Sustainability Dashboard-Food

Sustainable Dining

University of Oregon manages nine dining venues, as well as offering full-service catering. Our eaters include over 4000 residential students eating multiple meals each day during the academic year. As the largest preparer of food in the Eugene-Springfield area, what the university buys, prepares, serves, and wastes matters.

UO also encourages food choices that are good for the planet. All dining venues include multiple vegan and vegetarian options and dining staff work to create menus that center plants over meat and dairy. We also host a Low Carbon Footprint dinner during Earth Week, featuring innovative, delicious foods that have a lower carbon footprint. Food choices that meet these low carbon footprint criteria are marked throughout our campus dining venues all year.

Note: Line thicknesses are meant to convey a rough sense of proportions.
Recycling here refers to packaging. UO kitchens recycle the vast majority of the packaging that food shipments arrive in. Post-consumer recycling is limited primarily to aluminum, glass, and plastic beverage containers

Act Locally

UO supports local food suppliers, as you can see from the map on this page. The map shows all suppliers UO has direct relationships with in Oregon and Washington. We source produce, seafood, tofu, bagels, and more from these businesses. The image showcases our bioregions, highlighting the interconnected nature of food production. The second map gives a more in-depth look at the suppliers in the Eugene-Springfield metro area specifically. All together UO sources approximately 17% of our total campus food (by cost) from these regional suppliers.

UO takes measures to avoid waste related to dining. We donate any food prepared but not served to the local food bank, diverting food waste and supporting the local community. UO also reduces food waste through our Leftover Textover program, which notifies interested students by text message whenever an event has leftover catering. We also compost all pre-consumer food scraps and other food waste. UO uses the Lean Path system to help UO reduce waste through more data-driven and accurate purchasing decisions.

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Sustainable Dining

Act Locally