Green Dining
Dining Hall named 3-Star Certified Green Restaurant
by Christine Baksi
Dickinson’s Dining Hall, an all-you-care-to-eat cafeteria-style facility that serves the campus community, including 2,400 students, has been named a 3-Star Certified Green Restaurant by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA). The distinction recognizes Dickinson’s commitment to sustainable operations and food sourcing. Approximately 50 U.S. colleges and universities have achieved Certified Green Restaurant status.
The Green Restaurant Association is a national nonprofit organization that works with restaurants and food-service organizations in settings such as conventional stand-alone restaurants, corporate cafeterias, stadiums, attraction concessions and campus eateries to help them become more environmentally sustainable. Three-star designation is obtained by organizations that achieve a designated number of GreenPoints; meet minimum requirements in all environmental categories, including food, energy, water and waste; use a comprehensive recycling system; and have no Styrofoam.
“We are very pleased that our existing standards of operation lifted us to such a high level of certification,” said Errol Huffman, director of dining services. “GRA certification highlights the importance of sustainability as one of Dickinson’s core tenets and the wide range of efforts by dining services and the campus community to be good stewards of our precious resources.”
Dickinson has five retail eateries on campus, catering services and a main Dining Hall, which offers 20 stations, a 30-item salad bar, deli bar, two made-from-scratch soup offerings and three separate entrées for lunch and dinner. Vegetarian, vegan, organic non-GMO cereal, gluten-free and kosher entrees also are available. Through its innovative food-waste program, the Dining Hall sends approximately 800 pounds of food—equal to the carrying capacity of one small dumpster—to the College Farm each day to be composted.
Dickinson’s sustainable dining-service operations have been recognized nationally by The New York Times and The Daily Meal, which selected Dickinson as one of the 75 best colleges for food in America in 2014 and 2015.
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Published June 14, 2016