Tracking and Diverting All-You-Can-Eat Cafeteria Food Waste and Loss from an Urban Public University in Central Virginia

Project Overview

FLW24-004
Project Type: Community Foods Project
Funds awarded in 2024: $499,915.00
Projected End Date: 08/31/2027
Grant Recipient: Virginia Commonwealth University
Region: National
State: Virginia
Project Leader:
Dr. John Jones
Virginia Commonwealth University

Commodities

No commodities identified

Practices

  • Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, community services, leadership development, local and regional food systems, quality of life, social psychological indicators, food access and security, food loss and waste recovery/reduction, food loss and waste recovery/reduction, food loss and waste recovery/reduction

    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.
    Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.