This summer, all three of the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s dining halls became certified as Ocean Friendly Restaurants. During the Surfrider Foundation’s Ocean Friendly Business Month, our chapter and students from the UNCW student club got together for an impressive tour of UNCW dining hall operations. This tour offered an in depth-look look at how thoughtful choices—from meal preparation to what happens after students finish eating—can help reduce waste.
As an Ocean Friendly Restaurant, the UNCW dining halls go beyond our mandatory criteria about plastic waste by also addressing the issue of food waste.
Mia Knecht, Sustainability Associate for Aramark Collegiate Hospitality at UNCW, walked us through initiatives that address food waste at its source, give surplus food another purpose, and make reusable options part of the dining experience. Read on to learn more about how they do it!
Preventing Food Waste Before It Starts
UNCW’s approach begins with source reduction. A pick-your-portion program lets students choose portions that match their appetites, while trayless dining encourages more intentional choices. Behind the scenes, culinary waste tracking helps staff understand what is being discarded and identify opportunities to reduce it. Mia also showed us LeanPath, an automated, AI-powered food waste tracking system that UNCW is piloting. The pilot adds another tool to help the dining team better understand food waste and inform its prevention efforts.
Rethinking What Gets Thrown Away
The dining program incorporates both pre-consumer and post-consumer composting, addressing food scraps generated during food preparation as well as those left after meals. Styrofoam-free dining and plant-forward menus are also part of its sustainability efforts which match Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly criteria
Together, these initiatives show how holistic waste reduction can be woven into everyday operations.
Finding Another Purpose for Surplus
The tour also highlighted several food recovery initiatives, including surplus food donations, upcycled ingredients, and the use of appropriate materials for animal feed and biofuel.
These approaches recognize that surplus food and kitchen byproducts can have value beyond their original use.
Making Reuse Part of the Routine
Reusable to-go containers and beverage discounts give students practical ways to participate. These programs bring sustainability incentives into everyday decisions, whether someone is taking a meal to go or picking up a drink between classes.
What stood out the most from our tour was the breadth of the effort involved in creating sustainability-centered dining halls. UNCW Dining is addressing waste at multiple stages, combining operational changes with opportunities for students to take part.Thank you to Mia and the UNCW Dining team for showing us the work happening behind the scenes. It was encouraging to see so many thoughtful initiatives in action—and the willingness to keep exploring new ways to improve.