Harvard University Dining Services

THE COOKING DEMO HAS BEEN CANCELED. APOLOGIES FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE.  The Garden welcomes helping hands every Wednesday  from 4-6pm.

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On May 2nd, more than 50 Harvard students took a break from studying for finals and picked up caulk guns to help improve the energy efficiency of the Phillips Brooks House in Harvard Yard.

Each year a few Green Skillet special projects are so successful that they warrant institutionalization across the board. The Green Grill is such a project and has proven a success in many kitchens this year. The Quincy dining hall staff have noticed a favorable trend in grill order waste since the bright green sign at the grill was posted.

It was a head-to-head competition until the bitter end, but ultimately, Cabot/Pfoho Kitchen outperformed Quincy to become the 2008-2009 Green Skillet Champs! With a 24.3% reduction in natural gas use, a 5.3% reduction in electricity use and nearly 75% Sustainability Pledge participation, the winning kitchen was a tough competitor.

In keeping with October's Green Tip on water conservation, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) is offering a discounted reusable water bottle. HUDS asks: "Did you know that it takes roughly 2/3rds as much water to make a bottle as it does to fill it?"

It was a fight to the end, but in the end, Leverett House took home the 2007 Green Skillet, crushing any dreams Quincy House had of being a two-time champion.

Most Houses compost their food waste. But for most of them, composting begins and ends in the dining hall. This is not the case in Adams House. It all started with a simple idea by Adams Food Literacy Project representative and junior Kelly A. Evans—getting her entryway to compost by placing bins on each floor—and took off when Dining Hall manager, Dave Seley, jumped on board.

On September 11, 2008, a total of 60 grill orders were left abandoned in Cabot and Pforzheimer dining halls. Plates of chickwiches, cheeseburgers, bean burritos, grilled chicken breasts, and Boca burgers all waited patiently to be claimed, but to no avail. Food was ordered but ultimately forgotten. This was food waste at its worst.

During the 2008 calendar year (January 1 - December 31), Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) was able to divert 36,565 paper cups from the trash through its 23 Pound Mug and discounted coffee refill program. The re-usable travel mug, whose name comes from the amount of paper trash that will be diverted by one using the cup daily for a year, is sold at cost at HUDS retail dining locations. Coffee purchased in that, or other re-usable mugs, is discounted at all retail sites.