Free Coffee tomorrow at Alderman

Stop by Alderman Cafe tomorrow, March 21, between 4 and 5pm for a cup of free drip coffee!

UVa Dining and UVa Sustainability are celebrating RecycleMania and promoting good waste management practices by offering free coffee to anyone that brings their own mug to Alderman tomorrow afternoon.  Come learn about RecycleMania, Green Dining, and UVa's sustainability efforts while enjoying a cup of joe.

As an extra special treat, Greenberry's will also be giving away 100 reusable mugs during tomorrow's event - first come, first served!

Vandana Shiva to speak at UVa, Tuesday, March 20

Welcome back from Spring Break!  It sure was quiet around Grounds (and on this blog) without all of the students around.

Mark your calendars for an exciting event coming up next Tuesday, March 20.  At 5:30pm in the Harrison/Special Collections Auditorium, Dr. Vandana Shiva will deliver a lecture entitled "Making Peace With The Earth" as part of the Brown College Visiting Environmental Writer and Scholars (ViEWS) Lecture Series.

A brief bio is available on the ViEWS website, and copied and pasted here:

The winner of the 1993 Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (also known as the Right Livelihood Award), Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental activist and one of the leading voices in the local food movement. Based in New Delhi, India, Dr. Shiva is the Director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, a leader at the International Forum on Globalization and the author of over twenty books including Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (2008), Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (2005) and Water Wars: Pollution, Profits, and Privatization (2001). She is also the founder of Navdanya, an organization that promotes the conservation of diverse seed pools threatened by the spread of genetically-modified (GM) biota.

The auditorium is expected to fill up fast, so get there early!  An adjacent overflow room will also be set up with a live video feed.

Green Dining Meeting Minutes, 2/29/12

Great Green Dining meeting this past Wednesday - awesome turnout and lots of energy in the room!  I'm posting the minutes again; here's what we discussed:

 

1. RecycleMania. UVa has slipped a little in the rankings since last week, but we've still got plenty of time to work our way back up!  If you have any questions about what's recycable, this "Ways To Recycle" page is a great resource on the UVa Facilities Management Energy & Utilities website: http://utilities.fm.virginia.edu/recycling/Pages/WaystoRecycle.aspx.

 

2. Hydration Stations.  The StudCo Student Life committee is exploring the possibilities of expanding the number of water bottle filling stations on Grounds (there are currently two: one at the Pav and one outside of Crossroads).  Let me know if you have any suggestions for Dining locations that could use one.  Non-Dining locations are great too, but outside of our jurisdiction and will therefore need Housing/Facilities Management support.

 

3. World Water Day.  Thursday, March 22nd.  This year's theme is Water and Food Security, so we brainstormed a few agriculture-related organizations that may be a good fit for the info fair (to take place on the south end of the Lawn, between roughly 10 and 2 that Thursday the 22nd), including VDACS (the VA Dept of Ag & Consumer Services) and the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

 

4. National Nutrition Month.  The theme this March is Get Your Plate in Shape, which is a riff on the new USDA MyPlate program, the government's replacement of the longstanding food pyramid.  Each dining hall is promoting the MyPlate program through international cuisine this month.

Thursday, March 15 - O'Hill will be featuring Healthy Indian Cuisine at dinner

Wednesday, March 21 - Runk will be featuring Healthy South American Cuisine at dinner

Wednesday, March 28 - Newcomb will be featuring Healthy Thai Cuisine at dinner

The ever-popular Nutrition Trivia Wheel will be at all of those events; play for a chance to win prizes!

 

5. Food Waste Audits.  Green Dining and various student groups have organized food waste audits spanning from Spring '06 to this past fall.  Dining's sustainability intern compiled the data from these audits to discover that over the years, there has been a steady downward trend in waste per student!  Trayless dining and composting are two UVa programs that have directly and tangentially come about as a result of the findings of some of the earlier food waste audits -- audits are a valuable tool for evaluating waste mitigation opportunities, and we will be conducting more this spring (stay tuned!).  For more information on UVa's composting program, check out this brief video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6638zmk5Jg.  Interest was expressed in a field trip to Panorama, the local farm that takes our food waste.  I'll look into it!

 

Have a wonderful spring break!

Reusable Mug Punch Cards

Do you ever bring your own reusable mug with you to get coffee or tea on Grounds?  Did you know that you can be eligible for free or discounted beverages if you use a reusable mug in our Dining locations?

Dining launched its reusable mug punch card program in October of 2009 (to coincide with Campus Sustainability Day) and it's been a popular program ever since.  Our cafes collect the completed cards and return them to the Dining Admin Office in order to keep track of landfill diversion.

As of now, since fall 2009, Dining has received 527 fully completed punch cards!  With 10 instances of reusable mug usage per card, that means that together we've all diverted at least 5270 disposable cups from the landfill!

That doesn't include the cards that students are still working their way through, or the reusable mugs that have been used for a discount in place of a card punch.  I think that collectively UVa could probably aim to get about 75 of those punch cards completed by the end of the semester to bring up our diversion count to over 6000 cups!  Get your punch card today - all you have to do is ask your friendly cashier at any cafe register.

Local Food Hub's Spring Workshops

Yesterday's snow aside (or perhaps due to it), are you starting to get spring fever?  You're in luck, as the Local Food Hub has announced its spring workshops! Take a look and register if you're interested (you can now register and pay online). The Food Hub does expect these to sell out.

Sustainable Soil Management
Date: March 15, 2012
Time: 4:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: Maple Hill Farm
Cost: $25
RSVP: email info@localfoodhub.org or call (434) 286-2176
http://localfoodhub.org/events/workshop-sustainable-soil-management/

Beginning Beekeeping
Date: April 1, 2012
Time: 9:00am – 3:30pm
Location: Ivy Creek Natural Area
Cost: $35
RSVP: email info@localfoodhub.org or call (434) 286-2176
http://localfoodhub.org/events/workshop-beginning-beekeeping/

Edible Landscaping
Date: May 17, 2012
Time: 4:00pm – 7:00pm
Location: Maple Hill Farm
Cost: $35
RSVP: email info@localfoodhub.org or call (434) 286-2176
http://localfoodhub.org/events/workshop-diversified-fruit-production/

Local Food Hub Educational Farm at Maple Hill

Film Screening on 2/22: The End of the Line

Please join the UVa Food Collaborative next Wednesday, February 22, at 7pm, for their first film screening of the semester. The film is End of the Line, about our declining fisheries.  After the film, participate in a discussion with Environmental Sciences Professor Steve Macko and creators of the Charlottesville Community Supported Fishery, Jack Cochran and Doug Dickerson.

The event is at the UVa Architecture School, in Campbell Hall, Room 153. Free parking is available in the Culbreth Parking Garage.

Watch the trailer for the film here or below.
 

Meet Sydney Gunn: U.Va. Dining Sustainability Intern

Meet this year's U.Va. Dining Sustainability Intern, first year Sydney Gunn.

In her own words:

Hi! My name is Sydney Gunn and I am the first year UVa Dining Sustainability Intern.  I grew up in the Hampton Roads area and graduated from Norfolk Academy after 10 years of attendance.  I have always been very interested in the different things that I could do personally to help make our society greener.  I was really excited to get the opportunity to avidly work on initiatives to help UVa become a more sustainable environment.  I was so happy and surprised to see how much UVa Dining already did to work towards this goal and I am eager to be a part of continuing to make our Grounds more sustainable and green!

Sydney, Sustainability Intern