Overall Rating Platinum - expired
Overall Score 85.51
Liaison Jennifer Andrews
Submission Date July 27, 2017
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

University of New Hampshire
OP-7: Food and Beverage Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.47 / 6.00 David Hill
Assistant Director, Culinary Operations
Dining
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on products that are third party verified under one or more recognized food and beverage sustainability standards or Local & Community-Based:
8.80

Does the institution wish to pursue Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on conventional animal products)? (If data is not available, respond “No”):
No

Percentage of total dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional animal products (meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, and dairy products that do NOT qualify in either the Third Party Verified or Local & Community-Based category):
40.50

A brief description of the sustainable food and beverage purchasing program, including how the sustainability impacts of products in specific categories are addressed (e.g. meat, poultry, fish/seafood, eggs, dairy, produce, tea/coffee):

Through the Local Harvest Initiative, UNH Dining is committed to serving locally, regionally, and sustainably grown, produced, and manufactured items to the greatest extent possible. Many of these items are included regularly in the dining halls and campus retail outlets, and others are purchased for special events such as the annual Local Harvest Feast and Sustainable Seafood Dinners. The sustainability commitment of UNH Dining is part of the university’s broader Food & Society Initiative, which commits UNH to being a sustainable food community that promotes healthy food systems from farm to fork to health and nutrition outcomes.

Serving locally and regionally grown, produced, and manufactured items ensures that the food served is the freshest possible while helping to support our local economy, a vibrant regional agricultural infrastructure, and a healthy food system. We look for farms, fisheries, and food producers or manufacturers located within a 250 mile radius from UNH. Additional criteria that UNH Dining considers in its purchasing decisions include:

USDA Certified Organic:
Examples of USDA Certified Organic foods served on campus include Stonyfield Farms yogurt, Sunrise Farm yogurt, Grandy Oats granola, and Soy Boy tofu.

Fair Trade Certified:
Examples of Fair Trade Certified foods served on campus include Green Mountain coffee and Starbucks coffee

Certified Humane:
UNH serves Nellie's Nest eggs on campus, which are Certified Humane.

Seafood Certifications:
UNH Dining utilizes a variety of criteria and third-party labeling programs when sourcing their seafood, including the Gulf of Maine Responsibly Harvested program for verification of locally sourced species such as mussels and redfish, Marine Stewardship Council certification and Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) for farmed species such as salmon, and purchasing directly from local fleets when possible. They also use Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch as a reference. For the locally sourced products, UNH Dining is able to provide educational information to their customers about the species that are being served such as scallops, Atlantic Pollock or skate wing and their origins in the Gulf of Maine. Lastly, as a result of student engagement, UNH signed onto a set of Slow Fish Principles in 2014 that were developed along with the international Slow Food organization. The principles help guide their seafood procurement towards supporting local fishermen, underutilized species, traceability, and education of their customers.


An inventory of the institution’s sustainable food and beverage purchases that includes for each product: the description/type; label, brand or producer; and the category in which it is being counted and/or a description of its sustainability attribute(s):
A brief description of the methodology used to conduct the inventory, including the timeframe and how representative samples accounted for seasonal variation (if applicable):

The full record of purchases for UNH Dining for fiscal year 2016 was included in this analysis. As a result, seasonal variation is accounted for. Interns and staff at the Sustainability Institute at UNH worked with UNH Dining to collect expenditure data. Interns researched the sustainability practices of the vendors to determine the percentage of purchases that are local and community-based (within a 250-mile radius), USDA Organic, Fair Trade, humane (from cage-free eggs to sustainable seafood), vegetarian-fed, hormone-free, and otherwise sustainably grown, processed or harvested. The inventory we reported only includes the products purchased during FY16 that meet sustainability criteria.


Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food A (0-100):
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Percentage of total dining services expenditures on Real Food B (0-100):
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Which of the following food service providers are present on campus and included in the total food and beverage expenditure figures?:
Present? Included?
Dining operations and catering services operated by the institution Yes Yes
Dining operations and catering services operated by a contractor No No
Student-run food/catering services No No
Franchises (e.g. national or global brands) Yes No
Convenience stores Yes No
Vending services Yes No
Concessions Yes No

A brief description of purchased food and beverage products that have other sustainability attributes not recognized above :
---

Additional percentage of dining services food and beverage expenditures on conventional products with other sustainability attributes not recognized above (0-100) :
6.97

The website URL where information about the programs or initiatives is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

UNH Dining currently purchases approximately 16% of products as local/sustainable. 5.3% of UNH's food purchases are third party verified, 3.5% are local and community-based, and 7.0% have other sustainability attributes.

UNH's third-party verified products include organic, fair trade, humane, and sustainable seafood certifications. The products cover a range of food categories, including coffee, eggs, seafood, dairy, vegetables, meat, and grains. UNH Dining sources local and community-based from the New England region. Most of these products are dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

Our submission was prepared using the complete food purchase records from FY16. We identified third party verified products, and we contacted local vendors to confirm that they met the criteria for local & community based products. Our data set reports only the sustainable purchases at UNH.

For more information about UNH Dining Services, see:
http://www.unh.edu/dining/sustainable-efforts
http://www.unh.edu/dining/community/about.html


UNH Dining currently purchases approximately 16% of products as local/sustainable. 5.3% of UNH's food purchases are third party verified, 3.5% are local and community-based, and 7.0% have other sustainability attributes.

UNH's third-party verified products include organic, fair trade, humane, and sustainable seafood certifications. The products cover a range of food categories, including coffee, eggs, seafood, dairy, vegetables, meat, and grains. UNH Dining sources local and community-based from the New England region. Most of these products are dairy, fruits, and vegetables.

Our submission was prepared using the complete food purchase records from FY16. We identified third party verified products, and we contacted local vendors to confirm that they met the criteria for local & community based products. Our data set reports only the sustainable purchases at UNH.

For more information about UNH Dining Services, see:
http://www.unh.edu/dining/sustainable-efforts
http://www.unh.edu/dining/community/about.html

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.