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URBANA, Ill. (AP) — The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is working to cut back on how much food is thrown out at its dining halls.
Data collected over the past few years by the university's housing department has helped trim food waste, The (Champaign) News-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1GCejDG) reports. The university expects to keep roughly 678,000 pounds of food from being thrown out this school year. That's about $693,000 worth of food, making up 4 percent of the food budget.
Dining hall staffers measure how much food gets thrown out before going on students' plates using a scale that also gives a monetary value.
"We now understand what's being wasted, set goals and engage our employees to meet them," said Kelly Boeger, the university's menu management dietitian.
Staffers began realizing just how much food is left over when mealtimes finish. So, they started using smaller pans. Pre-consumer wasted food is down to about 345,000 pounds each year.
Data on food waste is tracked at each unit of the university's dining halls. Boeger said the university has contests on who can keep the most food out of landfills. The university says just getting rid of trays has cut the amount of food thrown out by students by roughly 9,500 pounds each day.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited campus in September to challenge students to help prevent food waste. The USDA estimates as much as 133 billion pounds of food ends up in landfills annually.
Dawn Aubrey, the university's associate director of housing and dining services, said new crops of students seem increasingly caring about food waste.
"The current students think, 'If I can make the world better, I'll be better off for it,'" Aubrey said.
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Information from: The News-Gazette, http://www.news-gazette.com
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