At the University of South Carolina, sustainability is increasingly shaping how the campus community approaches food, waste and responsibility. Carolina Food Co. is at the center of these efforts, working across dining locations to reduce waste, support local food systems and build a more sustainable campus dining model.
Serving thousands of students, faculty and staff daily, Carolina Food Co. operates at a scale that brings both responsibility and opportunity. Sustainability is embedded throughout its operations, from sourcing ingredients locally to minimizing waste at every stage of production and service, creating a system designed to reduce environmental impact while supporting the campus community.
According to Ryan Whittaker, Carolina Food Co.’s campus culinary director sustainability is integrated across the entire food lifecycle.
“Here at Carolina Food Co., we utilize proprietary food management systems to track all of our food to limit food waste at every stage,” Whittaker says. “Before purchasing, we design our menus and forecast the needed amount for every item. We then ensure proper purchasing and receiving. We then supply associates with an item-by-item production sheet to make sure we don’t overproduce food. Finally, we track all waste both in production and leftover food.”
Guiding these efforts is Aramark’s “Be Well. Do Well.” sustainability framework, which emphasizes environmental stewardship and waste reduction.
“We use the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale as a reference for how we approach food waste,” says Faren Alston, marketing manager for Carolina Food Co. “The campus community has shown a vested interest in both food waste reduction and ensuring food security on campus, so as a partner with the campus, we also care deeply about these initiatives.”
A key focus is reducing waste at the source. Across dining locations, Enable+ tablets track food waste daily, including capturing data from production, service and storage. This helps teams identify trends, adjust purchasing, and refine preparation practices to reduce overproduction and improve efficiency.
When surplus food does occur, Carolina Food Co. prioritizes feeding people. Through partnerships with the Food Recovery Network and the CommUnity Shop, excess food from dining halls and retail locations is collected and redistributed to those in need. Programs such as Feed the Flock, developed with the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, further repurpose surplus ingredients into ready-to-eat meals for the campus community.
Collaboration is central to these efforts. Carolina Food Co. works with campus and community partners including Sustainable Carolina, the Office of the Provost, the Food Recovery Network, Oliver Gospel Mission, Transitions Homeless Shelter, the Green Restaurant Association and composting partners such as Denali Food Recycling Services.
Even when food cannot be recovered, it is diverted from landfills through composting programs that transform organic waste into nutrient-rich soil used across South Carolina farms and gardens. So far this spring semester, more than 83,000 pounds of food waste have been composted, preventing an estimated 17.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
“Almost everything that flows through our kitchen is composted, including the napkins from the dining room. We recycle all of our cardboard,” Whittaker says. “We have locations that serve thousands of meals a day and barely fill a dumpster with trash. That’s why you rarely see trash cans in our dining halls, we want to capture and compost every bit of waste possible.”
Looking ahead, Carolina Food Co. plans to expand composting operations and increase pickup frequency in partnership with Sustainable Carolina, while also growing Food Recovery Network participation across additional dining halls.
“Carolina Food Co. continues to advance innovative and meaningful initiatives to address food waste through source reduction, food recovery and donation, and landfill diversion,” says Larry Cook, director for the USC Office of Sustainability. “The Office of Sustainability values our strong ongoing partnership with Carolina Food Co to advance sustainable dining practices at USC and strengthen a culture of sustainability on our campus.”