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n the conveyor belts that churn behind the scenes of the dining centers, uneaten bites of meatloaf, half a cup of pink lemonade, and a pile of left-over fries line the stacks. An average of two million meals are served every year at 10 overall dining locations on the Medford, Somerville, and SMFA campuses. If just one Tufts student leaves about 1.6 ounces of uneaten food on their plate after a single meal, this accumulates to 100 tons of food waste each year, according to an
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article published in a 2017 issue of the Tufts Nutrition Magazine. As in any dining operation, food waste is difficult to avoid. But Tufts dining and student volunteers have made efforts that include optimizing food use in the dining kitchens, composting, and raising awareness through student-run programs. Food loss and waste on campus is symptomatic of a larger problem in the United States. The Environmental Protection Agency released a report in November 2021 on the environmental impacts of food waste in the US to address the lack of progress made toward its goal of halving food loss and waste by 2030. According to this report, more than a third of all food produced in the nation is never eaten, and almost a quarter of landfill and municipal waste consists of this uneaten food. Not only does this result in a waste of the resources needed to cultivate these food products, but it also leads to increased greenhouse gas emission and the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. For example, the amount of
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agricultural land wasted annually to produce uneaten food is equal in area to the size of California and New York combined. As part of their Path to Carbon Neutrality Webinar series, on January 25 the Office of Sustainability at Tufts facilitated a virtual conversation between Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos and Nutrition Marketing Specialist Kelly Shaw. The duo discussed how their team is working toward more sustainable dining practices by reducing food waste on campus, sourcing food locally, and building plant-based menus using fair trade and organic ingredients. Klos and Shaw reiterated Tufts’ commitment to reducing their landfill waste by 3 percent annually. Reducing food waste does not only concern the student and their plate. During the webinar, Klos said, “One aspect of waste reduction… that goes far beyond containers or composting is the waste that comes from being energy or water inefficient.” For example, Klos led the effort to replace the Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center dishwashing machine in 2012, which halved the operation’s water usage. Another Tufts dining initiative that Sustainability Program Director Tina Wilson mentioned during the webinar is the composting program, which Klos introduced in 1994 with the help of two Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning graduate students. According to the Office of Sustainability, Tufts sends its compost to local handlers that turn the food scraps
