Dining Services is committed to sustainable practices, from purchasing local food to conserving water.
Dining Services uses sustainable, locally grown, and locally-processed foods as often as possible. Examples of local businesses include: UTZ, Hershey’s, Roaring Spring, Musselman’s, and dozens more. Servo and the Bullet Hole are dedicated to preventing wastes from entering the waste stream. Servo recycles at all stages of food preparation and donates it’s pre-consumer leftover food to Campus Kitchen, which benefits local individuals and agencies in need. At the Bullet Hole, students can recycle paper products, plastic cutlery, lids, straws, cups, and mostly clean condiment containers. The plates are composed of sugarcane and bamboo fibers, while the brown to-go containers are biodegradable. Keep reading to learn more.
Dining Sustainability Initiatives
Gettysburg College Dining Services believes that taking care of the environment is part of our stewardship and commitment to a sustainable future. To minimize our ecological footprint…
- We use Tork Intuition towel dispensers and Xpressnap napkin dispensers that deliver one napkin at a time. Each minimize waste and both use 100% recycled America, one of the world’s most sustainable companies. In additional, we use SCA paper towels and toilet paper.
- Some of our fruit and vegetables are purchased from local farms. What we cannot obtain locally is sourced to a produce house who purchase much of the product they distribute within 100 miles.
- We recycle metal, plastic and cardboard in order to minimize our waste stream.
- We use a Waste Pro Pulper System in our dish room that reduces waste volume by a ratio of 8 to 1, reduced water consumption by 66% and reuses 95% of that water continually during operation.
We use an EcoVim. Learn more
In the summer 2014 Gettysburg College Dining Services took another great step to becoming a more sustainable facility by introducing the EcoVim to the everyday operations in the Dining Hall. By doing this, Servo has been able to reduce it’s outgoing food waste by 85%. The machine takes the food waste, effectively breaks it down, and heats it up to turn it into a sterilized biomass. The process usually takes about 12 hours to complete per cycle and we are able to reduce 1,400 pounds of pulp into approximately 300 pounds of biomass in one week. Facilities Services retrieves the biomass and transports it to Dickinson College for use at the Dickinson College farm in it’s compost pile.- We promote the use of washable utensils and service ware as much as possible.
- We seek partnerships with suppliers that are committed to being socially responsible to environmental issues.
- We have a reusable cup program in our Coffee shop with incentives.
- Use Bulk Fryer Oil, saving 640 plastic jugs per year.
- We have increased our plant-based options.
- We work with the Campus Sustainability Committee.
- We work with Campus Kitchen.
Local Food Purchases
- Musselman's (apples) - PA
- Swiss Dairy (dairy products) - Lebanon, PA
- Tyson (chicken and pork products) - Mt. Joy, PA
- Perdue (chicken) - Eastern Shore, MD
- Graybill's Bee Haven (honey) - Abbotstown, PA
- UTZ (potato chips) - Hanover, PA
- Hershey's Ice Cream - Hershey, PA
- Stoneridge Manor (beef) - Gettysburg, PA
- Martin's Potato Rolls - Chambersburg, PA
- Weikert's Egg Farm - Gettysburg, PA
Quit the Cup!
The Commons Marketplace has a 'Quit the Cup' program, where you buy a reusable cup and take advantage of the perks! If you buy a commons reusable cup, you receive your first drink on us. If you bring a cup of your own or the commons reusable cup, you get $0.50 off your drink. this reduces using disposable cups