Aramark Sustainability Initiatives

Part of Aramark’s mission is to provide a sustainable dining experience at each of our dining communities. There are a number of efforts that go into this program. Aramark works to continually develop and implement sustainable solutions at Farmingdale State College. These programs and policies are called “Green Thread” as they weave throughout the operations every day! Here are just a few ways Aramark works to make your campus more environmentally conscious:

Tray-less Dining

Trays are no longer in use in the all-you-care-to-eat dining location, Pop’s. By eliminating trays, dining can avoid having to wash trays, thus saving gallons of cleaning solution and hundreds of gallons of water.

Local and Sustainable Purchasing

Did you know Dining Services sources food from many local farmers, growers and distributors? The list changes throughout the year depending on seasonality and availability. However, here is a sampling of a few of Aramark’s partners:- Sid Wainer and Sons- J. Kings Food Service Professionals- MRS Bakery- Rockland Bakery Aramark also partners with  Farmlogix, an organization that assists in sourcing locally grown produce and other products. Dining utilizes Farmlogix to analyze purchasing strategy and identify the percentage of what is considered local.

Animal Welfare

Aramark’s Animal Welfare Policy improves the treatment of animals for egg, meat and dairy products in the U.S. through engagement with suppliers, academia and NGOs and many others.

This industry-leading policy continues to expand on commitments made over the last several years to:

• Purchase humanely-raised broiler chickens by 2024
• Purchase only cage-free eggs by 2020 in the U.S. and globally by 2025
• Purchase group-housed pork by 2022
• Eliminate the purchase of all foie gras (since 2011)
• Seafood purchases  are  sourced with  strict  adherence to  the  Seafood Watch list produced by the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.

Food Waste Management

Aramark has created a comprehensive food waste management program to reduce waste from all points in the food production and service timeline. All aspects of sourcing, storing, producing and serving the food in dining locations are rigorously planned and developed to minimize food waste. Comprehensive production records are created for every  menu item so that only the food needed for service is produced. Aramark also employs a systematic approach to identifying and recording all food waste generated in our kitchens. By recording not only the type of food, but also the reason for such waste (trimmings from food preparation as compared to overproduction), management can identify any  patterns and create a plan  to  correct  poor  production habits. As a result of the implementation of this program at Farmingdale at the beginning of the fall 2017 semester, our team was able to eliminate nearly a ton of food waste, as well as conserve 88 gallons of gasoline (that not needed to transport saved food) and .75 tons worth of CO2 (saved from the environment) during the full academic year.

Elimination of Single Use Plastic

Aramark has a corporate goal to significantly reduce single-use plastic by 2022. This initiative began with a focus on plastic straws and stirrers and Farmingdale Dining has begun to introduce an elimination policy which will be in full force by spring 2019 with straws available by request.

Fryer Oil Recycling

One hundred percent of used fryer oil is recycled. Spent fryer oil is collected by a third party recycling company with the goal to repurpose every drop into biodiesel. Farmingdale Dining uses 240 gallons of fryer oil every month, all of which is recycled.

Reduced Printing

Dining has reduced or eliminated many of the printed materials used in the past in an effort to save paper. Several documents have been pushed to the dining website and social media feeds, reducing the amount of paper utilized.

Recycled Content Paper

Aramark uses 100% recycled content office and copy paper in all locations on campus.

Energy & Water Conservation

Aramark trains employees each semester on common energy and water conservation practices in order to conserve precious natural resources.