Sustainability

SUNY New Paltz Dining works with numerous stakeholders to minimize the environmental and social impacts of our operations through sustainability education, support for local agriculture, and a commitment to sourcing and serving healthy, sustainably-grown foods, composting, and more.

Sustainable and plant-forward options

Vegan and vegetarian diets, in addition to plant-forward dining are exploding in popularity nationwide. SUNY New Paltz Dining is actively integrating more plant-forward and vegan options to nourish and accommodate this growing community. The dining hall menus rotate daily, so meals are versatile. Our team aims to make it easy and delicious to reduce dietary intake of animal products for customers who are concerned about the negative effects of the meat and dairy industries.

In the dining hall, our Veggin Out to Grown station offers an exclusively plant-forward menu, including a salad bar with vegan cheese, hummus, beans and lentils, and a hot option that always includes a plant-based protein, vegetable and starch. The menu regularly rotates for all three meals to provide variety and a huge selection. Across from this station, vegan desserts are offered. Other stations in our dining hall regularly have plant-based options, and can often substitute in a plant-based protein upon request.

Our retail locations have many vegan options as well; make sure to check out our campus vegan dining map.

Composting

Through a partnership with Greenway, pre- and post-production food waste is collected on campus, and taken by Greenway to be turned into compost and soil. From there, the soil is distributed to local farmers. We also use many compostable products on campus – the plates and bowls given when an Ecoware container isn’t presented are compostable. Make sure to keep an eye out for the compost bins at our dining locations on campus, and to follow us on social media for our next partnership event on campus with Greenway.

Cooking Oil Recycling

We partner with Restaurant Technologies (RTI) to recycle our used cooking oil to be used for biofuel.

Reusable Containers

Our campus has a very robust reusable container program through ReusePass. For more information, visit our ReusePass page.

Local produce

We proudly get fruits and vegetables from Red Barn Produce in Highland, NY. Through this partnership, we are able to source seasonal, sustainable and fresh products from local farms and serve them in our dishes.

Animal welfare commitments

Sodexo currently sources shelled eggs from cage-free operations and its pork from producers who do not use gestation crates. Furthermore, they have pledged to source only cage free shell and liquid eggs worldwide by 2025. In the US, as of May 2020, 80% of shell eggs, 83% of liquid eggs, and 57% of processed eggs used by Sodexo are cage free. Moving forward, Sodexo will continue to seek and support cage-free alternatives with its suppliers for other egg products, as well as for other species (rabbits, sows...). In 2017, Sodexo eliminated the use of veal crates from its supply chain. The company has outlined a phased approach to sourcing poultry, beef and veal from suppliers who foster improved animal well-being. Five of our most high-volume pork products – in the bacon, pork butt and pork loin categories transitioned to open sow housing in 2018 – which allows the sow to roam more freely after the pregnancy is confirmed.

Sustainable seafood

Sodexo is committed to sourcing 100% sustainable seafood, and is proud to offer Red’s Best on campus. Red's Best is a Boston-based seafood wholesaler. The fish are delivered with an RSS code that can be scanned with any smart phone. The code provides the exact location the fish was caught, the fisherman who caught it and what species of fish the fillet is. The program has been an exciting addition to SUNY New Paltz providing local and sustainable meals.

Leanpath

Our culinary team utilizes the Leanpath program, which weighs, categorizes, and tracks all food waste leaving our kitchens. From here chefs can see better meal plans to utilize ingredients and note what to order less of, saving time and money. This program assists in diverting and sorting waste by communicating the environmental impacts and tracks progress toward sustainability goals.

Waste Reduction efforts

We regularly host events such as Weigh the Waste to bring awareness to food waste concerns on campus.

Sustainability Events

Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on sustainability related events, such as plant-based takeovers, Fresh Markets, tabling events and local business pop-ups.