At Lafayette, numerous groups and individuals are involved in the food system, making decisions that effect its goals and efficiency. Developing and renegotiating the relationships between actors will likely be the most important and most difficult step towards food waste reduction.
Social Map of Food Waste Actors
Offices:
On an administrative level, the offices of Student Life, Residence Life, and Sustainability are key players. While dining services is not directly answerable to the Dean of Student Life, the Dean does frequently work with dining services in evaluating and making changes to the system. The Office of Student Life also serves as a liaison for students wishing to communicate with dining services, whose day to day operations and business mindset make it difficult for direct communication with students. While this channel of communication is important, it must be expanded if other players are to coordinate with dining services in future waste reduction projects. The Office of Residence Life has played a recent role in organizing students through the First Year Commons, a cooperative within first year student dorms. Within the Commons, a group of first year students in the class of 2021 have pushed for a Meal Swipe donation system (P. McLoughlin, personal communication, February 13, 2017). Instigating these connections between students at an early stage of their college educations will allow for momentum in the student body moving forward. The Sustainability Office, which now includes a Sustainability Director, a Campus Energy Manager, and the LaFarm Manager, offers an environmental platform for waste reduction initiatives and has begun to open its channels of communication to other players.
Private Contractors:
Two key actors who remain relatively isolated in the social map are Landscape Services and Bon Appetit. As parties under contract with the college, Lafayette must recognize that relationship-building and communication will be greater challenges. However, with Bon Appetit’s direct relationship with food production and distribution, and Landscape Services’ potential to assist with the compost program, the College must make an effort to connect these actors to others on campus. LaFarm and Landscape Services must form a partnership through administrative support in negotiating contracts. Tying additional student organizations to these players will also allow new and developing projects related to compost to move forward. Bon Appetit will need to develop a relationship with Landscape services in order to provide the food waste for composting. In terms of the food recovery efforts on campus, Bon Appetit’s sustained support and communication with students recovering food must continue and grow with the projected expansion of the program.
Student Organizations:
While it is impossible to connect every student at Lafayette to these administrative offices and private contractors, it is feasible to connect student organizations. Enhancing access to administration and private contractors will facilitate student-led food waste initiatives by providing additional resources, information, and logistical cooperation. Environmental organizations such as LEAP, the Society for Environmental Engineers and Scientists, LaFFCo, and EcoReps all have the potential become involved in food waste reduction, yet often fail to move their ideas forward due to lack of outside support and difficulties in communicating with each other. LEAP has been involved in the recent “Weigh the Waste” initiative, which tracks plate waste in dining halls, as well as a number of other sustainability campaigns. SEES has close ties to the composting program and facilitates connection between the engineering departments and sustainability initiatives. LaFFCo provides student connections to food production and works to educate students about the food they eat through events like “Farm to Table”. EcoReps is a key actor due to its potential to educate students living in residence halls about ways to live more sustainability. The newly established Sustainability Office offers an umbrella organization for these environmental clubs to not only communicate but to contribute to larger goals. The Easton Hunger Coalition serves as a model for this organization scheme, providing a resource for information and facilitating conversations between existing food recovery programs without usurping their agency.
Center for Community Engagement:
Social justice and community services organizations compose another area of the food waste social map, which is often isolated from surrounding actors. Under the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), a number of well-established programs facilitate relationship-building between students and the broader Easton Community. The CCE’s long-term presence and active efforts to breakdown artificial barriers between Lafayette and Easton provide connections between potential food waste initiatives and local shelters such as the Third Street Alliance, Easton Area Community Center, and Safe Harbor. These relationships have already proven valuable in the food recovery efforts. As food waste initiatives and the recognition that food waste is more than a one-dimensional problem grow, connections between the CCE and Sustainability Office must also expand to share the responsibilities of programs and to efficiently collaborate.
Easton:
The City of Easton is also a food waste actor at Lafayette. Caution must therefore be taken in ensuring that the food recovery efforts do not become one-sided, with Lafayette as the “giver” and the shelters as the “receivers”. Guaranteeing that the inputs and lifestyles of shelter residence are considered and that shelter administration is consulted and respected should be a priority for those involved with the food recovery program. In the composting efforts, Easton’s Waste Water Treatment Plant may also become a key player, making it necessary for the College’s administration and those involved with composting to open new channels of communication. This communication can be structured as formal meetings between the Waste Water Treatment Plant and members of Lafayette’s administration, the Sustainability Director, and faculty invested in food waste reduction. Regular email correspondence must also be maintained outside of these meetings. The Easton Hunger Coalition, Nurture Nature Center, and Lehigh Food Policy Council can also offer guidance, resources, and opportunities for further food waste reduction if regularly included in discussion.
Solutions:
Bridging the communication gap between these food waste actors is paramount if the campus is to make progress. With so many interests in the issue and the diversity of perspectives, lack of coordination can only lead to confusion and inefficiency. The failure of the above social map lies within the lines drawn. A system of communication between actors cannot be built upon channels that connect only two players at a time. Creating transparent spaces for communication that offer connection between all parties is key. While the Sustainability Committee theoretically offers such a space for environmental initiatives on campus, its broad focus can sometimes be detrimental to action. Creating a space that is dedicated to food waste reduction and that involves representatives from all interested parties will allow for a breaking down of the communication barriers depicted in this social map. While the creation of such spaces can be instigated by students and faculty, members of Lafayette’s administration with the powers to make policy changes must also take leadership roles. If the administration is not involved, the barriers to communication will only be reinforced.