farm animals can set aside and feed them inedible fruits and vegetables.

• In the City of Livermore, through the Environmental Education for Kids (EEK) program, several schools have added small animals to their garden areas. These animals consume some of the food waste generated at the school and provide, in the case of chickens, usable food products.

Schools may place free "available" or "wanted" ads for reusable materials in the CalMAX catalog. Reusable food service items, such as 5-gallon buckets, can also be used in other areas of the school, such as the school garden. Additionally, some food service items, such as egg cartons, milk cartons and jugs, steel cans, cardboard boxes, and more are popular components of student art and science projects.  Be sure teachers know what surplus materials you have available for reuse before recycling or disposing of them.

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Recycle

Rendering companies will take fats, meat, bones, grease, and oils from a school or business and make new products from them.  These companies may be located by looking in your local phone directory under Rendering or Tallow Companies. Additionally, the CIWMB maintains a list of rendering companies by County.

The food service area generates many materials that can be recycled. Recycling includes the collection of recyclables and the transport of the materials for processing. In addition to potential gains from avoided disposal costs, recycling may also result in additional revenue for the school. It is important to find out what recycling opportunities exist in your school district by checking with your city or county recycling coordinator, refuse hauler, and local recycling companies.  Recyclable food service commodities often include corrugated cardboard, aluminum and tin cans, glass containers, and some plastics.

Earth’s 911 provides information on local recycling, pollution prevention, and environmental information in the United States and Canada.

Composting inedible food scraps from a food preparation or dining area, except meat and dairy products, can be done on-site or taken to a composting facility that is permitted to accept food scraps. Composting yields a rich soil amendment that can be used in gardens and landscaping and saves money usually spent on soil conditioners and fertilizers. In addition, composting programs complement school garden program efforts, (both of which serve well as supplements and support to classroom instruction).

• For example, St. Ignatius High School in San Francisco is separating out their pre-consumer and postconsumer food waste along with paper towels, biodegradable utensils, and yard waste for off-site composting. For additional details, see the City of San Francisco Recycling Program and other food scrap reduction case studies.

Vermicomposting is the practice of using worms to transform non-meat or non-dairy food scraps into a nutrient-rich finished product called vermicompost. In a school setting, a vermicomposting system can set the stage for a variety of interdisciplinary activities that can utilize school cafeteria waste for the worm bin, provide a variety of interesting experiments, and can culminate in a school or classroom garden using the finished product. The CIWMB publication The Worm Guide: A Vermicomposting Guide for Teachers helps the reader start a vermicomposting system and provides references for curricula materials. While the information presented is written with teachers and school staff in mind as the primary audience, the vermicomposting methods presented have broad applicability to institutions, offices, and homes. Additionally, the CIWMB has an interactive game that teaches 8 to 10-year-olds about waste management concepts by following Vermi the Worm through the school garden.

• In Union City, California, four 3rd grade classrooms formed a yearlong partnership with the East Bay Depot program called "Project Create," which used vermicomposting as a part of a service learning experience to raise student awareness on the importance of recycling and the ability to produce a useful product for the school garden.

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Purchasing Considerations

Many items we purchase will eventually be discarded. The amount of packaging we buy, whether toxic, reusable, recyclable, compostable, or made of recycled content, all depends on decisions made when we purchase the item. There are several waste reduction considerations to take into account when purchasing food service items for schools; below are just a few.

• Can reusable items be purchased instead of disposable ones?
• Is there an option with less packaging?
• Will some of this product spoil before it is all used?
• Is this a less-perishable product that is available in bulk?
• Are there recycled or other environmentally preferable products available?
• Is the product recyclable or compostable?

Publications

Food Diversion at Schools. Presents options and methods for preventing, reusing, and composting food waste in schools. Lists online resources and publications available form the CIWMB.

Food for Thought: Restaurant Guide to Waste Reduction and Recycling. Overview of waste management practices for the restaurant industry. Also available in Spanish and Chinese.

Food Service Waste Reduction Tips and Ideas. Information on proper purchasing, handling, preparation, and storage and other general information to assist cafeteria staff in reducing waste and saving  money.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently published a series of Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Guides covering food service ware, copiers, cleaners, carpets, electronics, and meetings.

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Resources

American School Food Service Association provides a very informative web site that includes a Waste Characterization Study to Quantify Materials for Composting and Recycling in a Metropolitan School Food Service Program.

Berkeley Unified School District’s food policy includes ideas to maximize the reduction of waste by recycling, reusing, composting, and purchasing recycled products.

University of California, Santa Cruz's Residential Dining Services is designed to reduce the campus’ contribution to landfill waste and reduce future meal costs.

Georgia Department of Education School & Community Nutrition Program Quality Measures for Georgia's School Nutrition Programs documents quality measure characteristics within 12 program areas, including environmental management. This document provides characteristics of successful programs with respect to policies, environmentally responsible practices, and conservation of resources. Also provided is an environmental management resource list and assessment form that can be used to measure the quality of your school district’s nutrition program (or any program for that matter) with respect to environmental management.

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance’s The Green Plan For the Food Service Industry is designed to help commercial and non-commercial food service providers reduce waste generation, practice pollution prevention, and conserve energy and natural resources.

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Last updated: September 18, 2008