CDT Fall 2022 - 25

C ORNE L L UNIV E R SI TY DINING:
A TESTIMONIAL FOR NACUFS
COLLEGIATE FOODSERVICE SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE®
Lisa Zehr
Director, Organizational Excellence
Cornell University Dining
Cornell Dining has a long history of commitment to
incorporating sustainability into our program. We
started in the early 2000s by removing trays from
our residential dining facilities, which enabled us to
save literal tons of water, and reduce both the use
of cleaning chemicals as well as post-consumer
food waste.
Over the last decade, we've focused on adding
china service into retail locations where possible;
partnering with the Food Recovery Network (FRN),
a student-run volunteer organization that recovers
unused overproduction from our residential dining
facilities; and have introduced eco-containers into
our residential dining program for a to-go option.
Cornell Dining belongs to the Menus of Change
University Research Collaborative. Through that
program, we have focused on reducing our carbon
footprint through creative menuing that focuses on
serving red meat less often by introducing a beef and
mushroom burger blend, reducing sugary beverages
in our residential dining halls by replacing traditional
fountain soda with bubly sparkling water, increasing
fresh fruits and vegetables on our menus and in retail
outlets, and introduced the Impossible Burger at
select retail locations.
In addition to focusing on more sustainable and
healthy food options, Cornell Dining also looked
for ways to be more sustainable in our supplies
inventories. We distributed more than 3,000
reusable straws to students on campus, gave each
meal plan holder access to a free reusable eco
container, introduced bakery cases that reduced
plastic wrapping on our baked goods, and switched
to SmartPower dishroom chemicals to support a
healthier environment.
vegetarian hand crafted pizzas are served daily across campus.
Photo courtesy of Melissa Hom.
In 2020, we hired a full-time sustainability coordinator,
Anna Ben-Shlomo, who also works with several
student sustainability coordinators (SSCs). Our
SSCs work on projects to track post-consumer food
waste in our residential dining units, hold educational
pop-ups about local and earth-friendly food choices,
and conduct check-ins with our dining units on
composting. In her time with Cornell Dining, Anna
has worked on outlining our ongoing sustainability
initiatives to help tell our story1
. She also drafted our
sustainability commitment that serves to shape our
CELEBRATING ONE YEAR OF THE NACUFS COLLEGIATE FOODSERvICE SUSTAINABILITY GUIDE | CAMPUS DINING TODAY
25
CDT Fall 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CDT Fall 2022
