Sustainable DINING ON CAMPUS

We love when students ask us "What are you doing to be more sustainable?" The practices we have in place are not always obvious to students so we're happy to explain what's going on behind the scenes.

Sodexo, our parent company, has developed a corporate responsibility policy called Better Tomorrow 2025, which includes our key focus areas of carbon reduction, plant-based eating, food waste, food insecurity and social impact, including Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Read more about Sodexo's CSR policies at https://us.sodexo.com/corporateresponsibility html

Half of our carbon emissions come from our supply chain, primarily from sourcing products like meat and dairy products

Our responsible sourcing strategy hopes to reduce emissions from these products by sourcing from local vendors as much as possible. Currently, Moravian Dining sources about 15-20% of our menu locally, which is below our target of 30% local sourcing Unfortunately supply chain and transportation challenges have hampered our ability to order some food locally. Staffing challenges at local farms/producers have also influenced the availability of local products.

Food waste is a continuing challenge on our campus. Often times, university students aren't conscious of how much food is wasted in a single meal period,

BY CHRISTINE BAINBRIDGE BELL

which is why we host events like "Weigh the Waste" with the hopes of generating awareness about it.

Moravian Dining also has a tool called LeanPath to help reduce food waste. We weigh left over food at the end of each meal period, and LeanPath logs our food waste and then makes production recommendations to our team. We also "batch cook" in our kitchen, which means that instead of making 10 pans of lasagna at one time, we make 2 and then make 2 more when the first two are used. This helps us prevent food waste as well by producing for actual need

You may have noticed a lot of promotion around plant-based cuisine on our campus in recent months. That's part of our Sustainability effort on campus. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, raising livestock produces 14 5% of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, nearly 7 times more than global air transportation. Eating more plants is simply better for the environment. Sodexo's goal is to provide 50% plant-based menus by 2025

We have a fair percentage of students on our campus that rely on the protein that animal products provide; swapping out red meat and dairy one day a week for plant-based foods reduces climate change causing emissions more than eating locally every day *

*Source, Meatless Monday: https://bit.ly/3CpVjIK

About 1 in 3 college students have faced food insecurity. Moravian Dining supports Mo's Cupboard, our on campus resource pantry, with donations and food drives to source supplies for students

In addition, our campus participates in Swipe Out Hunger, a student hunger initiative, by providing free meal plans to students in need. Students can access "Mo's Meal Plan" confidentially by reaching out to Mo's Cupboard staff. The meal plan is loaded onto your student ID and can be renewed as necessary

If you are interested in helping to make a difference with food insecurity on our campus, we also host a chapter of the Food Recovery Network, a student-led organization that helps source unused, over-produced food from local sources and re-routes it to hungry people in our community

Moravian Dining is committed to providing equity in our community by:

Feeding hungry people in our community (see food insecurity, above).

Empowering women - We understand that by supporting women with workforce training and employment opportunities we lift entire families

Ensuring a diverse workforce and inclusive culture - we strive for a workforce that reflects and enriches the Bethlehem community. Supporting small businesses and businesses with diverse ownershipwe have committed 25 percent of our spend to small and mediumsized businesses.

We also ensure our employees are paid fair and equitable wages and work in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.