Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, community services, food access and security, food loss and waste recovery/reduction, leadership development, local and regional food systems, quality of life, social psychological indicators
Proposal abstract:
This project seeks funding to transform Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) campus food system by reducing unnecessary food waste with three objectives. VCU is a large urban university composed of twenty one higher education units including a world renowned liberal arts campus, a medical campus and hospital, while participating in Division I NCAA athletics. VCU is also embedded into the fabric of an urban environment that encompasses a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds and cultural interactions. Currently, VCU has little capacity to track or reduce food waste beyond internal efforts by our food service partner, Aramark. An alliance of senior administrators, VCU Sustainability, and faculty members aim to change this reality in line with modern sustainable food management practice (US EPA). Initial efforts will focus on VCU’s central all-you-can-eat cafeteria before eventually expanding our innovations to the hospital system cafeterias and to VCU Athletics. Efforts will proceed in a staggered and controlled rollout taking place over the course of the funded three years, but with the intention to to expand to other parts of VCU beyond the funded timeline.
The first objective is to develop and implement an innovative system to track both edible and inedible institutional food service pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste (Natural Resources Defense Council, 2017) at VCU’s central all-you-can-eat cafeteria. Such a system can better inform purchasing and food preparation decisions by VCU Dining (i.e., source reduction), characterize consumer habits (towards behavioral change) and support the development of educational initiatives towards both cafeteria and customers. Further, characterization of post consumer waste streams will inform overall human and environmental health impacts.
The second objective is to divert unprepared and unserved pre-consumer food portions from the cafeteria to a network of decentralized, anonymous SMART community refrigerators on and off-campus. These include the VCU campus food pantry network (“Ram Pantry”). This objective will enhance the existing sensor system created for the network of similar on-campus, dry goods food pantries (“Little Ram Pantries”). The next-generation SMART systems include inward-facing cameras linked to a website, allowing for monitoring of inventory and usage. This sensor data will allow the research team to optimize food diversion to Ram Pantry and off-campus partners. These off-campus partners include RVACommunity Fridges (an emerging decentralized network of mutual aid fridges and dry-goods pantries scattered across the greater Richmond region) and five VCU affiliated older adult living facilities.
The third objective reduces food waste through evaluation, education, training, and outreach. Tasks include developing an interactive dashboard, a virtual website for real-time waste statistics, conducting portion adjustment trials, and creating best practice documents based on evaluations. This objective employs focus groups with food waste recipients, performs geospatial analysis of pantry sensor data, will host a workshop for Virginia higher education institutions and provide for educational resources that can be adopted broadly. By fostering sustainability and engaging the on and off campus community, VCU can become a national leader in food waste reduction!
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective 1: Implementing Waste Tracking System
Task 1.1: Tracking Food Preparation and Serving Waste
- Install high-precision digital scales for waste measurement and data collection in Shafer Dining Hall.
Task 1.2: Development and Evaluation of Automated Plate Waste
Tracking System
- Subtask 1.2.1: Design and Development Phase
- Develop Plate Waste Tracking (PWT) units with advanced technologies for waste measurement.
- Tag dining plates with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)/Near-field communication (NFC) for tracking.
- Implement high-resolution cameras and machine learning models for portion size estimation.
- Assemble and test prototype devices.
- Subtask 1.2.2: Deployment and Evaluation Phase
- Pilot implementation of PWT units at select stations.
- Train graduate students for manual measurement and recording.
- Monitor data integrity and system performance.
Task 1.3: Large-Scale Data Collection and Analysis
- Gather comprehensive data across Shafer service areas.
- Correlate waste data with consumer metrics and environmental conditions.
- Generate detailed reports on food waste by type and purchase origins.
Objective 2: Establishing a Food Diversion System
Task 2.1: Food Waste Diversion with Goodr and Ram Fridges
- Divert unprepared or unserved pre-consumer food portions from Shafer to a decentralized network of campus sensor-enabled food pantry refrigerators (Ram Fridges). In some cases, Objective 1 will assist both in diverting foods to the refrigerators but also in right-sizing portions to reduce the potential for food waste in the long-term.
Task 2.2: Divert Food to RVA Community Fridges
- Expand diversion efforts from Task 2.1 to support the off campus RVACommunity Fridge network.
- Provide a refrigerated trailer hitch and electrical upgrade for RVACommunity Fridge.
- Stipend for RVACommunity Fridge’s unofficial manager and honorariums for volunteers.
Task 2.3: Divert Food to Older Adult Living Facilities
- Expand diversion efforts from Task 2.1 to support VCU affiliated older adult living facilities.
- Coordinate with Gerontology faculty at VCU for minor assistance.
Task 2.4: Sensor Improvements
- Improve stability and add inward-facing cameras to the sensor system for real-time inventory and usage analysis.
Objective 3: Reducing Food Waste through Evaluation, Education, Training, and Outreach
Task 3.1: Dashboard Development and Implementation
- Develop and install an interactive dashboard for real-time waste statistics.
- Create a virtual dashboard and website featuring waste data, success stories, and educational resources.
Task 3.2: Portion Adjustment Trial
- Experiment with adjusting meal portion sizes based on historical data and immediate feedback.
- Collect and analyze data on waste quantities.
Task 3.3: Evaluation of Behavior Changes Interventions
- Evaluate results from dashboard and portion adjustment trials.
- Create best practice documents for VCU Dining and other institutions.
Task 3.4: Focus Groups of Diverted Food Waste Recipients
- Conduct focus groups to assess the effectiveness and impact of food diversion programs.
Task 3.5: Geospatial Analysis of Food Pantry Sensor Data
- Perform geospatial analysis of pantry sensor data to optimize placement and operation.
Task 3.6: Campus Food Waste Workshop for Virginia Higher Education Institutions
- Organize a workshop for staff and faculty from other Virginia institutions to share lessons learned.
Task 3.7: Presentation at Practitioner and Scholarly Conferences and Open Access Research Publication
- Present findings at conferences and publish research in open access journals.
Task 3.8: Development of Waste Reduction Educational Materials and Communication Strategies
- Create and implement training modules for VCU Dining staff to promote waste reduction behaviors among customers
- Work with VCU faculty to integrate food waste reduction and sustainability topics into existing course curricula
Task 3.9: Formation of Community Advisory Group
- Establish a community advisory group to coordinate off-campus food diversion.