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Reducing Food Waste and Increasing Environmental Responsibility among

KSC Students:
KSC Food Day Series

Kayleigh Hill
Keene State Dietetic Internship

Contacts: Rebecca Hunt - rhunt@keene.edu or Whitney Hightower - whitney.hightower@keene.edu

Food Waste: as an edible item that goes unconsumed as a result of action or inaction of human activity.

There are two primary forms of food waste that an RD should be aware of; Pre-consumer and post-
consumer waste. Pre-consumer food waste includes kitchen waste, spoiled food and excess food. Kitchen
food waste includes any organic material that is discarded during normal food preparation activities, e.g.,
peels, fat, bones, ends of fruits or vegetables; these materials are considered inedible. Spoiled food waste
is defined as food items past their expiration date or visibly decaying and is considered inedible. Waste
due to over preparation is defined as prepared but goes unconsumed; this food is considered edible. Post-
consumer food waste includes food served to consumers that is not eaten. The distinction between edible
and inedible postconsumer food waste was based on typical eating behaviors, e.g., banana peels, chicken
bones, apple cores, were categorized as inedible.

As Nutrition Professionals it is important to be aware of the environmental, economic and societal

impacts food waste has in our country. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic
Research Service, the U.S. spends more than $162 billion to grow, process and transport food that is
never eaten, costing the average family $1,500 every year. In the process, fresh water, energy, land, labor
and money are invested into food that is never sold, leading to greenhouse gas emissions as food decays
in landfills.

Institutions are major contributors to food waste in the US and RDs often hold management positions in
these universities, hospitals and school settings. We, as nutrition and food experts, hold a responsibility to
help reduce and solve this pressing issue. Keene State College is one of seven New England Colleges the
EPA recognized for their food waste and recycling efforts. The KSC Dining Hall has made incredible
strides to reduce their pre-consumer food waste and currently recycle cooking oil to use as fuel. Their
next goals are to reduce post-consumer waste, and this is where we come in. As interns we hold the
ability to continuously educate students on the importance of composting and reducing food waste in the
all-you-can-eat dining hall.

This experience will introduce you to current, past and future food waste reduction efforts and will help
expose you to the environmental, economic and societal impacts, and help to foster a sense of
responsibility in your scope of practice as a future Registered Dietitian.
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These educational tabling events will be similar to that of a health fair, meaning that you will be setting
up a table to catch students attention using visuals like; posters, props and flyers. Those who are working
on the If We Werent So Wasteful We Could Have Had project will not be tabling, but rather
designing a chalkboard, analyzing weekly food waste data and organizing a display of boxes within the
dining hall to represent food that could have been bought if the students had not wasted.

Each topic will be presented on a different day by different interns and they will be provided with a table
placed at the entrance of the dining hall so that students will see them as they enter and exit.

Interns will be prepared at peak meal time; 4:30-7:30pm.

Contact Rebecca to inquire about possible props and decoration for the table - the Dining Commons has
access to a wide variety of decorations that may be useful for these topics.

Table of Contents

Intro1-2
Portion
Control..3
Waste
Buffet4
If We Werent So Wasteful, We Could Have
Had...5-6
Healthy Food
Tours..7
Whats Up with the
Carrot?...8-9
Jonathan Bloom
Visit....10-11
Evaluation......12-13
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Portion Control: Reduce your Environmental Footprint One Plate at a Time

Date: Food Day: Tuesday 10/16/17 Time: 4:30-6pm - Come in 30 min early to set up

# of Interns: 1-2

Materials Needed:
Trifold board
Food models
Tablecloth - Dining hall can provide
Handouts (~50)
Table decorations

Objectives:
1. Engaged students will be able to recognize correct plate portions
2. Engaged students will connect portion control to reducing food waste
3. Engaged students and passer-bys will have the option to take an informational handout

Lesson: We are promoting Smart Eating. Choosing food in a dining hall can be overwhelming and your
eyes can become bigger than your stomach.

You only have a short moment to educate students. Brainstorm ways to attract their attention. Think big
pictures, incentives, and intriguing titles, something that stands out or is controversial. You will need
quick and easy portion control tips and why portion sizes matter to reduce waste sustainably! Use
handouts to your advantage but make them short and to the point - half pages work well.

Get Creative: Feel free to ask to use plates and dish ware from the dining hall. Jeanny has a Flipping the
Plate Symposium that she is willing to let us borrow for this event, contact Rebecca for details.
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Waste Buffet

Date: Tuesday: 9/19/2017 Time: 4:30-7pm - Come in 30 min early to set up

# of Interns: 1-2

Materials Needed:
Handouts (~50)

Objectives:
1. Engaged students will be able to recognize that this buffet is made of foods thrown out that day
2. Engaged students will leave the table with an understanding of how much food is wasted in the
KSC dining hall.
3. Engaged students and passer-bys will have the option to take an informational handout

Lesson: Work with the Keene Food service workers to collect food waste throughout the day and create a
buffet display of the whole foods that were thrown out instead of eaten. This is to show what the
students have wasted and that it could have been used to feed more people. Be the spokesperson for the
display and create a poster or a handout that describes how to avoid taking more than you can eat and
goes over the impact this waste has on the dining hall and the environment.

The Buffet itself does most of the talking, you will be there to help set it up and to be there to explain to
students what exactly it represents. You can use this statistic (acquired from the R.O.C.K.s office and
coordinator, Matthew Bacon), In 2016 Keene State College wasted 411,840 lbs of post-consumer
food and 79,200 lbs of pre-consumer food from the dining hall alone, this equivalates to about
114 lbs of waste per student enrolled in the college. This gives the students more of a connection to
the waste when put into per-person statistics.

Get Creative: You are here as an educational tool - the students will be more likely to listen to us interns,
as opposed to adults, because we are their age and they can connect with us. So be passionate, let them
know how important it is to care! Engage students in conversation, ask them their opinions, share
personal experiences (if appropriate) and be enthusiastic. The goal is to inspire them to waste less and to
educate them on what is currently being wasted by themselves and their peers.
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If We Werent So Wasteful, We Could Have Had

First Round Dates: Every Thursday - starting: 9/28/17 and Ending 10/19/17
Time: 3:30pm - before dinner begins. Will need time to change the board and organize new boxes.
Expect to be there between 45-60 minutes.

This will be ongoing throughout each semester, but the interns involved will alternate. The project is
subject to change and improvement, it is expected that each intern will alter it to make it more effective
and smooth. If the dining hall recommends, this project will be continued past the above dates - interns
involved are subject to change.

# of Interns: 1-2

Materials Needed: All provided by Keene state

Chalk
Weekly Waste Data
Empty boxes
Chalkboard

Handouts (Interns make these). There will be a space to leave handouts so students can take them
as they go by (~75)
Poster(s)

Objectives:
1. Students will be able to recognize that the carrot represents their meal and the dirt represents their
waste.
a. Students will be able to recognize that the goal is to harvest the carrot and thus reduce
their wastefulness.
2. Students will connect their weekly waste to the boxes placed within the dining hall.
a. Students will recognize that these boxes represent the foods they could have had if they
had not wasted.
3. Students will have the option to take an informational handout

Lesson: The Dining hall will keep track of the amount of food wasted each week. The intern will show on
a chalkboard by the dish room how much is being wasted; this will be updated weekly for the allotted
dates. The intern will set up a display in the middle of the dining hall using boxes to show the poundage
of food being wasted each week, the boxes will theoretically shrink each week if the students begin to
waste less. These boxes will be for foods that the students frequently request, i.e. Berries and avocados.
The boxes will need signage placed near them that explains their meaning, this is your responsibility - the
dining hall will only provide you with a way to display the sign(s). Use Redball services to your
advantage - you can print poster-sized signage with them.

The chalkboard: is your tool to get the students attention. Be creative, use color, pictures and make it
simple to understand (not too many words). The aim is for students to understand the point while passing
by.

The goal is to waste less than the previous week! We will be sticking with the carrot themes and show
waste reduction (or increase) using the carrot as a focal point. You will use the visual of a carrot covered
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in dirt. The dirt represents the waste and the carrot represents the average oz served per person per meal.
As their food waste goes down, the dirt will go down - until eventually the carrot is uncovered or
harvested. For the carrot to be harvested there would need to be no food waste, so that is the long-term
goal (this may take all year). For every quarter pound (per person measurements) saved by the students,
the Dining Commons with reward them with one of the foods requested by the students (berries, sushi,
etc).

Math: It will be your responsibility to contact Rebecca Hunt each week to get the dining halls weekly
food waste data. You will have to figure out how much the average student eats (in oz) and then from
there, figure out how much the average student wastes each meal (also in oz). The idea is that they will
begin to waste less and you will be able to show this using both the carrot graph and the boxes.

Get Creative: Make the board fun with attention grabbing titles and graphics. The dining hall will
provide you with a way to leave handouts near the board with more info so students have access to
information they can take back to their seats while eating and when leaving.
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Healthy Food Tours

Date: 9/27/17 and 10/18/17 Time: 4-5pm - show up a half hour early to set up and prep
Continuous program - future dates per Whitney Hightowers instruction

# of Interns: 1-2

Materials Needed:
Sign-in sheet
Sign to grab attention
Your name tags
KSC Dining Commons Food Tour Script (contact Rebecca Hunt)

Objectives:
Tour members will be able to recognize at least one way the KSC dining commons is reducing
Pre-consumer waste
Tour members will be able to recognize at least two ways the KSC dining commons is trying to
reduce Post-consumer waste

Lesson: Conduct tours over the period of one hour - estimated 3-4 tours can be done in that time frame
(depending on level of participation). One person will stay at the table and sign people in and
organize/encourage students to take the tour. The other person will give the tour. Alternate positions so
that both interns get a chance to conduct a tour.

This is done in conjunction with Healthy Dining Hall Tours which is overseen by Whitney. We have
added in the component of pre and post-consumer waste reduction efforts. This will be your emphasis
throughout the tour.

Get Creative: Keene State is doing some pretty awesome stuff sustainably, do your own research and
familiarize yourself with their efforts. What the Dining hall has done to increase their sustainability
efforts is included in the tour descriptions, but familiarizing yourself with the school and doing your own
research will give you a broader understanding and better viewpoint of the college.
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Whats Up with the Carrot?

Date: Tuesday: 10/10/17 Time: 4-5pm - show up a half hour early to set up and prep

# of Interns: 2-3

Materials Needed:
Carrot Costume (provided by Keene State)
Trifold board
Handouts
Napkin Inserts

Objectives:
Engaged students will be able to recognize the history and meaning behind the carrot hanging in
the dining hall wall
Engaged students will be able to summarize KSC dining hall food reduction efforts
Engaged students and passer-bys will have the option to take an informational handout

Lesson: KSC Dining Halls won an EPA Award for sustainability education because of the giant carrot.

EPA for Education and Outreach: This award is issued to a participant who has raised awareness of sustainable management of
food as a sustainability issue. Examples of this include a college campus creating a wasted food mascot, inviting experts to speak
in classes on wasted food and its impacts on the environment and dining facilities implementing buffets made of intact, uneaten
food items.

The Keene State Dining Hall Giant Carrot (hanging over the dish room entrance) represents sustainability
within the dining hall. It was created in 2011 by an art student to act as a constant reminder that it takes
time and energy to grow food, harvest it, process it, bring it to the dining hall, cook it and then serve it.
Yet it takes only 2 seconds to throw it out. This is meant to build awareness. It would be the Interns job to
draw attention to it and re-educate students on its significance.

The Interns are responsible for education of the carrot and what it represents to the school - the carrot
costume is used to attract attention and whomever dresses up in it can hand out flyers with tidbits about
the meaning of the carrot and how it represents reducing food waste and adapting sustainable practices.
The below picture is a napkin insert the dining hall used in the past to promote the carrot.
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Use the carrot as momentum to speak about the responsibility we have as adults and members of the
community to reduce our food waste footprint! This is the last tabling event in the KSC Food Day Series,
review the other projects in this series and have an understanding of our efforts so that you are able to
share with students what we have been doing to increase their knowledge of Food Waste efforts at Keene
State.

Get Creative: This carrot is a big deal for the dining hall and many incoming students do not know what
it represents. Use the giant sculpture and the costume to catch the students attention enough to engage
them in conversation and explain to them how KSC dining hall is leading the way in sustainable food
service.
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Jonathan Bloom: Guest Speaker Event

Date: Spring Semester. Marketing and Sponsorship should begin in September Time: TBD

# of Interns: 1-2

Resources Needed:
Redball for printing
Rebecca Hunt
Letter for Sponsorship (provided below)
Staff emails
Canva or Publisher for Poster and flyer development

Objectives:
Interns will practice marketing techniques, on a variety of platforms; media, word of mouth,
published articles, visual displays, etc.
Interns will gain experience evaluating an event and providing thorough and relevant evaluations
and reflections on how the event turned out.
Interns will gain experience gathering sponsorship for an event, in a professional and respectful
manner.

Responsibilities:
Marketing: This event will be advertised in the Equinox, Dining Commons table toppers, on the
MyKSC website, the Dining Services website and Facebook page, the LCD/TV panels at Lloyds
Marketplace and there will be posters posted in the Dining Commons and across campus. The
event will be publicized via email, to Faculty and Staff and shared electronically with members of
the Monadnock Food Coalition and the Monadnock Food Coop. We will reach out to faculty
across campus months in advance to make them aware of the opportunity and encourage
participation in conjunction with course syllabi/required coursework. We will also have been
advertising the event through various Food Waste education events, conducted by the Keene State
Dietetic Interns.
Evaluation: Interns will be responsible for tracking attendance at both the Speaker's main event
and also at the individual classes he will be invited to. They will track for student, staff and
community member attendance using a mandatory sign in sheet. At the end of the event Jonathan
Bloom will be sent an evaluation of his time at Keene and the Keene Dining Services will be sent
a separate evaluation to determine what they believed went well and what could be improved
upon.
Sponsorship: Intern will distribute sponsorship letter and be responsible for correspondence
between sponsors. You will work in partnership with Rebecca Hunt, she should be ccd in all
emails and be included in any communication. Suggested sponsors include;
Campus Ecology
Keene State Dining Services
Monadnock Co-op
PCFS: Sustainability Initiatives at Keene State
Sustainability Department
Walmart Foundation
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Consider applying to their grant

Citizens Bank
Keene Lions Club
The Intern(s) will be responsible for identifying sponsors of Jonathans visit, they should be
identified in any marketing tools, before Jonathan's speech they should be thanked and identified,
and in the follow-up of the event. All sponsor requests to be identified should be respected.
Follow-up: After the event has concluded, a full evaluation should be written up and provided to
all sponsors, Keene State Dining and to the Internship. The follow-up to the sponsors should
include a formal Thank You. The Pepsi Partnership Grant will require you complete a Follow-up
form, a thank you should be attached to this form once completed.

Tip: It is the intern's role to help facilitate, in conjunction with Rebecca Hunt and the Keene State Dining
Hall Staff, Jonathan Blooms visit. To ensure the success of the event the above responsibilities are
important and necessary, but do not let this overwhelm you - you are supported by both Rebecca and
Whitney and they are excellent resources and should be utilized and kept up-to-date on your efforts.
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Evaluation

Interns will be required to complete a COP at the end of their project. This will be important as these
educational events continue each semester and each year.

COMMUNITY OPERATING PLAN

Complete parts A-D before the presentation/event, and then parts E implementation. Use this outline as a
guide for developing all programs and presentations. The questions in each section are designed to help
you in the development process. You must answer all of the questions listed, but if you feel there is other
important information please include that as well.

A. PROJECT INFO:

Event: Topic:

Event Date: Location:

Intern Name(s):

Team Leader: Preceptor:

Person responsible for writing the COP:

B. NEEDS ASSESSMENT:

1. Identify site contact

2. Identify population
a) Gender
b) Age
c) Education level
d) Number of participants

3. How was topic determined (Did you speak with anyone about the group? Did you get to observe the
setting and participants beforehand? If so, describe the participants and any other pertinent information
(i.e. if in a classroom, observe classroom management techniques).
a) Other programs recently presented
b) What the audience knows
c) What the audience wants to know - what is relevant
d) Evaluate health literacy - and other cultural issues
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4. Setting - tour of facility

a) Room size and set up (diagram)
b) Presentation resources
Availability of food prep area
AV resources - space available for visual teaching aids

5. Day of week/ time of day for presentation

6. Duration
a) Attention span
b) Conflict with other activities for population

7. Marketing potential - whose responsibility

8. Budget
a) Will there be a charge
b) Funds to cover supplies
c) Cost of marketing

9. Best way/time to reach site contact for future plans

10. Write a community group focused PES statement based on your assessment.

C. RESEARCH AND PLANNING (how, who, and when the process of your work):

1. Meeting Dates
Dates scheduled for planning and who will attend.

7 day meeting -

Evaluation meeting scheduled for:

(Usually held directly after presentation but may be scheduled for later).

2. Based on the results of the needs assessment, what did you do to prepare?

3. How did you go about the development process? Who was involved?

4. What resources did you use? Why did you choose them and how did you find them? Relate back to
your assessment section.

D. DEVELOPMENT (what the outcome of your planning and development):

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1. Measurable Learning Objectives:

2. Outline of presentation:
Describe all components of the program or material, and the team member responsible for them. Include
descriptions of the content, learning activities, food activities, visuals, education materials and evaluation
methods/materials. (May attach as separate document.)

3. Describe how your presentation addresses different learning styles:

Auditory:

Visual:

Kinesthetic:

List ways that you included multiple intelligences in your planning.

4. Explain how your planned evaluation method will show whether your learning objectives were met.

5. What problems did you encounter in the development process?

Complete sections E after the presentation/event is complete.

E. IMPLEMENTATION and EVALUATION:

1. For a program or presentation, describe objectively what happened the day of the presentation, using
examples. Include any last minute changes to the planned setting, audience, number of participants.

2. Did the presentation go as planned? Reflect on what went well?

3. How did the audience react to the presentation? Summarize and comment on preceptor feedback.

4. How well did the audience grasp your objectives?

5. What would you do differently/the same the next time - or what would you change if you had more
time? How effective do you feel your program/material was for the target audience?

6. Recommendations for future Interns:

7. Financial Report:

Cost of Development: (Includes: labor for preparing the project, food cost for testing the food
activity; please note that labor costs include hours worked by ALL team members)
Labor ($25/hour):
Food:
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Cost of Presenting: (Includes: labor, food, flip charts ($28), see following link for cost of copies
http://www.keene.edu/mailsvs/printfees.cfm, and other supplies)
Labor ($25/hour):
Copies:
Food:
Other supplies and costs:

Overall costs: