After millions of students were out of the classrooms, and academic institutions were forced to transition online due to COVID 19, academic dining facilities were left with unforeseen revenue losses and potentially large sums of food waste. Colleges specifically were left with almost empty dining halls and overflowing kitchens. While colleges and universities, like Boston College, were able to allot stocked meals for students and faculty still on-campus, dining facilities were forced to find creative ways to incorporate food recovery in their operations.
Boston College Dining Staff donating 2,300 frozen meals on May 20th, 2020 to Brazilian Worker Center (BMC) in Alston, MA.
Over the last few months, Boston College Dining has incorporated food recovery, donated hundreds of ready-to-eat, frozen, meals to communities in need. On the week of May 22nd alone, BCDining donated and delivered 2,300 frozen meals to the Brazilian Worker Center (BWC) in Allston, MA. The university plans to continue this work, promising 5,430 meals in future installments to BWC. The recovered meals are then distributed to approximately three thousand households in Boston and surrounding communities.
Member of the Boston College Dining team packaging and donating meals to men’s and women’s shelters in the Boston Public Health and Recovery system.
Looking forward, Juli Stelmaszyk, the manager of regional and sustainable food systems at Boston College, has managed to find opportunities to continue advancing sustainability despite drops in sales, through a food-waste task force. Juli explained, while she may not be able to spend excess funds on traditionally higher-priced local or organic foods, food waste prevention will continue to decrease costs while maintaining a focus on sustainability. “Overproduction is a constant challenge, but there are always ways to manage portions, decrease kitchen waste, etc.” ensuring that this fall, environmental and financial sustainability will continue to be a priority on campus.
Written by Sophia Sandler, Sustainability Intern at Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants.
