Large amounts of uneaten food are cleared from the University of Miami’s dining halls each day including student leftovers, trays of food that were never served and ingredients that expire before they can be used.
According to Micheal Ross, resident district manager for Chartwells, UM dining hall staff follow food-safety rules set by Chartwells Higher Education, the university’s dining provider.
Once food has been on the service line beyond approved time or temperature limits, it must be discarded. Items that remain within safe ranges can be stored for later use, but cannot be donated because of handling and storage restrictions.
“UM Dining takes a proactive approach to minimizing food waste,” Ross said. “We focus on limited overproduction through batch cooking, and we donate safe, unused food when possible through our partnership with Miami Rescue Mission.”
Ross said the dining program has donated more than 184,000 pounds of food through the partnership over the past 14 years.
Mahoney-Pearson and Centennial Village, UM’s two main dining halls, serve thousands of students daily. Both are open to all students with meal plans, though most of the regular traffic comes from first-year students, who are required to have unlimited meal plans.
“There’s always trays with half-eaten meals rolling through that dishwashing machine,” freshman Cawthra Burns said. “It’s kind of gross, and it makes you wonder what happens to all that food.”
Food waste on college campuses is a national issue. Colleges and universities across the United States discard an estimated 22 million pounds of food each year, according to data from ReFED and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
At UM, most waste reduction efforts focus on recycling and composting materials from campus kitchens. Cardboard, cans and bottles are sent for single stream recycling, and used cooking oil is collected by a vendor for processing.
Vegetable scraps and other organic material are diverted through Compost for Life, a University program that converts food waste into compost used in landscaping. According to waste diversion totals provided by UM Sustainability Director Teddy Lhoutellier, the program has diverted more than 243,000 pounds of organic matter from landfills.
“We track the waste that comes out of dining, Ross said. “We get reports from Compost for Life on how much we’re pulling out of the waste stream.”
The compost program has expanded as the vendor’s capacity has grown.
“We started with just the scraps as the chefs were putting meals together,” said Ana Alvarez, assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services. “Now they’re able to take proteins too. As they expand what they can accept, what we compost will expand.”
Alvarez said Centennial Village was designed to support composting from the start.
“At Centennial Village we designed the dining hall so the compost bins stay refrigerated and cold,” she said. “When we design the next dining hall, the goal is to build that in from the start and do more of that.”
UM’s Green U office also oversees a Food Recovery Program that donates safe, unused food from certain campus locations to local partners. Lhoutellier said the University is evaluating whether the dining halls could join in the future.
Sophomore Peter Coleman, a frequent dining hall user, said the amount of food waste is noticeable even if students are focused on reducing waste.
“You don’t really think about it while you’re eating,” Coleman said. “But when you see how much food they toss, it sticks with you.”
Chartwells and UM officials said dining operations are regularly reviewed for potential sustainability improvements. They said any future changes will depend on operational and regulatory factors, but no concrete plans have been finalized.