Sodexo Dining Services
As a guest, it is easy to make smart environmental choices when you dine with us. We know our guests want to do the right thing for the planet and we also know you lead busy lives, so our chefs and managers do a lot of the work for you behind the scenes! From sourcing local products to monitoring food waste, our commitment to sustainability was formalized with our Better Tomorrow Plan. The Better Tomorrow Plan includes numerous commitments for a brighter future by focusing on four key priorities: health, planet, community and our people. Learn more about Better Tomorrow Commitments.
Local Suppliers
We work closely with our produce partner Roch’s Fresh Foods to maximize the fruits and vegetables purchased from local farms. Tracking local purchases helps us meet our Better Tomorrow commitment of 20% local purchases by 2020.
Cage-Free Eggs
Since 2014, Providence College Dining serves 100% cage-free, Certified Humane shell eggs on-campus! We continue to seek out higher welfare producers for all animal products.
Food Recovery Network
Food Recovery Network unites students on college campuses to fight food waste and hunger by recovering perishable food that would otherwise go to waste from their campuses and communities and donating it to people in need. The Friar Food Rescue, an FRN chapter at Providence College, was one of the first eight colleges to join the Food Recovery Network and has recovered over 18,000 pounds of food since its infancy in 2012.
Tray Free Dining
Tray free dining is a strategy to reduce food waste. Not having a tray limits the amount of food patrons can carry at one time. Without trays, patrons are less likely to serve themselves more than they can eat, which significantly reduces food waste. Tray free dining also decreases the amount of water and energy used for washing trays.
Skip the Straw
Providence College Dining Services is committed to eliminating all avoidable waste to landfills by 2025, and more specifically, eliminating all avoidable plastic straws from the campus dining. Seventy-one percent of sea birds and 30% of sea turtles have been found with plastic in their stomachs. Help us build a better tomorrow for everyone by limiting your straw use in our campus restaurants! #skipthestraw
Reusable Cups
The environment and your wallet win! Bring your reusable cup to purchase coffee on campus and receive a discount every time.
XPressnap
XPressnap dispensers are another solution to reducing energy and waste. They use 30% less paper than traditional napkin dispensing mechanisms which helps the environment while helping to keep costs down. The napkins are made of 100% recycled paper, and the dispenser will encourage customers to take (and waste) fewer napkins. Energy is saved because less power is used to recycle paper products than to create them from virgin material. According to Xpressnap, enough is saved through using recycled napkins to power 600 American homes for an entire year! More than half a million gallons of oil were saved (38 tanker trucks worth), and 41 tons of pollutants were kept out of the environment. Using recycled napkins diverted 4,131 cubic yards of paper from landfills. This is enough to cover a football field with a stack of paper two and a half feet deep. Find these napkin holders at all campus dining locations!
Biofuel
Our fryer oil is recycled into biodiesel by Newport Biodiesel and converted into sustainable heating fuel.
