According to Loyola Dining Services, Loyola’s dining hall strives to offer eco-friendly meals on campus that have a low impact on climate change.
Jordan Davis, sustainability manager at Loyola, which partners with organizations that help companies like Cool Foods reduce their climate impact, says the cafeteria’s food is purchased locally, with a focus on plant-based foods. I explained that it was sourced in an environmentally friendly way by guessing.
“Approximately 9.9% of the food served in Loyola’s cafeterias is considered sustainable from what was purchased this semester,” Davis wrote in an email to Phoenix. “In 2018, he doubled his sustainable food purchases by sourcing about 4.16%. %.”
Dr. Ray Divzinski, Professor of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola, said food systems and processes play an important role in sustainability efforts.
“Sustainable food is food that is produced, distributed and disposed of in a manner that does not impair the ability of future generations to produce, distribute and dispose of food,” said Dibszynski.
Eco-friendly efforts at the cafeteria focus primarily on local food sources, plant-based foods, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to improve sustainability, Davis said.
“Because of the short travel distances, sourcing locally is considered low-impact food,” writes Davis. “Thus, transporting locally sourced food contributes to less pollution and less carbon emissions than non-locally sourced food.”
Students like sophomore Haley Thompson feel that the food they’ve been eating and the effort they’ve seen hasn’t changed.
“I’m not going to lie, I haven’t noticed a big difference,” Thompson said. “I’m more likely to only eat what I know.”
Davis said working with the organization Cool Foods, an initiative of the World Resources Institute, will help determine which foods are more sustainably produced and have lower greenhouse gas emissions. Davis said this will make sustainability efforts in cafeterias and retail spaces on campus more visible to students.
“In the near future, we will be placing cool food symbols next to food items on menu boards to show students which meals have a lower environmental impact than other options,” Davis wrote. .
Ixchell Barazza, a third-year student majoring in environmental studies, said the rest of the campus wasn’t much different.
“With the Dining Dollar Plan, you eat primarily in the food court or Engrained Cafe outside the dining hall,” says Barazza. “I don’t think there are many sustainability practices in place.”
For Loyola students, eco-friendly food may be less prominent, but efforts to reduce waste are more prominent for some, like Barrazza. Loyola’s dining his service supplier, Aramark, also focuses on limiting waste and single-use containers.
“They use takeout items and compostable materials,” Barrazza said. I don’t know how they practice sustainability in
The Food Recovery Network (FRN), a student-run organization on campus, is committed to reducing food waste in the cafeteria. According to the FRN website, the organization’s main goal is to collect food from the campus that would otherwise go to waste, reuse it, and distribute it to community members in need.
Since 2017, FRN has recovered approximately 25,000 pounds of food, according to volunteer food tracking logs. This food goes to a local shelter called A Just Harvest instead of a landfill.
According to Dybzinski, treating food waste sustainably is very important.
“People are often surprised to learn that one-third of all food produced is not consumed by humans,” Dibszynski said. “Ideally, we can reduce waste and rethink waste in ways that benefit other processes.”
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