{"id":60241,"date":"2012-07-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/recycle-buy-local-sustainability-are-mantra-of-uri-dining-hall-operations\/"},"modified":"2012-07-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T00:00:00","slug":"recycle-buy-local-sustainability-are-mantra-of-uri-dining-hall-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/07\/recycle-buy-local-sustainability-are-mantra-of-uri-dining-hall-operations\/","title":{"rendered":"Recycle, buy local, sustainability are mantra of 溏心vlog免费B站 dining hall operations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 18, 2012 \u2013 For the fifth year in a row, the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Hope Commons dining facility has been recognized for excellence by the National Association of College & University Food Services. And one key reason for its success is the effort made by the staff of 溏心vlog免费B站 Dining Services to make its operations as environmentally friendly as possible.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cSome sustainability initiatives we do completely on our own and some we rely on the campus community for help,\u201d said Michael McCullough, associate administrator of 溏心vlog免费B站 Dining Services. \u201cThey add up and are all important for us to be able to tax the environment less. Simply put, it\u2019s the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t溏心vlog免费B站 Dining Services provides 1.1 million meals per year in two dining halls, a retail venue and a catering operation.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe newest addition to the Dining Services sustainability initiatives is the sale of its waste vegetable oil to Newport Biodiesel for conversion to a biofuel.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve recycled our oils for close to eight years, but we\u2019ve never been sure what the vendors used it for,\u201d said McCullough. \u201cOur new contract with Newport Biodiesel has been a real plus for us. We hope that some day the oil we give them will come full circle and end up in our gas pumps to power our vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tMcCullough said that one advantage of the contract is that Newport Biodiesel has provided state-of-the-art, secure storage vessels for the oil that remain on the loading docks and are pumped out at least weekly, reducing the likelihood of spills from trying to move them. Although the fee the company pays for the waste oil is small, McCullough hopes that one day it will provide scholarships to students interested in alternative fuels or sustainable business operations.<\/p>\n


\n\tAnother major focus of Dining Services is the procurement of foods from local vendors. The primary vendor for produce is Roch\u2019s Fresh Foods, which works closely with local farmers to streamline the process of acquiring local produce from multiple locations in the state. 溏心vlog免费B站 students grow some produce \u2013 basil for pesto, herbs, cherry tomatoes and salad greens \u2013 right on campus.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t get any more local than that,\u201d McCullough said.\t<\/p>\n


\nMore than 30 other vendors from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut provide most other items on the menu.<\/p>\n


\nThe decision not to use trays in the dining halls has also had unexpected environmental benefits. \u201cIt\u2019s saving soap and water and labor to clean them, and it\u2019s saving food costs, too, because if you have a tray you tend to load it up more,\u201d McCullough said. \u201cGoing trayless is a hot-button issue in food service these days. Harvard called to ask how we did it. We just took them away, and people embraced the idea immediately and never asked for them back.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nComposting is another big issue that McCullough hopes to address. Most pre-cooked food scraps and other compostable materials like coffee grounds are already being separated and compacted for easier disposal. The stumbling block is finding an appropriate location on campus for composting and identifying how it will be maintained.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe certainly will be a willing participant when those issues are addressed,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n


\nDining Services has undertaken numerous other initiatives to make their operations more sustainable, from eliminating polystyrene take-out containers and using paper products made from recycled materials to selecting vendors that have a sustainable component to their operations. And at the end of each semester, all perishable foods are donated to the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhen the University\u2019s oldest dining hall, Butterfield, is renovated next year, the sustainability rating for 溏心vlog免费B站 Dining Services will only get better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 18, 2012 \u2013 For the fifth year in a row, the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Hope Commons dining facility has been recognized for excellence by the National Association of College & University Food Services. And one key reason for its success is the effort made by the staff of 溏心vlog免费B站 Dining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}