You walk through a line in the cafeteria and get food, sit down to eat and then take your plate with leftover food to the racks. Have you ever wondered what happens to the food and waste?Food Services, run by Chartwells, has a program set up with the Agriculture department. The waste that is gathered by Food Services is sent to the Waters Organic Farm. Waters Farm then uses the waste to make its compost.
“We package 110 to 160 gallons of waste a day,” Chartwells Residential Dining Director, Walter Buck said. “We put the waste in barrels, which we set on our dock, where someone from the organic farm picks them up.”
The 40 gallon waste filled barrels are set out on the dock four times a week- Monday through Thursday. With Food Services packaging 110 to 160 gallons a day, the amount averages around 640 gallons of waste sent to the farm a week.
Chartwells also purchases vegetables from Waters Organic Farm. Though Waters is not able to produce enough to fully supply Tech’s food services, Chartwells purchases what they can.
“So far we’ve purchased tomatoes and green peppers. We purchase as much as we can whenever they have them available,” Buck said.
Buck also said that Waters Farm is going to create a hybrid lettuce. This lettuce will be a combination of different types of lettuce. Due to the relationship and agreement Chartwells has with Waters Organic Farm, the lettuce that the farm creates is going to be named after Chartwells and Tech.
