Virginia Tech Dining Services Dishes up VT Milk

In January 2013, Virginia Tech Dining Services started to serve “VT Milk” at D2 in Dietrick Dining Hall.  VT Milk is produced on campus at the Dairy Science Department’s Dairy Barn, processed in Goochland Virginia and then brought back to Virginia Tech to be served.

Take a look at this video that talks about the VT Milk program.

For more  information, click here.

Virginia Tech Dining Services continues its commitment to Sustainability

The end of the 2012 calendar year marked the Virginia Tech’s first year of diverting more than 1 million pounds of food waste from the Landfill.  As of August 2012, when Turner Place at Lavery Hall opened, all Dining Units are participating in the composting program.  The composting program began in 2009 and has since grown to include all Dining Units.

Working with Poplar Manor Enterprises, based in Riner VA, much of our food waste is diverted from the landfill a

For more information, click here.nd converted into compost, a natural fertilizer which is used at the Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm to promote soil health and provide necessary nutrients to crops.

Turner Place at Lavery Hall is LEED Silver Certified

Turner Place at Lavery Hall which houses Virginia Tech Dining Services’ newest Dining Hall as well as several classrooms and common space has received a LEED Silver Certification.  LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification is determined through the US Green Building Council and Turner Place at Lavery Hall is now the 6th building on campus to receive a LEED Certification.

For more information, click here.

Virginia Tech receives an AASHE STARS Silver Ranking

Virginia Tech submitted their 2nd application to AASHE STARS (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System) this year and received a Silver ranking.  This is Virginia Tech’s second ranking from AASHE STARS and with a total score of 63.3, Virginia Tech was just a couple points away from reaching a Gold ranking.

The VT Milk program was recognized by AASHE STARS as an “innovation credit” and added to Virginia Tech’s overall ranking.

For more information on the ranking, click here and for details on Virginia Tech’s score, click here.

The Princeton Review’s 2013 “Guide to Green Colleges”

Virginia Tech was chosen to be featured in The Princeton Review’s “Guide to Green Colleges” for the fourth consecutive year.  This publication was first created in 2010, and Virginia Tech has been a part of it since then.  Princeton Review ranks universities on a scale from 1-100.  All schools that reach an 83 or higher are included in their “Guide to Green Colleges” publication.  Virginia Tech received a 98 in 2013.

The Princeton Review, has determined that nearly two thirds of the incoming freshmen felt that sustainability played a key role in their decision to attend a specific college or university.

Click here to view the full Guide to Green Colleges for 2013 and click here to see the listing of schools by state.

For more information,  click here.

Virginia Tech Receives Governor’s Environmental Excellence Program

The Office of Energy and Sustainability at Virginia Tech received a Gold Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award.  This is Virginia Tech’s 4th award recognition in the past 6 years and it is a testament to Virginia Tech’s comittment being a “leader in campus sustainability,” as stated in the Virginia Tech Climate Action Commitment and Sustainability Plan.

“Virginia Tech’s campus sustainability program seeks to improve the efficiency of campus facilities and operations; enhance academic programs related to sustainability; engage the campus and surrounding community; and change campus culture and behavior to conserve energy, water, and materials.” (Norman, 2013)

For more information, click here.

Virginia Tech receives a 2013 “Race to Excellence” Gold Award

For the fourth consecutive year, Virginia Tech received recognition for its Alternative Transportation programs.

For more information, click here.

Virginia Tech recognized by Tree Campus USA

For the fifth consecutive year, Virginia Tech has been named a Tree Campus USA.

“Virginia Tech achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus USA’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning projects.” (Norman, 2013)

For more information, click here.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.     - Margaret Mead

EARTH WEEK 2013

Earth Week 2013 is coming up next week (4/22 – 4/26) and Dining Services is ready!  Dining Services is hosting a few events to highlight our sustainable dining initiatives across campus.  More information below:

Monday 4/22: 4 – 5 PM: Local Food Fair, Deet’s Place Side Room

Put a face to the name of the people growing your food!  The farmers, cheesemakers, bakers, and distributors of your food all have their own story.  Come learn more about it! Dining Services sources “local” products that are grown, raised, processed within 250 miles of Blacksburg, VA or within the state of Virginia.

Check out the Event Page on Facebook. 

Monday 4/22: 5:30 PM: Sustainable Fish Chef Series, 354 Wallace Hall

Executive Chef Mark Bratton and Chef de Cuisine Jon Creger of West End Market will be hosting a cooking demonstration focused on cooking with sustainable fish.  Sign up here.

Special Locally Sourced Products: All Week Long at Owens Food Court

Owens Food Court will be showcasing local products in all shops, not just the Farms & Fields Project, during Earth Week (4/22- 4/26).  Keep an eye out for Local Icons indicating which items are being sourced locally.

We’d like to thank Produce Source Partners, for working with local producers and helping to champion Contributing Local Vendors:

• Big Spring Mill: Elliston, VA, Flour
• Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm, Blacksburg, VA, Microgreens & basil
• Grayson Natural Farms: Grayson County, VA, Grass Finished Beef
• Homestead Creamery, Wertz, VA: Milk & Ice Cream
• J C Bean Sprout: Bean Sprouts
• Kirby Farms: Greens, Sweet Potatoes
• Local Food Hub: Charlottesville, VA, Lettuces, Arugula, Spinach
• Mann’s Sausage Company, Blacksburg, VA: Sausages
• Mountain View Farm: Fairfield, VA: Cheeses
• Murray’s Cider Company: Apple Cider
• Pearce Family Farm: Cascades, VA, Eggs
• Rock Hill Honey Bee Farm: Stafford, VA Honey
• Sweet Water Baking Company, Floyd, VA: Bread
• Twin Oaks Tofu: Louisa, VA, Tofu
• VT Meats , Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA: Pork, Beef, Lamb
• VT Milk:  Blacksburg, VA, Milk

Get on the Bus to Kentland Farm: The Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm will be having their next Workday on Saturday 4/27 from 10 AM – 1 PM  in partnership with VT ENGAGE. Transportation is provided, please contact Wyatt to reserve your seat!

Get on the Bus to Kentland Farm!

More info on VT Earth Week Events at www.vtearthweek.com

@VTGreenDining

#vtearthweek

Johanna Cricenti is a Masters student in the Department of Horticulture who has focused much of her work on learning about student gardens , community food systems adn everything in between.  Johanna is very familiar with the Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm as she has worked in a different capacity for the last couple seasons.  Johanna learned a great deal about organic farming from her experience as a farmer in Floyd County Va.

Hometown: New London, NH

School: Smith College

Hobbies: Yoga & Cooking! (aka she makes really delicious “Dilly Beans”)

Fun Fact: Johanna has travelled to 5 of 7 continents and wants to conquer South America next!

Favorite Vegetable: All!  She just can’t decide, but she’s super excited about Watermelons this season!

Alison Reeves is a Masters student in the Department of Entomology.  Specifically she works with Bees and Beekeeping.  Alison learned a great deal about vegetable production while working at the North Carolina Arboretum and an Organic Farm outside Asheville, NC.  We are very excited to have  since so much of organic production revolves around pest management!

Hometown: Raleigh, NC

School: University of North Carolina, Asheville

Hobbies: Cooking!

Favorite Vegetable: Kale and Tomatoes!

Excited about this Season: Getting her hands dirty!

You’ll also see Rial Tombes down at the garden this summer.  Rial is  the Sustainability Coordinator for Dining Services.  Throughout the summer, there are plenty of volunteer opportunities that Rial will be organizing.  If you know a group that wants to help out at the garden, please contact Rial (rmtombes[at]vt.edu) to find a day to visit the garden.

Hometown: Richmond, VA

School: Virginia Tech!

Hobbies: Cooking, eating, gardening, being outside!

Favorite Vegetable: Brussel Sprouts! Roasted with a little balsamic vinegar is one of the best ways to eat them!

Excited about this season: Seeing the garden grow, and getting more people down to visit the garden!

Our next Volunteer day will be Friday April 12 at 2 PM.  Check out the Event page on facebook.  Carpool information will be posted there.  We’ll be mulching our asparagus patch and depending on the weather we might be able to plant onions.  See you at the Garden!

With a new dining hall comes also a new method of waste sorting.  In Turner Place, we have 10 Waste Stations with receptacles for compostables, recyclables and landfill-ables.  Each bin has a sign with pictures of what should go in each bin.  These Waste Stations are designed to help you think through where each bit of waste should go.

In Dining Halls on campus like West End Market, Owens Dining Hall, and D2, the waste sorting is done behind the scenes by Dining Services’ wonderful staff members.  At Turner Place, it’s all up to you!

In 2012, all of Dining Services diverted over 500 tons of waste towards compost.  This means that through this composting program, we’ve kept over 100,000 lbs of food waste out of the landfill!

What goes where:

Don’t feel overwhelmed!  When the compost or recycle bins are contaminated, the entire batch of compostables or recyclables will be thrown away in the landfill.    Ask a Dining Services Staff member if you have questions. Remember, all  food leftovers, and paper products can be composted.  Plastics 1 – 7  can be recycled, and everything else goes into the landfill.  If you’re not sure about which bin, put it in the landfill bin.

Remember:

When in doubt, throw it out (in the landfill).

At University of Michigan, students are taking waste sorting seriously!

Questions?  Please contact the Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator, Rial Tombes at sustainabledining@vt.edu.

Sign up for Dairy Barn Tour on Wednesday Feb 13.

One of Dining Services 7 guiding Principles states that we will, “Promote a sustainable dining and food system at Virginia Tech and therefore in the greater community.”

How do we quantify local?  Here at VT Dining Services, we consider local to be anything grown and processed within a 250 mile radius of Virginia Tech.  As shown below, that includes all of Virginia except for the Eastern Shore, all of West Virginia, and significant portions of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.

The blue circle shows a 250 mile radius from Blacksburg, VA. Everything grown and processed within this circle is considered local.

Virginia Tech is a land grant university, meaning that Agricultural Education and Research is an integral piece of the fiber that makes up Virginia Tech as an institution.  The Virginia Tech Dairy, located on campus, is a center for teaching and research for the Department of Dairy Science.   Milk will be harvested from cows at the Virginia Tech Dairy, sent to the James River Work Center to be pasteurized and then delivered to Blacksburg to be served at D2.

Interested in Learning More?

In partnership with the Virginia  Tech Dairy Center, tours will be offered for those interested.  There will be three tours offered this Spring semester and each tour will be capped at 25 people.  Sign up for a tour here.  Plan accordingly for weather, wear close toed shoes and expect to get a little dirty!

Tour Dates for Spring 2013:

• Tuesday Jan 29, 1 PM
• Wednesday February 13, 1 PM
• Thursday March 7, 1 PM

We had a year filled with transition.  Our previous Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator, Elena Dulys, moved on to Grad School in Michigan.  Our new Sustainability Coordinator, Rial Tombes, started in September and was able to see the tail end of the season at the Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm.  Nonetheless, the Garden crew had an excellent season, and their work is very much appreciated!

The Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm:  This season, the Dining Services Garden at Kentland Farm expanded to just over 3 acres.  With 2 committed farm crew members,  8 dedicated staff  from various units within Dining Services, 100+ volunteers, and more than 10 organizations involved, we had an incredibly fruitful and exciting season.  This season brought in almost 21,000 lbs of local produce into our Dining Centers from just 10 miles down the road! Volunteer opportunities will be available once again in the spring – keep an eye out on this site!

Volunteers from this past season:  tell us what you thought of it!  Survey link HERE.

Thank You from Chelsea, Adam and all of the Dining Services Staff!

Also, this fall, Dining Services purchased equipment to be able to blanch and fast freeze vegetables from the garden.  This means we will be able to serve local vegetables from the garden even during the winter!

Composting:

A PME Truck picks up food waste and takes it to their facility in Riner, VA.

In 2012, Dining Services alone composted more than 500 tons of food waste.  This means that 500 tons were not thrown in the landfill and instead will be turned into compost!  This past year, several dining units were added to our composting program including, West End Market and Turner Place.  With our new Waste Station set up in Turner Place, educational efforts have increased to teach students how to sort their waste.

Dining Services Green Team Program: Thanks to all the students that made the Dining Services Green Team a success!  With new posters and some fancy buttons, we are able to “train” our fellow hokies on sorting their waste.  The Dining Services Green Team will be gearing up once again in 2013.

Dining Services is looking forward to next year and hopefully you are too!  What would you like to see happen in the coming semester and year to make Dining at VT more sustainable?  Leave a message in the comment section of this post! 

Happy Holidays and have a wonderful break Hokies!

You’ll see daily menu tweets, farmer spotlights, campus sustainability updates and more! Tweetback with questions or comments!

American Meat takes a look at  our current industrial meat system and the farmers who live and work in its feedlots and confinement feeding operations. The documentary depicts the burgeoning sustainable, local-food movement made up of farmers, food advocates, chefs and everyday folks who are changing everything about the way meat reaches the American table. The film exposes challenges relevant to both conventional and alternative meat production.

300 Cowgill Hall, Architecture Building
December 4, 2012.
7:00PM  

The event is FREE and open to the public. The first 150 attendees will receive a card for one free burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill!

Following the film, there will be a panel discussion including the film’s director Graham Meriwether, and local farmer Phil Mosser of Shadowchase Farm.

You, too, can be a part of the Dining Services Green Team! 

Dining Services Green Team Member Spotlight: Josh Pike

Major:  Marketing Management and HR Management

Year:  Senior

Hometown:  Madison, Virginia

Favorite Food:  Pork BBQ

Favorite Place to eat on campus: West End Market

How did you hear about the Dining Services Green Team:  I heard about the Green Team from the Facebook page for The Dining Services at Kentland Farm Volunteer Program.

Favorite part of the Dining Services Green team?:   My favorite part about the Green Team is seeing the transition from people just throwing away trash in whichever trash can they see first, to now seeing people actually take a few seconds to stop and separate their trash into compost, recyclables, and landfill materials.  This is a rewarding experience because it makes you feel that people actually care about improving the environment.

Happy Thanksgiving Hokies!

Thanksgiving is an excellent chance to learn a little more about your own family  food traditions and to integrate some new (delicious) seasonal recipes.  Scope out your hometown’s local Farmers Market and create a new Thanksgiving dish for your family to enjoy!

If you’re staying in Blacksburg around Thanksgiving, take a trip to the Blacksburg Farmers Market (open on Wednesdays from 2 -6!).  There is still a bounty of fresh produce available.  Get some potatoes for your Thanksgiving meal or some greens for a special side dish!

Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want” originally published in 1943. An iconic Thanksgiving scene.

While you’re on break, think about signing up for a shift with the Green Team.  Get your friends to join in on the fun and help your peers sort their trash!  It’s never too late to get involved! And you’ll get a free reusable water bottle after 5 shifts!

Check out this fun Thanksgiving quiz by SlowFood USA!  Last day to enter is today!

Did anyone check out the VT Dining Thanksgiving Meal last week?  There were lots of winter veggies served there.  What were your favorites?