Let Them Eat

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “landfills are the largest human-related source of methane in the U.S., accounting for 34% of all methane emissions.” Fortunately, Macalester and the college food service company Bon Appétit are diverting food waste from landfills to appreciative recipients—pigs!

Since February, food waste from Café Mac (run by Bon Appétit) has been picked up by the local Barthold Farms, cooked to kill bacteria, and transformed into feed for free-range pigs. The impetus for this change came last fall when sustainability student worker Natalie Locke ’11 and Bon Appetit’s sustainability student worker Abe Levine ’11 researched food waste options in collaboration with the college’s Zero Waste Committee.

“Barthold picks up six days a week, an average of five or six barrels a day,” says Mark Dickinson ’76, director of Facilities Services. “Because we pay for waste hauling by frequency and weight, we expect the savings in hauling costs to more than offset the three dollars per barrel we pay Barthold.” He also points out that the food waste isn’t all from food left on plates. Because Bon Appétit uses so much fresh food, waste includes peelings, outside leaves, and so on from the food preparation.

Macalester’s Sustainability Office presented its Green Star Award for sustainable practices to those who took the idea from theory to practice: Locke, Levine, Café Mac general manager Deb Novotny, and Dickinson, Jerry Nelson, Laurie Salden, and Jim Davidson from Facilities Services.

“Bon Appétit is very excited about implementing this new program,” says Novotny. “It’s part of our overall mission to be the premiere food service for a sustainable future.”