Teaching Sustainability Practice through Service Learning: A Case Study of Reducing Food Waste

Introduction

Food is a necessary carbon source for our existence. While most consumers think of food in terms of its sensory (taste or smell) and social (gatherings or festivities) benefits, we may be overlooking the environmental connections to climate change. Such connections are found along the food chain with the highest methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions resulting from agricultural soil management, enteric fermentation, livestock manure management, and rice cultivation (EPA, 2020). Additional carbon dioxide (CO₂), CH₄ and N₂O emissions are associated with liming, urea fertilization, field burning of agricultural residue, and land-use conversion activities (EPA, 2020).

While the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) originate from the production side of the supply chain, consumers directly contribute via dietary choices and food waste. For instance, human diets high in animal products from ruminant animals, such as dairy and beef cattle, are associated with CH₄ emissions through microbial fermentation in the animal's digestive system (Friel et al., 2009). Likewise, the decomposition of food waste results in CO₂ and CH₄ emissions, in addition to the resources consumed in the production, processing, distribution, and preparation of that food (Moulta et al., 2018; ReFED, 2016). The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations quantified the global carbon footprint of food produced but not eaten to be 3.3 Gt of CO₂ equivalent, ranking third in emissions after the United States and China (FAO, 2013).

In addition to atmospheric and pollution impacts, consumers, food-related businesses, and conference events with food and beverages produce excessive amounts of food waste. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that 31 percent of food produced is lost at the retail and consumer levels (Buzby et al., 2014), valued at $201 billion dollars per year (ReFED, 2016). Based on these numbers, the estimate for the state of Maine equates to approximately 236,500 tons of food wasted annually, with only 5 percent of it being diverted to hunger relief (Blackmer et al., 2018).

Given this significant contribution, consumers and food businesses have an important role in reducing the environmental footprint associated with food production, processing, consumption, and disposal by minimizing food waste and shifting to a more plant-based diet (Aleksandrowicz et al., 2016; Leiserowitz et al., 2020). Such changes within corporate culture and personal behavior can both mitigate and adapt to our current climate crisis. With knowledge being one critical component for behavioral change (Arlinghaus & Johnson, 2018), this case report highlights how education increased awareness and developed skills in order to mitigate and adapt for climate-centric actions within our food system.

Project Description and Methodology

The focus of this project was the intersection of food waste, climate implications, environmental stewardship, and food insecurity. Our team of three professors in business, food studies, and tourism and hospitality at the University of Southern Maine (USM) collaborated with the USM's Service Learning and Volunteering to implement the Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) grant through Maine Campus Compact. USM is a comprehensive, public institution located in southern Maine and welcomes nearly 8,000 students from 44 states and 22 countries. Planning for this project began in April 2018 and continued through summer 2019, when the Maine Campus Compact was awarded $4,500 for this grant project. Grant funds were used in fall 2019 to conduct a coordinated service-learning project across three independent courses: Food and Environment (FSP 310), Green Meetings and Conference Management (TAH 340), and Sustainable Business Practicum (BUS 348).

The primary goal of this coordinated service-learning project was to give students the opportunity to work in collaboration across different disciplines, in theory broadening the groups' collective thinking about reducing food waste and lowering environmental impact. The team believes higher education has a role in the development of civic skills for meaningful, engaged participation in society. (For more on this idea, see Braskamp, 2011). When students learn about issues like climate change, land use, and hunger, they can become informed, global citizens. Likewise, the service-learning model was chosen as our pedagogical approach because it allows students to engage in experiential learning while doing good in the local business community and mastering sustainability practices. We further hoped to increase awareness of food insecurity in our class work, helping students develop responsibility for our environment and society.

In preparation for executing the project, our team of faculty identified possibilities for community partnerships and the cultivation of learning outcomes that transcend our courses. These outcomes focused on knowledge acquisition, application of principle integration, caring, and learning to learn. For example, in knowledge acquisition, we used the climate science from our introduction as the foundation for framing food waste challenges and food recovery opportunities within the food business and catering business. This outcome was evaluated using in-class group work and short answer examination. To apply and integrate this knowledge, we wanted students to understand the ways to assess and quantify food waste. Students were given a number of tools to use onsite with our community partner to measure food waste and develop plans to mitigate its environmental impacts. Accomplishment of this goal was evaluated through a review of the work presented by students to the community partners at the end of the semester. Another example in caring, we wanted students to independently support a particular solution to food insecurity. Accomplishment of this goal was evaluated through a review of hunger and homelessness awareness campaigns and projects that students had organized and participated in. Finally, in learning to learn, students grouped themselves and developed their own research questions using curiosity and self-awareness (Andersen, 2016). This outcome was evaluated throughout the project with regular personal and small-group reflection, followed by multiclass discussion of the project experience.

This service-learning project directly applies USM's commitment to climate change education and mitigation. Such commitment was written by the USM Office of Sustainability in 2017 and endorsed in its entirety by the University's Master Planning Committee, the Student Senate, and University President (Arlinghaus & Johnson, 2018). USM has pledged to: 1.) utilize sustainability initiatives to drive meaningful, hands-on learning, 2.) increase sustainability literacy among students, staff and faculty, and 3.) reduce overall waste by 25 percent while increasing waste diversion rate to 70 percent (Arlinghaus & Johnson, 2018). While executing this project, our students in business, food studies, and tourism and hospitality met these targets in education, outreach, and material resources, thereby demonstrating the role of higher education in climate change action.

Project Implementation with Community Partners

Our three courses were tied together with farm volunteering, working with a local business cooperative and farm to measure and reduce food waste, and organizing student-led events as well as common readings. We opened the semester with visits to our community partner sites for students to see the dynamics of food harvest at Winslow Farm, a local organic vegetable and fruit farm with a community supported agriculture (CSA) operation and flower shop, located in Falmouth, Maine (https://www.winslow-farm.com/), and food processing at Fork Food Lab, a non-profit, shared commercial business and food business incubator in Portland, Maine, that currently has 34 members (https://www.forkfoodlab.com/). On the farm, students worked side-by-side with the farmers to use end-of-season plants to mulch the roots of perennial beds. Students also harvested kale for donation to an area food pantry. Such activities demonstrated the project themes of food waste, food recovery, and climate change mitigation.

While at Fork Food Lab, students were introduced to numerous members of the commercial kitchen and observed their operations for production and food loss. From this initial visit with all three classes, students identified opportunities to reduce food waste with individual food business members and with the commercial kitchen operation as a whole. Working in small teams across different classes, students developed methods for tracking waste, understanding the regulatory environment, exploring options for better food utilization and donation, mapping out and utilizing best practice local partnerships and technologies, and communicating plans to the members and their customers. This work required students to also determine the best ways to leverage their own subject matter expertise to accomplish their work. Having a number of different disciplines represented across the three courses contributed to the depth and diversity of learning over the semester, similar to previous work by Jenkins and Stone (2019).

As part of service-learning, students planned waste conscious events during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week, an event sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness (https://hhweek.org/). Students in all courses participated in the planning and execution of the events, which included a zero-waste cooking demonstration with executive chefs from Sodexo, a global food and service management company that supplies dining services for USM (https://us.sodexo.com/about-us/overview.html), and Bluefin North Atlantic Seafood, a restaurant in the Portland Harbor Hotel in Portland (Gil Plaster, Executive Chef; https://www.bluefinportland.com). At this event, leftover food items were donated to a local shelter.

Students in each course learned the importance of using all pieces of ingredients to prevent food waste and ensure that leftovers go to someone in need. Additionally, tourism and hospitality students researched the feasibility of implementing a green meeting certification at USM. These students also recovered and cooked food for the Boys & Girls Club and hosted a professional clothing drive.

Each professor adopted evaluation activities that fit their individual courses while meeting the common project goal and learning objectives. For example, business students were required to do both individual and group projects over the course of the semester, and to keep a formal reflection journal. Journals were collected weekly, and main learnings were used by the professor to guide face-to-face and online discussions. Tourism and Hospitality students created recommendations for USM conference services after discovering potential areas to avoid food waste. Students then saw issues with food waste in their everyday lives. Food Studies students drafted a literature review of environmental and social impacts of food waste for specific food businesses, developed research questions for their small-team focus, completed human subjects training, conducted primary research with community stakeholders, and wrote a formal report on the process and the findings.

A final measure of assessment came from a combined group presentation of individual research and applications in December 2019. Students were given the presentation rubric ahead of time in order to construct their content, and presentations were rehearsed prior to the formal event with stakeholders. Students co-evaluated their classmates' methods and findings by asking questions and sharing ideas for future implementation. Evidence was shown that they understood these concepts and enjoyed the collaboration. As part of this final presentation, community partners attended the presentation and offered feedback on the students' work and recommendations.

Through these community activities, our 30 students were able to take theories and practices discussed in class throughout the semester and put them into use in the field with 14 different community partners. Overall, the students interacted with 41 representatives within the community organizations and businesses; there were also 57 non-student participants in our outreach and engagement events.

Many of the students reported that although they are in food-related academic programs or work in the food industry, such as restaurants, they had not physically been on a farm or in a food processing plant prior to this project. Similarly, most students shared that after completing this project, they recognized issues with food waste in their everyday lives, whether at home or at their places of employment. In summary, through this hands-on applied research, students applied the project themes of climate change and food recovery within their own fields by increasing soil carbon sequestration through mulching (food studies), consulting in the area of business sustainability (business), and utilizing all ingredients to prevent food loss while ensuring leftover food is given to those in need (tourism and hospitality).

Lessons Learned for Future Planning

This collaboration provided students with many different perspectives and opportunities to learn and collaborate. This enhanced the overall experience of the three classes, but presented some challenges for our individual courses. For example, in some cases we were not able to cover our full curriculum and set of content topics because of the time constraints associated with the classes getting together to work collectively. There were also occasions when different pedagogies did not blend smoothly. For example, one course was a practicum in which students could potentially fail while working with a community partner since failure was part of the learning process, while in another course the professor might have been able to invest more time to ensure successful community engagement as a way to support the community partner. The benefits of working together outweighed the challenges, however, and the challenges provided additional opportunities to think about the types of courses that we can put together in the future.

Students from our three classes proposed several good ideas. In future collaborations, we may want to provide more time at the end of the semester to allow students to implement more of their ideas. Since this was the first time out, there was plenty to discover about the amount of individual course work we could include with the project collaboration. After one semester of experience, our primary takeaway was to use a much more aggressive project planning schedule in the first third of the semester, which would allow students more time in the second third to collect data and in the final third to work on implementation.

In addition, for future collaboration, we would develop a common assessment tool to track progress and share the results. Likewise, we will investigate potential green certification programs that students and/or business community partners could earn through execution of a sustainability project. Overall, this service-learning experience gave students an opportunity to research important sustainability issues related to climate change within their community, the greater Portland region. For our faculty team, we learned from each other how our different disciplines are informing sustainability science, curricula, and community engagement.