Enter the following.
Frequently searched keywords:
August 6, 2024
Every day at the Luther Cafeteria, potential food waste is diverted to produce compost to fill the earth, and prepared food that hasn’t been served is repackaged to serve other food-insecure people in and around Decorah. A video of Luther shows how the school is doing. Reduce food waste, driven by its commitment to environmental and civic sustainability.
This work toward the university’s goal of zero waste exemplifies Luther’s civic sustainability initiative. Since 2020, this initiative through Luther has developed partnerships between teams of students, teachers, and like-minded organizations in the Decorah and Northeast Iowa network areas.
“Food waste used to be the biggest item that left Luther’s Union and ended up in landfills,” said Jon Jensen, director of the Center for Sustainable Communities, which runs the Caf to Community program. “Composting is the best and most environmentally friendly way. ” way to manage our food waste. ”
Located in Dahl Centennial Union, the Luther Cafeteria (commonly called Cafe) is the residents’ dining room.
It should be noted that the Luther Café does not have trash cans. Instead, Caf staff separate all food scraps and compostable napkins in the laundry room, where they are rinsed in a container, sent to a grinder, and collected in buckets. Compostable waste generated during the food preparation process (such as stems and peels) is also collected by Caf staff for composting.
Some of the food waste is sent to Luther Farm, on the edge of the campus. There, Luther has his own compost pile for food waste. Sustainability scholars collect compostable food waste from campus and CAF bins and bring it to Luther Farm.
Luther also worked with the city of Decorah to compost food waste. The city worked with citizens to expand a sustainability plan, which requires the city to have 0 waste by 2040. To this end, the city won a grant to reduce food waste at the county landfill. Winneshiek.
“For this grant, one of the network partners was Luther College,” said former city engineer Jeremy Bril. “The city is working with Luther to collect some of the food Luther already collects on campus. ”
About twice a week, city workers come to pick up food waste and take it to the city’s recycling center. The city collects an average of 2,000 pounds of food waste from Luther.
Luther also has the Caf to Community program, which aims to ensure that smart food is distributed to others who want it, a way to reduce food waste. This program not only reinforces Luther’s environmental sustainability, but also broadens the perception of civic sustainability. and builds communities of mutual support.
Since Luther serves dishes in the form of a buffet prepared in advance, some of the food remains and is served. Volunteers at Café to Community collect this unused food and repackage it in individual frozen portions. They are delivered to local pantries such as the Decorah Community Food Pantry and Community Action of Northeast Iowa.
Caf to Community is a student-run program. Rising senior Owen Matzek served as assistant director of the program and will assume the role in fall 2024.