The Giving Table: How Hopkins Dining Gives Back
As the fall semester comes to a close, we prepare for students to go back home to their families and friends to celebrate the holiday season and wind down from months of hard work. But have you ever thought about what happens to the food left on campus after you leave? Of course, we try to order less and use as many of our ingredients as possible leading into finals to reduce food waste, but there are always things that will be left over. For those items, and for all our food purchases, we follow the food waste hierarchy.
This might be a new concept to some, but it is the gold standard for food waste management across the world. The hierarchy was developed to serve Sustainable Development Goals around food waste and food insecurity. For those in the sustainability world, the food waste hierarchy also guides many of our decisions around policies and partnerships. The top green of the pyramid is the most desirable outcome, while the bottom red of the pyramid is the least desirable. 
As you can see, food recovery and donation are our second-best options, only topped by source prevention. To fulfill our local and global responsibilities, Hopkins Dining hosts our Community Meal Program, where we use perishable ingredients that would otherwise be composted to create delicious and nutritious meals for those in need. Our local food donation partner Good Harvest picks up these meals and distributes them to local after-school and Head Start programs, shelters, and senior centers. The entire dining team works together to prepare the meals in the morning and pack them for delivery in the afternoon. In between our working hours, we all gather to share a meal together to celebrate a semester well-done and enjoy the community we create as a team. Last semester, we donated 500 meals to food-insecure families over the Memorial Day holiday. We believe we have a responsibility to create a sustainable and equitable food system for not only our students but for our surrounding community, as well. We are excited to continue and expand our food donation partnerships to have an even greater impact on reducing food waste and feeding our community.
