Chartwells, the company that supplies food to the university campus, has instituted Project Clean Plate, an attempt to reduce the amount of food waste in the campus dining system. Chartwells hopes to reduce food waste by 45 percent over the next three weeks.
According to the company's fact sheet on the project, "The goal of Project Clean Plate is to encourage students to reduce food waste."
The company says that several hundred tons of food is thrown away on college campuses every year, adding to the community's landfill.
Chartwells hopes to use this program to raise social awareness about global hunger and the environmental problem posed by the huge amounts of waste that college campuses go through every year.
The company has several means to achieve their goal. First, during every week in October, they will measure the total amount of food that is thrown out.
"We separated the food from the containers," said Jennifer Yeaman, Campus Marketing director of Chartwells Higher Education. "Then we measured every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner."
By doing this, the company can accurately measure how high the food waste to regular trash ratio is. Chartwells hopes that the percentage of reduction will increase by 15 percent every week.
If the percentages can be met, the company also plans to have raffles to include students in the process. Prizes include $25 in flex dollars, free coffee for a week and a portable DVD player.
Furthermore, if the company can meet its goals this week, it will donate several pounds of canned food to Britville Food Pantry. In the first week, if the 15 percent reduction is met, they will donate 150 pounds. In the second week, if the 30 percent reduction is met, Chartwells will donate 200 pounds. In the third and final week, if the 45 percent reduction is met, Chartwells will donate 250 pounds to the food bank.
Chartwells hopes this initiative will spur student awareness of the problems of food waste and global hunger.
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