Campus Dining

Zero Waste Initiatives

We are committed to Zero Waste initiatives through thoughtful purchasing decisions, reducing consumption and increasing recycling to drastically reduce what we send to the landfill.

• 100+ tons of pre-consumer organic material is composted yearly, including compostable single-use items

• 40% of university waste is divested from landfills through reduction, recycling and composting

• Unserved food at App State is donated to Hunger and Health Coalition

• No plastic foam – using more sustainable takeaway containers and avoiding single-use cutlery

• Campus Dining uniforms are made from recycled plastic bottles

• The recycled aluminum spoon sculpture by artist Joe Bigley that hangs in Roess Dining Hall is made from aluminum foil and pans used in dining concepts during the 2011–12 academic year

Skip the Bag

As part of the Skip the Bag program, a customer deposits a wooden nickel received for choosing to forgo a plastic bag on a purchase. At the end of each semester, Campus Services tallies the wooden nickels that are dropped into canisters for university organizations and converts them to monetary contributions that are then made to the organizations.

• Introduced in fall 2021 as a student-initiated sustainable shopping program

• Mountaineers kept nearly 68,000 plastic bags out of the local landfill in fall 2021

Local and Sustainable Dining

Campus Dining sources and uses local, sustainable products in our dining facilities. 

• In recent years, 27% of food (equivalent of $1 + million) served on campus was sourced locally — often from our own sustainable farm.

  • App State’s Blackburn Vannoy Farm works closely with Campus Dining to plan what will be grown and delivers freshly gathered produce throughout the harvest season
  • The partnership also includes investments from Campus Dining to build a high-efficiency greenhouse, repair the farm’s existing high tunnel, which is used to extend the growing season, and construct a new poultry house.

• Expanded offerings of healthy and sustainable plant-based dining options