The Long Beach State dining hall management team conducted an initial study in October 2022 to determine the amount of food waste compared to the number of students dining during each meal period.
Clint Campbell, the associate executive director of Retail Dining Services, said how dining services collected the data and the actions they are taking to combat the issue.
“The management team for each of the dining halls weighed the cans of food waste next to the dish room from what students scraped off their plates,” Campbell said.
The result was 15,000 pounds of food waste documented by dining services between the three dining halls. Beach Shops reported their findings to the Long Beach State Office of Sustainability.
Sustainability Specialist Nanci Torres-Poblano said that the Food Waste Reduction Campaign was formed in the fall of 2023 as a result of the study. The goal is to educate students and motivate them to take action by being mindful of how much food is left on their plate after a meal period.
Torres-Poblano said the campaign included tabling events three days a week throughout October at each dining hall, where staff shared facts about food waste and encouraged students to be mindful of their impact.
In addition, Torres-Poblano said events focused on asking students questions to spread awareness about their overall waste while giving them strategies to handle these issues, such as recycling and composting.
“Our goal was to reduce the waste by 20%,” Torres-Poblano said.
During the tabling event, students scanned a QR code to be entered in a raffle after listening to food waste facts. If the reduction goal was met by the end of the month after waste collection, students who participated would win a celebratory sushi event. They also said they coordinated with housing staff on social media to spread awareness.
Campbell said dining services collected data again during October 2023 to see if the efforts to spread awareness had any lasting impact. However, dining services found a 30-pound difference from the original data collected in October 2022.
The Office of Sustainability also worked with Associated Students Inc. and Sustain U in October 2023 to provide other sustainability workshops and events, such as the bimonthly Trash Talkers tabling event.
Linh Nguyen, a hospitality management major and employee at Parkside Dining Hall, said that although students tend not to think about how much food they waste, she noticed a difference after the tabling events.
“We educated them a little bit, and I think they are starting to be mindful,” Nguyen said.
The food at the dining halls is served to students one portion at a time to try to limit waste, according to Nguyen.
Cynthia Ibanez, a third-year kinesiology major and residential assistant at the Parkside North dorms, said that she had noticed the excess food waste at the Parkside dining hall.
“Students tend to put a little of everything on their plate because they don’t know what they will like,” Ibanez said.
Torres-Poblano said that other efforts to promote sustainability on campus were implemented by the Service Learning-Climate Action class, ESP 392.
Throughout the fall semester, Torres-Poblano said the class installed green bins at both The Outpost and The Nugget; then observed how often students utilized the bins. The class will continue to implement green bins at other places on campus in the future.
Beach Shops and the Office of Sustainability are discussing another campaign to take place in October 2024, Torres-Poblano said.
Although they are in the early stages of planning, the organizations aim to start a bigger conversation and get students involved in making a difference on campus.