Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 52.63
Liaison Amy Kadrie
Submission Date Jan. 6, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Rochester
OP-7: Low Impact Dining

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.85 / 3.00 Cameron Schauf
Director
Dining Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Percentage of total dining services food purchases comprised of conventionally produced animal products:
17.30

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

Dining Services partners with its vendors to track each purchase by category and specific protein. The vendors supply Dining Services with a purchase report each semester breaking down the University’s purchases by protein, category the protein falls in, ex. Grass fed, free range, cage free etc. Dining Services uses this information to properly categorize the product. The University of Rochester just partnered with FarmLogix to help expedite and streamline the process. Their mission is similar to ours, and they have the ability to make the process easier and more detailed.


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”):

There are vegan meals available at every meal every day at all major dining halls on campus. These meals include whole grains and proteins and are considered to be complete. Hillside Market also sells vegan snacks, drinks, and frozen foods. There is also a stand alone vegan station in one of our main dining centers.


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

In our residential facilities, we design our menus with at least 3 Vegan/Vegetarian options at every meal and one of our locations maintains a Vegan station at all meals that offers a complete vegan meal – entrée, side, and dessert. We offer legumes and alternative proteins on our residential salad bars and offer a locally sourced and produced veggie burger patty. In many of our recipes we have also substituted coconut milk for traditional dairy products as a means to further reduce our animal derived products and offer additional options to our Vegan students. Our Meatless Monday program offers a completely meatless meal once a week in one of our major residential locations and alternative protein options figure heavily into the menu planning process. Our dedication to local purchasing also reduces overall environmental impact even when purchasing proteins as the processing and travel impacts are much reduced at the local level. For the 4th year in a row, University of Rochester Dining was recognized as a “Most Vegan and Vegetarian Friendly Campus’ by PETA2.

Meatless Monday
To bolster our Meatless Monday program, we have partnered with several groups on campus including the SAVVY group (Student Association of Vegan and Vegetarian Youth), Team Green, a group of students employed by dining with a dedicated purpose of driving sustainable initiatives in dining, and the University Health Service department. Our Campus Nutritionist and Chef Manager work closely with these groups to develop menus for each Meatless Monday event and we have also partnered with other student groups on campus to provide meatless cultural theme meals and dishes. Some of the most popular dishes include: eggplant moussaka, curried red lentil quinoa burger, local Kennebec potato puff pastry, cauliflower crust pizza, cauliflower buffalo wings, Aloo Tikki burger topped with mango chutney, Daal, and vegan desserts like New York State blueberry crumble shooters, coconut milk kheer, vegan chocolate cake, and grasshopper pie made with avocados. Meatless Monday meals remain among the most popular and highly attended events in the host location and the menus continue to evolve and improve.


The website URL where information about the vegan dining program is available:
Annual dining services expenditures on food:
8,300,000 US/Canadian $

Annual dining services expenditures on conventionally produced animal products:
1,432,586 US/Canadian $

Annual dining services expenditures on sustainably produced animal products:
438,647 US/Canadian $

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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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.