Warren Wilson
College Sustainable
Dining Policy
A Strategic Partnership Case Study
WWC Community Demographics
 Warren Wilson College cultivates a campus food culture that celebrates the
pleasures of producing, preparing and consuming sustainable food.
 Sodexo: foodservice provider, 17 year relationship, just renewed
contract for 12 more years
 The Student Body
About 900 students, 90% live on campus
From 45 states and 20 countries
Percent of students from North Carolina: 20%
 The Campus:
45 Buildings
300 acre farm and 2.5 acre organic garden
600 acres of forest
25 miles of hiking trails, numerous cows, pigs, and a few bears.
Sodexo Dining on Campus
 Gladfelter – Main dining hall; all you care
to eat establishment; serves about 1000
meals on average day
 Cowpie Café- Vegan café; Student-
created café concept, opened in 2000;
Serves 300 meals on a daily basis
 The Owl’s Nest- New retail coffee shop,
offering a locally roasted coffee and
espresso blend created especially for
WWC Students, corn-syrup free café
All three
locations and
their employees
adhere to the
WWC
Sustainable
Dining Policy
Sustainable Dining Policy Formation
 Solidifies demands for dining service program with
sustainability policies that are congruent to the college
community’s
 Measure and set goals for the reduction of carbon
footprint of food supply chain (to be included in College’s
annual greenhouse gas emission inventory)
 Needed sustainability decision-making framework
applicable to food systems at the college
-Farm, Garden, & Forest; College Work Program
 Document integrates all of the parties involved in the
college food-shed, creating widespread support in it’s
adoption and execution… Chefs, gardeners, community
partners…
 Collective effort from multiple interest groups
 Creates Accountability for involved parties
 Creates a more resilient college food system, everyone on the
same page
 Document creates recognition for local and global sustainability
challenges affecting our college food shed allowing adaptability
in methods of reaching goals set forth in the WWCSDP
Sustainable Dining Policy Execution
 Community Education through Local Foods Crew
 Annual audit of Sodexo food/non-food purchases and
energy & water usage
-Food Sustainability Manager actively executes dining
policy, employed by Sodexo to serve the college
 Formation of WWC Foods Policy Council which annually
reviews progression towards accomplishing goals, and
amends policy accordingly [College Vice President, College
Sustainability Manager, Garden/Farm/Forest Managers, Work Program
Office, Executive Chef, Food Sustainability Manager, Appalachian
Sustainable Agriculture Project, Mountain Foods Produce, Sustainable
Agriculture Professor/creator of dining policy]
Purchasing- Makes it all happen!
 Compliancy is the key!
 Food Safety issues
 Farm to table barrier- WWC carries meat/produce served
under their liability insurance.
 Identifying sustainable/local items that are currently being
purchased and advertising those offerings
 Finding creative ways to purchase local and sustainable
foods within the existing infrastructure
Purchasing, contd.
 Produce purchased from local produce company, putting
money into the local economy
 Sodexo has a local purchasing system within their network
of compliant vendors and chefs are encouraged to
purchase local and third party-certified foods
 Chef plans menus and purchases foods based on consumer
demand; Local Foods Crew strives to educate community
on food integrity and making educated choices in the
dining halls
 Finding the cost effective solution
Purchasing Trends
WWC Garden
2011-2012 Estimated Purchasing
WWC Farm
P.E.T.
61%
1%
5%
Mtn. Foods
Mtn. Valley Water
Dynamite Roasting
United Natural
4%
Masada Bakery
Smuckers (Aspretto)
1%
3%
0% 2%
7%
0%
0%
16%
Pepsi Hickory
Pepsi Chicago
Sysco
Composting & Waste
Management
 Recycling Crew, Dining services, Garden Crew and Work
Program office work together to collect and reuse all pre
and post consumer food waste, as well as all recyclables
 Disposal of compost is usually a complicated process for
institutional food service limiting the ability to
compliantly compost
-Very evolved composting program on campus
 Recycling Crew educates kitchen staff about
recycling/composting and ‘audits’ our trash biannually
Strategic Partnership Highlights
 Collective effort to reach goals set forth by




WWCSDP
All students enjoy foods produced on
campus on a regular basis in the dining hall
Sodexo purchases very high quality food
produced on campus for wholesale prices
Sodexo donations to expand food system
infrastructure
-Hoop houses for season
extension, walk-in freezer for the
farm to store bulk beef/pork
Community and Harvest Dinners
Strategic Partnership Challenges
 Small college fitting into the large scale Sodexo framework
 Dining policy created by a large group with differing views of literal
policy implementation, conflicting expectations
 Turnover of motivated student leaders or staff
 Consumer opinions of what food service providers are capable of
 Food Service Industry Food Standards vs. ‘Tailgate’ Standards of safe
food
 Inconsistent production levels from work crews due to sometimes
uncontrollable factors
The Future…
 Working with The Real Food Challenge and also within
Sodexo to educate other institutions about how to create
and implement and effective dining policy
 Work towards purchasing and energy usage goals
 Create a more structured purchasing system for foods
produced on campus
Where to find a copy
of the Warren
Wilson College
Sustainable Dining
Policy….
Questions?