Oh Chartwells how I adore thee! Over the last few years students have been working with Chartwells staff to make the dining experience at UMBC on-campus the best. However, this does not just include making lots of tasty food but also making such tasty treats as sustainable as possible. Here is a listing of what they have been up to recently:

 

Dining Hall:

Composting is here!

    Starting this past Monday food waste in True Grit’s is being composted!

 Three times a week left over food scraps from the kitchen are picked up and taken to a composting facility in Carroll County. Left-over food on YOUR PLATE is also be going there! 

     So your saying, what is the point of compost? Well there are a number of reasons why composting is important but here are just a few:

 

1. Composting reduces the amount of waste going to landfills. This is important because we don't need to send organic material that is heavy and takes up a lot of space to an area where space is very limited. Plus, landfills can be extremely toxic which doesn't make it such a nice place to for your banana peel to retire.

 

2. Composting returns much needed nutrients back to the soil. Our agricultural industry extensively uses chemical fertilizers to grow the food we eat. Composting helps to return these important nutritional elements like phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon back to the soil so they can be used again!

 

3. Composting is super easy! All you have to do is eat at the dining hall! Just think, when you eat there all of the food that you can't finish eating is now going to keep our campus looking fresh and green. For every ton of food waste we compost we get 40lbs of compost in return. That becomes a lot when you think that the dining hall produces 2,000 pounds of waste EVERY WEEK! 

 

Although composting is great, waste in general isn't the best for the environment even if we can compost it. So, try to eat all of the food on your plate and don't take more than you can eat. You can always get seconds!

 

Kitchen Grease Recycling!

       All the grease that the University uses to cook those tasty french fries or fried chick-fil-a bits is currently being recycled! Soon this job will be taken over by the Biodiesel Club on campus fuelling the campus bus fleet as well as electric carts.

 

True Grit’s is Trayless!

    By now, there are few students who remember the trays. However, before 2009 the dining hall was using hundreds of gallons of water, and lots of chemicals to clean trays that we didn't really need. 

 

Sustainable Seafood at True Grit’s!

    Did you know that many of the world’s fish stocks are declining? This is because of the type of fishing that we use as well as our overuse of easy and cheap fishing techniques that are destructive to ocean ecosystems.  To combat this, Chartwells has partnered with the Monterey Bay Aquarium to only use fish that is farmed or harvested sustainably. This helps to ensure a bounty of fish for future generations and gives species in peril a chance to replenish.

    

Cage-Free Eggs Abound!

     In order to make chickens (and your belly) happy, Chartwells has committed to purchasing cage-free eggs. According to the human society:

 

    “On average, each caged laying hen is afforded only 67 square inches of cage space—less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper on which to live her entire life. Unable even to spread their wings, caged laying hens are among the most intensively confined animals in agribusiness...Unlike battery hens, cage-free hens are able to walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests, vital natural behaviors denied to hens confined in cages. ”

 

   So happy omelette eating!

 

Local Week is next week! 

    Starting Monday September 19^th and continuing until Friday September 23^rd there will be local products featured at True Grit’s. Come by during this week to eat tasty, sustainable, in season fruits, vegetables, and cheeses (all while supporting your local economy to-boot!)

 

Water run-off reductions!

     You may have noticed the weird pond things around True Grit’s. These cattails serve a great purpose! By reducing the amount of water run-off in the area these ponds help reduce the erosion and chemical run-off that goes into the Chesapeake Bay.

 

 

Commons/ University Center:

 

Fresh Fusions has compostable materials!

   The containers and plastic utensils that you use to eat the tasty (and vegetarian) food from Fresh Fusions are compostable! This means that instead of 300 years to decompose, it can take only 3 years!

 

Chick-fil-A has paper cups!

    This may not seem like such a big deal since NEITHER the Styrofoam or the new paper cups can be recycled (paper cups can’t be because they are covered in wax which means they can’t be broken down as easily). However, converting from Styrofoam to paper cups has lots of environmental benefits.

    Styrofoam is non-biodegrable which means it can take hundreds of years to decompose (if it ever does!) The process of making Styrofoam also includes lots of toxic chemicals that are emitted into the air, water, and land that we breathe,drink, and use. Also, these same chemicals can leach out of the cups and other products we use them for into the food we eat (especially if micro-waved)! These chemicals threaten human health and reproductive systems.

     Now that Chick-fil-A has paper cups you can feel a little better about eating that fried chicken. =)