Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 54.63
Liaison Kelly Wellman
Submission Date Jan. 23, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

Texas A&M University
OP-7: Low Impact Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.01 / 3.00
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Percentage of total dining services food purchases comprised of conventionally produced animal products:
29.78

A brief description of the methodology used to track/inventory expenditures on animal products:

No methodology currently in place.


Does the institution offer diverse, complete-protein vegan dining options at all meals in at least one dining facility on campus?:
Yes

Does the institution provide labels and/or signage that distinguishes between vegan, vegetarian (not vegan), and other items?:
Yes

Are the vegan options accessible to all members of the campus community?:
Yes

A brief description of the vegan dining program, including availability, sample menus, signage and any promotional activities (e.g. “Meatless Mondays”):

 Our website lists all available vegan options broken up by each dining facility on campus.
 Vegan Awareness Month in October is celebrated and promoted in all dining halls on campus.
 To be labeled as Vegan, foods do not contain any animal products at all. This includes: honey; eggs; dairy products of any kind; chicken, seafood, beef, ham or any other animal stock or base. There are no calorie or other nutrition limits on these foods. You may use recipes from any source for these foods.
 In several of our locations we have provided “Webtrition Kiosks”. These are an Online Compass tool our guests use for nutritional and dietary information on the menu being served. A guest has the ability to walk up to these tablet kiosks and view all nutritional information for each item on the menu. They can also see the items containing allergens, vegan and vegetarian items, as well as “better for U” recommended items. From there, they have the ability to build their menu by choosing the portion of each item they will be placing on their plate. The kiosk will then summarize total nutrition facts for the meal that they have built and any allergens they may have chosen.


A brief description of other efforts the institution has made to reduce the impact of its animal-derived food purchases:

• The non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal production is a growing public health concern because it decreases the effectiveness of antibiotics to treat diseases in humans. Therefore, we only serve chicken and turkey that has been produced with restricted use of these drugs, especially as a growth additive in feed. Our contracted supplies are required to provide products which adhere to specific criteria developed in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund.


The website URL where information about the vegan dining program is available:
Annual dining services expenditures on food:
9,408,698.56 US/Canadian $

Annual dining services expenditures on conventionally produced animal products:
2,801,922.93 US/Canadian $

Annual dining services expenditures on sustainably produced animal products:
1,720,229.87 US/Canadian $

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Information for this section was supplied by Chartwells, a third-party contractor for Texas A&M University Dining.


Information for this section was supplied by Chartwells, a third-party contractor for Texas A&M University Dining.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.