Our Mission
Blog 12 4/18 Krista
This past week, we were able to meet up with Lorraine Graves, along with Dr. Stark and plan out our food audit. Pending the approval of Nancy Oliver, we are planning to perform our food waste audit on April 25, around dinner time in the school cafeteria. By scraping food off of plates, weighing it on a scale and keeping track of the amount of people involved, we will calculate to the best of our ability the amount of food waste produced in our cafeteria during dinner time. At around 4:30 we will set up, and work for about two hours. Hopefully, in this time period we will be able to gain data and knowledge on our school's dining hall and the food waste created. We will ask not only students, but staff and others eating in the dining hall why they took so much food, what they took, and if they know anything about the massive food waste produced on our campus. Through this experience we hope to gain a final concept of the severity of our food waste on campus and how to prevent it in the future. For our final project we will introduce an outline to our plan to spread this awareness and limit it in the future.
Blog 11 4/11 Krista
Luckily, in the past week we kept in touch with the founder of the food recovery program- Andrew- who extended the invitation to join him and his team on a food recovery audit which take place in the cafeteria when it closes, around 8:30-8:45 pm. Although unexpectedly it was canceled! Luckily, Andrew is open to having volunteers and a collaboration with us. To involve Greek life on campus, being that it is Greek Week, we have invited Andrew to this week's chapter meeting. With his foundation, we have created a collaboration where our women can sign up to take part in food auditing, and join in on trips to the food bank in Newark. As a result, our women can gain hours of community service (which is an obligation every semester) and also be exposed, and learn more about food waste and its severity on our campus, and in South Orange. This community service opportunity is new for us because all though we often donate canned food to food pantries, we have never been exposed to donating opened and cooked food that often creates waste. With this experience, a large group of women, over 100, will be exposed to food waste, what it is and how they can personally contribute to benefiting our environment. We hope that in the next few weeks and in the future year other organziations on campus join in on this collaboration and create a relationship with the Food Recovery Program.
Blog 10 4/4 Krista
On campus, we stopped by the Seton Hall cafeteria to interview a few students on their experience with Seton Hall’s Gourmet Dining. Because we are commuters, unfortunately we do not have a meal plan. Although, to compromise we waited right outside the cafeteria by the swipe desk and watched the many Seton Hall students dispose of an abundance of food by placing it onto the conveyer belt. To our surprise, 7/10 students had more than one plate. Leaving the cafeteria, we stopped four girls to ask them a few questions about their cafeteria experience.
The first question we asked was if they live on campus or are commuters. All four girls live on campus, and we further found out they all are purchasers of the high meal plans on campus which is 14 meals a week and 400 pirate bucks a semester. The
What is your favorite thing to eat in the Seton Hall Cafeteria?
4/4 young women responded chicken fingers- it is their favorite meal.
If it is not chicken finger day- what do you do?
The girls said they use the Panini press to make sandwich and like to pick on the specialties.
Do ever take more than one plate, do you consume it all?
One girl said she took 3 plates today and put whatever she did not eat on the conveyer belt.
Furthermore, we asked the girls why they take more than they can eat. As a response, they continued with the idea that they have to take more options because they may not like or enjoy what they pick up and choose to eat. As a result, we shared our information with them- that Seton Hall is looking to limit food waste and they are a part of the pool that are contributing to it the most. One of the girls asked what she can do limit her own food waste because day to day it is hard for her to find something she enjoys. Sharing some of the ideas we have researched and learned- we advised the girls as a group to take one plate at a time, small tasting portions and to then get back up if they need more food.
Blog 10 Julie 4/4
In addition to what Krista said about the interview, there is a sign outside the cafeteria that says that you are not allowed to bring any food outside of the cafeteria. They yell at the students when they try to bring tuber wares to bring the food back to their rooms. Personally, we think that having students able to bring tuber wares for their wastes would actually limit food waste. I think this is definitely something that should be taken into consideration.
Also, these students live on campus in dorms. They do not have cars to go food shopping or to eat off campus. The dining hall and commuter cafeteria are their only options. This makes it hard for them to find food they would like to consume, but we hope we made them more aware of the waste they are contributing to, and that they will pass on this information to their peers.
On our Seton Hall page, we have added and uploaded photos from the Seton Hall Cafeteria. We hope to soon work with Andrew again and see if he is interested in tabling in the cafeteria to with facts about food waste and the food recovery program. In addition, we are looking to add posters that will catch the eyes of those in and out of the cafeteria. On campus residents was a huge group we are able to approach- and we are looking to continue it!
Blog 9: 3/28 Julie and Krista
This past week with delay from Spring Break and many snow days- we were able to talk with Sarah Miller who is the coordinator of the Food recovery program. Luckily, she referred us to Andrew Aguilera who is the Founder of Food Recovery Network. Andrew was extremely helpful and insightful in regards to the Food Recovery Plan here on campus, that helps out people in need in Newark.
The interview went as follows:
1. Who is involved in the food recovery program here at Seton Hall?
- Variety of students of different majors. Was started last Spring with a mixed group of business leadership students and student government members. Now has a good amount of underclassmen from different majors looking to serve.
2. Are people aware there is a food recovery program?
- Yes, it has gotten recognition on the SHU website, Setonian, and other areas. Still, more people are hearing about it each day.
3. Where exactly does the recovered food go? Soup kitchens? Is there anywhere else the program has reached out to?
- Goes to a soup kitchen and a church. The organization has a couple other partners waiting to be added when the right resources are in place.
4. How much food is recovered? Weekly? Monthly?
- Weekly it can range from 100-400 pounds. The Food Recovery Network is able to recover about 50-200 pounds per recovery (we recover twice a week).
5. We learned that there is 4000 pounds of food wasted weekly from the dining hall. Does this include the recovered food?
- Not sure how accurate that number is, it’s roughly 200 pounds per day. And our organization recovers from the 200 lbs.
6. As the new food waste law comes into action, is there any changes you will be trying to make?
- Not entirely aware of this, but as long as the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act is in place, Food Recovery Network will keep going strong.
7. As environmental studies students at Seton Hall, Krista and I would like to help in any way we can. Is there anything you suggest?
- You can volunteer by weighing at one of our recoveries (at night) or helping deliver food during the following day. Another thing that would help is spreading the word and encouraging others to get involved.
Andrew was extremely helpful and willing to give us the information we needed to learn more about the food recovery program and what we can do to help. Moving forward, we are going to take the information we gained from him along Loraine Graves' idea to interview students in the cafeteria to see why so much food waste is being produced. We hope that if we talk to our peers and spread awareness, all of our research will make a difference!
Blog 8 Part 2: Krista and Julie 3/21
After meeting with Violet Reed, the Vice President of SGA, we had a lot to reflect on. We explained our goals to her and she explained what she has thus far tried to do. She really wants to bring composting to our campus but cannot get the support. She wasn’t aware of 4,000 pounds of waste on our campus a week either. We believe she needs support in order to take any action. Her plans include going to travel and take over environmental org. and she currently works at a farm. She suggested a “free food group me”- You could opt in say you have waste and people could come get it if there was an event, you could write in there and say you have extra and someone will take it. She also suggested maybe something new with SHU app, which we found interesting! She thinks smaller plates could help in the cafeteria, but was really stuck on wanting composting or contacting and partnering with local farms. She agreed that we should connect with the food recovery team, which we are definitely trying to do (Sarah Miller).
Blog 8: Krista and Julie 3/21
This week we were able to meet with Lorraine Graves from EPA. Together, with Dr. Stark, we were able to focus our project as a Public Education Campaign. In our project, we are looking to reach out to students, faculty, administration along with commuters and other groups. Ultimately, we want to spread as much awareness as possible to get everyone to understand the amount of waste we produce. Lorraine Graves suggested we perform a food waste audit in our cafeteria. Her advice is "If you do not measure it, you cannot manage it!" So, within the next few weeks we will perform a food waste audit in the dining hall to add to the data given to us by Nancy Oliver that 4,000 pounds a week are wasted. With our own experience, we will be able to see first hand and help calculate waste coming from our cafeteria where students, commuters and staff eat. In addition, Lorraine suggested we hold interviews and ask students how much food they took and if there is extra why they did not eat it. As a result, we will be able to gain more insight and use it towards the goal of our Public Education Campaign. In addition, Lorraine gave us many tips and ideas that we can bring to the awareness of not only students on campus, but commuters and at home with our families. She discussed the idea of managing our food waste at home. For example, the way we store our food. We should be cautious and store our food so it lasts the longest , and when necessary use the food in ways we would not think like creating a soup or throwing it in a salad. There are many ways we can use food to eat before throwing it out, we just have to be creative! We must help spread awareness and make a change because by 2030 there will be a state law in New Jersey forcing people and companies to cut down waste. Next on our agenda is to meet with SGA (Violet Reed and Sarah Miller). After, we will meet and catch up with Lorraine Graves again. Stay tuned!
Blog 7: Julie and Krista 3/14/18
We are anticipating our meeting this upcoming Thursday with Lorraine Graves from the EPA. She is going to tell us about creating a food audit and about spreading awareness to our campus. We are so excited for what's to come!!
Blog 6: Julie 2/28/18
We are now moving forward with our project. Krista and I met with Dr. Stark who gave us advice and suggestions. She wanted us to reach out to Violet Reed, who works for SGA on campus, and Sarah Miller, who helps out with the food recovery program here at Seton Hall University. We have emailed the both of them and are awaiting a reply from Sarah Miller. Violet Reed suggested that we meet with her or do a phone interview. We are also thinking about reaching out to Montclair State University, as Isaac our mentor suggested, because they also have Gourmet Dining Services cater their dining hall necessities. We would want to know how they deal with food waste and what their plan is for when the law is put into place. We believe all these contacts will help us to further our project and make us more aware of what we can do to help limit food waste on our campus and furthermore in South Orange. I am excited to see our next steps and regroup with Dr. Stark this upcoming Wednesday!
Blog 6: Krista 2/28/18
In the past week, after re grouping with Dr. Stark last Wednesday, we re-focused our project. With the help of Dr. Stark, Julie and I were able to figure out who we were going to reach out to next. Together, we contacted both Violet Reed, who works for SGA on Campus, and Sarah Miller who is a senior student a part of food recovery program on campus. Before spring break, we will be interviewing Violet Reed, looking for answers to questions about food on campus and what we as students can do to prevent waste. Although it is a busy week for Violet, we might settle with a phone interview to gain as much information as we can about GDS before spring break. Moving forward, I hope we hear back from Sarah Miller to see how we can help out the food recovery program to expand not only on campus, but across South Orange. I agreed that Sarah and Violet are both great resources because they both have a direct relationship to students like Julie and myself. In addition to reaching out to Violet and Sarah, we contacted our mentors, Bill and Isaac, for advice on our project so far. Isaac put us in touch with Lorraine Graves from Sustainable Material Management who thinks we should implement a food waste audit. After talking to Julie, I definitely think this is something we should and can implement so we are able to inform our peers on the waste we are creating. At our age, I think the only way we will change our actions is if people are aware and understand the harm being caused. We are hopeful and confident that change will be made on our campus!
Blog 5: Krista 2/21/18
After meeting with Nancy and with the support of Dr. Stark, Julie and I were able to learn more about food waste on campus- which is a crazy and excessive amount! In addition to having smaller dishes and staff working at the stations, Nancy emphasized the idea that many organizations and clubs on campus have events where GDS caters their food. Although, what many be unaware of is that to-go containers are available so if necessary, groups using GDS should definitely ask for it. Ms. Oliver told us that they even have some that are bio-degradable, which is awesome and benefits the environment while preserving food. Now, If we do take extra food home from GDS, we have to make sure we receive the bio degradable containers and not plastic ones. in addition, in regards events with both students and or faculty, we should also look into ordering less food for specific events because 9/10 times we order TOO much! This is easy for me to relate to because as a part of Greek life, we frequently use GDS as our vendor.
In conclusion, we plan on taking this even further, making our peers and friends more aware of what we have been working on. Maybe, we can put up signs and posters to let the entire university know how much food is being wasted by us as students on Seton Hall’s campus as a way to reach out to both students and faculty.
We are looking forward to reaching out to Sarah Miller who is active in the Food Recovery program. The food recovery program is something we can be involved in not only on campus, but also in South Orange as residents and commuters to Seton Hall.
Blog 5: Julie 2/21/18
We had our interview with Nancy Oliver on Monday at 3 p.m. Dr. Stark fortunately sat in on it as well. We asked her the questions we wrote on our last blog post. She told us that the amount of food waste on Seton Hall’s campus is absolutely massive. She believes the approximate amount of waste is 4,000 pounds a week, which is crazy! Students, faculty, and others that come in and out of the dining hall are taking too much food and throwing it out, resulting in waste. According to Ms. Oliver, GDS is currently working with a food recovery program. They package anything that is leftover to save and bring it to soup kitchens, most likely in Newark. Sarah Miller, a senior here at Seton Hall, works for this food recovery program. We are thinking about reaching out to her in the future to see her take on it all.
Nancy Oliver continued to tell us that awhile back, they spoke to SGA to go forward with smaller dishes. If they can first get SGA on board, and then the university, it can result in major changes. Smaller dishes would make students not get as much food, resulting in less waste. The other idea is to have servers instead of the students and faculty serving themselves. This would be a huge change because they would not serve as much as the regular student would take. It is a huge change. Once they receive permission, this will most likely go into place. These ideas are what they plan on doing once the law goes in place as well.
Blog 4: Krista 2/14/18
This week, we were able to take part in campus and sign a petition to limit waste here on Seton Hall's campus. **Check out the blog post we made on our *on campus page* this week! Together, Julie and I signed and received reusable mugs at Dunkin Donuts. With this mug, it can be refilled (at a discount) on campus to limit the amount of disposable cups purchased. We joined the movement to benefit Seton Hall's Campus, and had a great time in our favorite hangout spot doing so. As college students, we are constantly on the move and picking up coffee. Although, now, at least we can be more environmental friendly and make a difference in our community. We told our friends (one even came with us) and shared it on social media. I think it is extremely important to raise awareness because as college students, it is the perfect time to share our voices and make a change. This event at Dunkin Donuts was the first of may events we hope to take part in on campus this semester, and in the future. I was able to sit down with Julie afterwards and reflect on this experience, and how we can make a further change on campus. Instead of contacting Loraine Graves, we decided to contact Nancy Oliver from Gourmet Dining (a huge factor of our waste on campus) which Julie will tell you all more about!
Blog 4: Julie 2/14/18
As partners, and with the help of Dr. Stark, Krista and I figured and decided that the best place to start would actually be by reaching out to those on campus is with Gourmet Dining. So, we reached out to Nancy Oliver who works for Gourmet Dining. We hope that she will be able to help us come up with a plan and identify where all the waste on campus is coming from, and why. As the semester goes on we hope to lessen the waste produced on our campus and ultimately in South Orange. We are hoping that we can set up an interview with her where we can get to know a little bit about how she feels about this topic.
Below I shared some of the type of questions we reviewed, carefully thought of and are looking to find out from Nancy Oliver!
Blog 3: Krista and Julie 2/7/18
Due to how prominent the Greek community is at Seton Hall University and being members ourselves, together we have decided it will be extremely productive and beneficial if we go out of our comfort zones, informing the Greek organizations ourselves! We plan on finding out if we will be able to attend ourselves or send representatives to speak on behalf of us and our ideas on limiting food waste here at Seton Hall University.
Blog 3: Krista 2/7/18
ALL of this constant food waste must stop. Food waste is ruining our environment. HOW? It goes without saying that food is wasted along the chain, having an extreme environmental impact. We must take into consideration the amount of energy and natural resources spent, and wasted, in processing, transporting, storing and cooking food. Humans directly impact the amount of food waste. Food waste that ends up in landfills actually produces a large amount of methane. Methane is an even more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Excess amounts of greenhouse gases like these absorb radiation, heating the Earth’s atmosphere. Do we see what is happening here?
This can result in global warming and climate change.
Food waste also represents a great waste of freshwater and ground water resources. Moveforhunger.org states, “It is said that a volume of water roughly three times the volume of Lake Geneva is used just to produce food that is not eaten. By throwing out one kilogram of beef, you are essentially wasting 50,000 liters of water that were used to produce that meat. In the same way, nearly 1000 liters of water are wasted when you pour one glass of milk down the drain” (moveforhunger.org).
Blog 3: Julie 2/7/18
Update on Project:
We have decided to alter our project slightly. We will be finding ways and sources to limit food waste on Seton Hall’s campus, within the dining hall and Dunkin Donuts. As we are in the process of contacting all authorities that can assist us, we wrote a list of questions.
Questions for Lorraine Graves:
Blog 2: Julie 1/30/18
We will be meeting with Bill and Isaac today during class, which Krista and I are both extremely excited about. We are excited to get to know the individuals we will be working with directly. We have many questions for them, such as what they suggest, what they think about the waste coming directly from the two companies Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, and what they think about food waste in general. We want to explain to them how much we personally think our semester long project can influence and impact the limiting of food waste. The goal is to BENEFIT our environment and society as a whole and we know Bill and Isaac, being involved in the South Orange Environmental Commission, will give us great ideas on how to do so.
Blog 2: Krista 1/30/18
Another thing we really want to focus on throughout this semester long project is AWARENESS. We want to make our peers and other college students, even adults and professors, aware of the waste they are subject to causing. That is why we will be emailing Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, as well as surveying our friends, families, and peers on how much waste they think they personally cause by how much coffee they buy from these establishments. We will also be comparing the two- which do we think wastes more? By surveying people in social settings, like college friends, we can get a very accurate number of how much waste Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks cause alone.
Blog 1: Julie 1/24/18
Together, we are researching how Seton Hall students, as active members of the South Orange community, can reduce food wastes and plastics in town and on campus. With the help from South Orange Environmental Commission, we are thrilled to introduce our plan. We plan to limit the amount of waste in our environment by closely relating to the age population we are surrounded by. As college students, we are always in a rush and often are not mindful of our choices when it comes to disposing food. Hopefully, with this project we will become more educated and knowledgeable on how to limit waste. As a result, we can share what we learned with our peers, and the youth of South Orange as we are future educators.
Blog 1: Krista 1/24/18
We want to spread ideas to our campus in hopes they will spread to our surrounding town. With simple tasks like remembering to recycle and donating food that is not expired, we can help benefit the environment. We are currently in the process of contacting Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in hopes of limiting the amount of disposable cups provided. We thought these companies were the best to work with because as college students, we run on caffeine and as a result are contributing to excess waste in South Orange. Hopefully we can come up with a plan to use non disposable beverage cups that will benefit our environment. At this time, in college, the issues in our environment are becoming more prevalent to us, and we think we are at the perfect age to make a difference. We are effecting our surroundings more than we realize and can make a great impact.
This past week, we were able to meet up with Lorraine Graves, along with Dr. Stark and plan out our food audit. Pending the approval of Nancy Oliver, we are planning to perform our food waste audit on April 25, around dinner time in the school cafeteria. By scraping food off of plates, weighing it on a scale and keeping track of the amount of people involved, we will calculate to the best of our ability the amount of food waste produced in our cafeteria during dinner time. At around 4:30 we will set up, and work for about two hours. Hopefully, in this time period we will be able to gain data and knowledge on our school's dining hall and the food waste created. We will ask not only students, but staff and others eating in the dining hall why they took so much food, what they took, and if they know anything about the massive food waste produced on our campus. Through this experience we hope to gain a final concept of the severity of our food waste on campus and how to prevent it in the future. For our final project we will introduce an outline to our plan to spread this awareness and limit it in the future.
Blog 11 4/11 Krista
Luckily, in the past week we kept in touch with the founder of the food recovery program- Andrew- who extended the invitation to join him and his team on a food recovery audit which take place in the cafeteria when it closes, around 8:30-8:45 pm. Although unexpectedly it was canceled! Luckily, Andrew is open to having volunteers and a collaboration with us. To involve Greek life on campus, being that it is Greek Week, we have invited Andrew to this week's chapter meeting. With his foundation, we have created a collaboration where our women can sign up to take part in food auditing, and join in on trips to the food bank in Newark. As a result, our women can gain hours of community service (which is an obligation every semester) and also be exposed, and learn more about food waste and its severity on our campus, and in South Orange. This community service opportunity is new for us because all though we often donate canned food to food pantries, we have never been exposed to donating opened and cooked food that often creates waste. With this experience, a large group of women, over 100, will be exposed to food waste, what it is and how they can personally contribute to benefiting our environment. We hope that in the next few weeks and in the future year other organziations on campus join in on this collaboration and create a relationship with the Food Recovery Program.
Blog 10 4/4 Krista
On campus, we stopped by the Seton Hall cafeteria to interview a few students on their experience with Seton Hall’s Gourmet Dining. Because we are commuters, unfortunately we do not have a meal plan. Although, to compromise we waited right outside the cafeteria by the swipe desk and watched the many Seton Hall students dispose of an abundance of food by placing it onto the conveyer belt. To our surprise, 7/10 students had more than one plate. Leaving the cafeteria, we stopped four girls to ask them a few questions about their cafeteria experience.
The first question we asked was if they live on campus or are commuters. All four girls live on campus, and we further found out they all are purchasers of the high meal plans on campus which is 14 meals a week and 400 pirate bucks a semester. The
What is your favorite thing to eat in the Seton Hall Cafeteria?
4/4 young women responded chicken fingers- it is their favorite meal.
If it is not chicken finger day- what do you do?
The girls said they use the Panini press to make sandwich and like to pick on the specialties.
Do ever take more than one plate, do you consume it all?
One girl said she took 3 plates today and put whatever she did not eat on the conveyer belt.
Furthermore, we asked the girls why they take more than they can eat. As a response, they continued with the idea that they have to take more options because they may not like or enjoy what they pick up and choose to eat. As a result, we shared our information with them- that Seton Hall is looking to limit food waste and they are a part of the pool that are contributing to it the most. One of the girls asked what she can do limit her own food waste because day to day it is hard for her to find something she enjoys. Sharing some of the ideas we have researched and learned- we advised the girls as a group to take one plate at a time, small tasting portions and to then get back up if they need more food.
Blog 10 Julie 4/4
In addition to what Krista said about the interview, there is a sign outside the cafeteria that says that you are not allowed to bring any food outside of the cafeteria. They yell at the students when they try to bring tuber wares to bring the food back to their rooms. Personally, we think that having students able to bring tuber wares for their wastes would actually limit food waste. I think this is definitely something that should be taken into consideration.
Also, these students live on campus in dorms. They do not have cars to go food shopping or to eat off campus. The dining hall and commuter cafeteria are their only options. This makes it hard for them to find food they would like to consume, but we hope we made them more aware of the waste they are contributing to, and that they will pass on this information to their peers.
On our Seton Hall page, we have added and uploaded photos from the Seton Hall Cafeteria. We hope to soon work with Andrew again and see if he is interested in tabling in the cafeteria to with facts about food waste and the food recovery program. In addition, we are looking to add posters that will catch the eyes of those in and out of the cafeteria. On campus residents was a huge group we are able to approach- and we are looking to continue it!
Blog 9: 3/28 Julie and Krista
This past week with delay from Spring Break and many snow days- we were able to talk with Sarah Miller who is the coordinator of the Food recovery program. Luckily, she referred us to Andrew Aguilera who is the Founder of Food Recovery Network. Andrew was extremely helpful and insightful in regards to the Food Recovery Plan here on campus, that helps out people in need in Newark.
The interview went as follows:
1. Who is involved in the food recovery program here at Seton Hall?
- Variety of students of different majors. Was started last Spring with a mixed group of business leadership students and student government members. Now has a good amount of underclassmen from different majors looking to serve.
2. Are people aware there is a food recovery program?
- Yes, it has gotten recognition on the SHU website, Setonian, and other areas. Still, more people are hearing about it each day.
3. Where exactly does the recovered food go? Soup kitchens? Is there anywhere else the program has reached out to?
- Goes to a soup kitchen and a church. The organization has a couple other partners waiting to be added when the right resources are in place.
4. How much food is recovered? Weekly? Monthly?
- Weekly it can range from 100-400 pounds. The Food Recovery Network is able to recover about 50-200 pounds per recovery (we recover twice a week).
5. We learned that there is 4000 pounds of food wasted weekly from the dining hall. Does this include the recovered food?
- Not sure how accurate that number is, it’s roughly 200 pounds per day. And our organization recovers from the 200 lbs.
6. As the new food waste law comes into action, is there any changes you will be trying to make?
- Not entirely aware of this, but as long as the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act is in place, Food Recovery Network will keep going strong.
7. As environmental studies students at Seton Hall, Krista and I would like to help in any way we can. Is there anything you suggest?
- You can volunteer by weighing at one of our recoveries (at night) or helping deliver food during the following day. Another thing that would help is spreading the word and encouraging others to get involved.
Andrew was extremely helpful and willing to give us the information we needed to learn more about the food recovery program and what we can do to help. Moving forward, we are going to take the information we gained from him along Loraine Graves' idea to interview students in the cafeteria to see why so much food waste is being produced. We hope that if we talk to our peers and spread awareness, all of our research will make a difference!
Blog 8 Part 2: Krista and Julie 3/21
After meeting with Violet Reed, the Vice President of SGA, we had a lot to reflect on. We explained our goals to her and she explained what she has thus far tried to do. She really wants to bring composting to our campus but cannot get the support. She wasn’t aware of 4,000 pounds of waste on our campus a week either. We believe she needs support in order to take any action. Her plans include going to travel and take over environmental org. and she currently works at a farm. She suggested a “free food group me”- You could opt in say you have waste and people could come get it if there was an event, you could write in there and say you have extra and someone will take it. She also suggested maybe something new with SHU app, which we found interesting! She thinks smaller plates could help in the cafeteria, but was really stuck on wanting composting or contacting and partnering with local farms. She agreed that we should connect with the food recovery team, which we are definitely trying to do (Sarah Miller).
Blog 8: Krista and Julie 3/21
This week we were able to meet with Lorraine Graves from EPA. Together, with Dr. Stark, we were able to focus our project as a Public Education Campaign. In our project, we are looking to reach out to students, faculty, administration along with commuters and other groups. Ultimately, we want to spread as much awareness as possible to get everyone to understand the amount of waste we produce. Lorraine Graves suggested we perform a food waste audit in our cafeteria. Her advice is "If you do not measure it, you cannot manage it!" So, within the next few weeks we will perform a food waste audit in the dining hall to add to the data given to us by Nancy Oliver that 4,000 pounds a week are wasted. With our own experience, we will be able to see first hand and help calculate waste coming from our cafeteria where students, commuters and staff eat. In addition, Lorraine suggested we hold interviews and ask students how much food they took and if there is extra why they did not eat it. As a result, we will be able to gain more insight and use it towards the goal of our Public Education Campaign. In addition, Lorraine gave us many tips and ideas that we can bring to the awareness of not only students on campus, but commuters and at home with our families. She discussed the idea of managing our food waste at home. For example, the way we store our food. We should be cautious and store our food so it lasts the longest , and when necessary use the food in ways we would not think like creating a soup or throwing it in a salad. There are many ways we can use food to eat before throwing it out, we just have to be creative! We must help spread awareness and make a change because by 2030 there will be a state law in New Jersey forcing people and companies to cut down waste. Next on our agenda is to meet with SGA (Violet Reed and Sarah Miller). After, we will meet and catch up with Lorraine Graves again. Stay tuned!
Blog 7: Julie and Krista 3/14/18
We are anticipating our meeting this upcoming Thursday with Lorraine Graves from the EPA. She is going to tell us about creating a food audit and about spreading awareness to our campus. We are so excited for what's to come!!
Blog 6: Julie 2/28/18
We are now moving forward with our project. Krista and I met with Dr. Stark who gave us advice and suggestions. She wanted us to reach out to Violet Reed, who works for SGA on campus, and Sarah Miller, who helps out with the food recovery program here at Seton Hall University. We have emailed the both of them and are awaiting a reply from Sarah Miller. Violet Reed suggested that we meet with her or do a phone interview. We are also thinking about reaching out to Montclair State University, as Isaac our mentor suggested, because they also have Gourmet Dining Services cater their dining hall necessities. We would want to know how they deal with food waste and what their plan is for when the law is put into place. We believe all these contacts will help us to further our project and make us more aware of what we can do to help limit food waste on our campus and furthermore in South Orange. I am excited to see our next steps and regroup with Dr. Stark this upcoming Wednesday!
Blog 6: Krista 2/28/18
In the past week, after re grouping with Dr. Stark last Wednesday, we re-focused our project. With the help of Dr. Stark, Julie and I were able to figure out who we were going to reach out to next. Together, we contacted both Violet Reed, who works for SGA on Campus, and Sarah Miller who is a senior student a part of food recovery program on campus. Before spring break, we will be interviewing Violet Reed, looking for answers to questions about food on campus and what we as students can do to prevent waste. Although it is a busy week for Violet, we might settle with a phone interview to gain as much information as we can about GDS before spring break. Moving forward, I hope we hear back from Sarah Miller to see how we can help out the food recovery program to expand not only on campus, but across South Orange. I agreed that Sarah and Violet are both great resources because they both have a direct relationship to students like Julie and myself. In addition to reaching out to Violet and Sarah, we contacted our mentors, Bill and Isaac, for advice on our project so far. Isaac put us in touch with Lorraine Graves from Sustainable Material Management who thinks we should implement a food waste audit. After talking to Julie, I definitely think this is something we should and can implement so we are able to inform our peers on the waste we are creating. At our age, I think the only way we will change our actions is if people are aware and understand the harm being caused. We are hopeful and confident that change will be made on our campus!
Blog 5: Krista 2/21/18
After meeting with Nancy and with the support of Dr. Stark, Julie and I were able to learn more about food waste on campus- which is a crazy and excessive amount! In addition to having smaller dishes and staff working at the stations, Nancy emphasized the idea that many organizations and clubs on campus have events where GDS caters their food. Although, what many be unaware of is that to-go containers are available so if necessary, groups using GDS should definitely ask for it. Ms. Oliver told us that they even have some that are bio-degradable, which is awesome and benefits the environment while preserving food. Now, If we do take extra food home from GDS, we have to make sure we receive the bio degradable containers and not plastic ones. in addition, in regards events with both students and or faculty, we should also look into ordering less food for specific events because 9/10 times we order TOO much! This is easy for me to relate to because as a part of Greek life, we frequently use GDS as our vendor.
In conclusion, we plan on taking this even further, making our peers and friends more aware of what we have been working on. Maybe, we can put up signs and posters to let the entire university know how much food is being wasted by us as students on Seton Hall’s campus as a way to reach out to both students and faculty.
We are looking forward to reaching out to Sarah Miller who is active in the Food Recovery program. The food recovery program is something we can be involved in not only on campus, but also in South Orange as residents and commuters to Seton Hall.
Blog 5: Julie 2/21/18
We had our interview with Nancy Oliver on Monday at 3 p.m. Dr. Stark fortunately sat in on it as well. We asked her the questions we wrote on our last blog post. She told us that the amount of food waste on Seton Hall’s campus is absolutely massive. She believes the approximate amount of waste is 4,000 pounds a week, which is crazy! Students, faculty, and others that come in and out of the dining hall are taking too much food and throwing it out, resulting in waste. According to Ms. Oliver, GDS is currently working with a food recovery program. They package anything that is leftover to save and bring it to soup kitchens, most likely in Newark. Sarah Miller, a senior here at Seton Hall, works for this food recovery program. We are thinking about reaching out to her in the future to see her take on it all.
Nancy Oliver continued to tell us that awhile back, they spoke to SGA to go forward with smaller dishes. If they can first get SGA on board, and then the university, it can result in major changes. Smaller dishes would make students not get as much food, resulting in less waste. The other idea is to have servers instead of the students and faculty serving themselves. This would be a huge change because they would not serve as much as the regular student would take. It is a huge change. Once they receive permission, this will most likely go into place. These ideas are what they plan on doing once the law goes in place as well.
Blog 4: Krista 2/14/18
This week, we were able to take part in campus and sign a petition to limit waste here on Seton Hall's campus. **Check out the blog post we made on our *on campus page* this week! Together, Julie and I signed and received reusable mugs at Dunkin Donuts. With this mug, it can be refilled (at a discount) on campus to limit the amount of disposable cups purchased. We joined the movement to benefit Seton Hall's Campus, and had a great time in our favorite hangout spot doing so. As college students, we are constantly on the move and picking up coffee. Although, now, at least we can be more environmental friendly and make a difference in our community. We told our friends (one even came with us) and shared it on social media. I think it is extremely important to raise awareness because as college students, it is the perfect time to share our voices and make a change. This event at Dunkin Donuts was the first of may events we hope to take part in on campus this semester, and in the future. I was able to sit down with Julie afterwards and reflect on this experience, and how we can make a further change on campus. Instead of contacting Loraine Graves, we decided to contact Nancy Oliver from Gourmet Dining (a huge factor of our waste on campus) which Julie will tell you all more about!
Blog 4: Julie 2/14/18
As partners, and with the help of Dr. Stark, Krista and I figured and decided that the best place to start would actually be by reaching out to those on campus is with Gourmet Dining. So, we reached out to Nancy Oliver who works for Gourmet Dining. We hope that she will be able to help us come up with a plan and identify where all the waste on campus is coming from, and why. As the semester goes on we hope to lessen the waste produced on our campus and ultimately in South Orange. We are hoping that we can set up an interview with her where we can get to know a little bit about how she feels about this topic.
Below I shared some of the type of questions we reviewed, carefully thought of and are looking to find out from Nancy Oliver!
- What do you think about the amount of food waste on Seton Hall’s campus? Do you have a sense of the approximate amount of waste on a weekly or monthly basis?
- What is Gourmet Dining currently doing to help reduce food waste?
- How do we get Seton Hall students to change their behavior?
- How do we get SHU faculty, administrators, and employees to help reduce food waste on campus?
- How might we address the different groups on campus to help reduce food waste? How can we reduce this waste at Seton Hall, and furthermore, in the town of South Orange?
- A new law in New Jersey, one of the strongest stances against climate change in the U.S. right now, aims to cut the state's food waste in half by 2030. It plans on stating that schools cannot have more than two tons of waste per week. Does Seton Hall have a plan for when this law drops?
- We not only plan on affecting the students living in dorms on campus. We know that there are many Seton Hall commuters (some actually right in the town of South Orange). How do we get across to them as well?
Blog 3: Krista and Julie 2/7/18
Due to how prominent the Greek community is at Seton Hall University and being members ourselves, together we have decided it will be extremely productive and beneficial if we go out of our comfort zones, informing the Greek organizations ourselves! We plan on finding out if we will be able to attend ourselves or send representatives to speak on behalf of us and our ideas on limiting food waste here at Seton Hall University.
Blog 3: Krista 2/7/18
ALL of this constant food waste must stop. Food waste is ruining our environment. HOW? It goes without saying that food is wasted along the chain, having an extreme environmental impact. We must take into consideration the amount of energy and natural resources spent, and wasted, in processing, transporting, storing and cooking food. Humans directly impact the amount of food waste. Food waste that ends up in landfills actually produces a large amount of methane. Methane is an even more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2. Excess amounts of greenhouse gases like these absorb radiation, heating the Earth’s atmosphere. Do we see what is happening here?
This can result in global warming and climate change.
Food waste also represents a great waste of freshwater and ground water resources. Moveforhunger.org states, “It is said that a volume of water roughly three times the volume of Lake Geneva is used just to produce food that is not eaten. By throwing out one kilogram of beef, you are essentially wasting 50,000 liters of water that were used to produce that meat. In the same way, nearly 1000 liters of water are wasted when you pour one glass of milk down the drain” (moveforhunger.org).
Blog 3: Julie 2/7/18
Update on Project:
We have decided to alter our project slightly. We will be finding ways and sources to limit food waste on Seton Hall’s campus, within the dining hall and Dunkin Donuts. As we are in the process of contacting all authorities that can assist us, we wrote a list of questions.
Questions for Lorraine Graves:
- How exactly do you feel about the amount of food waste on Seton Hall’s campus?
- How can we reduce waste at Seton Hall, and furthermore, in South Orange?
- How do we get Seton Hall students to change their behavior?
- How do we get Seton Hall faculty to change their behavior?
- What is the biggest source or group we need to tackle?
- How do we address these people?
- New Jersey is coming out with a law where schools cannot have more than 2 tons of waste a week. Does Seton Hall have a plan for when this law drops?
Blog 2: Julie 1/30/18
We will be meeting with Bill and Isaac today during class, which Krista and I are both extremely excited about. We are excited to get to know the individuals we will be working with directly. We have many questions for them, such as what they suggest, what they think about the waste coming directly from the two companies Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, and what they think about food waste in general. We want to explain to them how much we personally think our semester long project can influence and impact the limiting of food waste. The goal is to BENEFIT our environment and society as a whole and we know Bill and Isaac, being involved in the South Orange Environmental Commission, will give us great ideas on how to do so.
Blog 2: Krista 1/30/18
Another thing we really want to focus on throughout this semester long project is AWARENESS. We want to make our peers and other college students, even adults and professors, aware of the waste they are subject to causing. That is why we will be emailing Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, as well as surveying our friends, families, and peers on how much waste they think they personally cause by how much coffee they buy from these establishments. We will also be comparing the two- which do we think wastes more? By surveying people in social settings, like college friends, we can get a very accurate number of how much waste Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks cause alone.
Blog 1: Julie 1/24/18
Together, we are researching how Seton Hall students, as active members of the South Orange community, can reduce food wastes and plastics in town and on campus. With the help from South Orange Environmental Commission, we are thrilled to introduce our plan. We plan to limit the amount of waste in our environment by closely relating to the age population we are surrounded by. As college students, we are always in a rush and often are not mindful of our choices when it comes to disposing food. Hopefully, with this project we will become more educated and knowledgeable on how to limit waste. As a result, we can share what we learned with our peers, and the youth of South Orange as we are future educators.
Blog 1: Krista 1/24/18
We want to spread ideas to our campus in hopes they will spread to our surrounding town. With simple tasks like remembering to recycle and donating food that is not expired, we can help benefit the environment. We are currently in the process of contacting Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in hopes of limiting the amount of disposable cups provided. We thought these companies were the best to work with because as college students, we run on caffeine and as a result are contributing to excess waste in South Orange. Hopefully we can come up with a plan to use non disposable beverage cups that will benefit our environment. At this time, in college, the issues in our environment are becoming more prevalent to us, and we think we are at the perfect age to make a difference. We are effecting our surroundings more than we realize and can make a great impact.