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U.S. EPA Honors Sustainability Program

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U.S. EPA Honors Sustainability Program

Keene State College Honored by Environmental Protection Agency for Outreach Program to Keep Wasted Food Out of Landfills

College is Only Nationally-Recognized Organization for Outreach and Education Efforts

Keene State College was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its educational and outreach campaign to reduce wasted food that ends up in landfills, as part of the agency’s Food Recovery Challenge. The College’s campaign includes consistent food audits; a “spokesvegetable” and mascot, the Carrot, that is displayed across campus with facts about preventing food waste and the progress that the College has been made; bringing external experts on the topic to campus to speak to the community; engaging students in the logistics of the program; and more.

“Keene State partners closely with Sodexo, our food service provider, to deliver on the College’s commitment to sustainability through engaging our students – in fact, our students are critical to this recognition through their work to monitor and track our food usage and waste,” said Keene State College Campus Sustainable Material Management Specialist, Heather Greenwood. “Through our partnership with Sodexo, we have accomplished a great deal for this important issue. I look forward to continuing our partnership, and going forward, I see many possibilities with increased interactions between our food waste prevention team and involvement of first year students.”

Every pound of food that ends up in the trash represents 71 pounds of waste upstream through the growing, preparation and transportation process. According the EPA, in 2013, 37 million tons of food waste was generated and only five percent was recovered, with 35 million tons going to the country’s landfills.

Keene State College has received three regional EPA awards since the inception of the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, including both the 2014 and 2013 Demonstrated Commitment to Improving Sustainable Food Management Practices Awards, and 2012 (combined with 2011) Outstanding Achievement in Food Waste Prevention.

The full press announcement from the New England EPA office on this newest recognition can be viewed here.

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