Yale University: Week Six

Soaking Up Knowledge and Some Sun

While our internship director was away this week enjoying the California sun, Nicole and I tried to beat the New Haven heat wave by savoring our time in the air-condioned office. Our focus on Eatec this week was the sustainability aspect. Since Yale Dining has such a strong focus on purchasing sustainable food, they want to be able track the sustainable products they are purchasing and be able to relay this to their customers. In the fall, once Eatec is fully functioning, they plan on displaying any

sustainability information relevant to each menu item on the recipe display cards, along with the nutritional and allergen information. Nicole and I had the opportunity to hear Gerry Remer, the Director of Supply Chain and Sustainability for Yale Dining, speak to a summer class at Yale's School of Environmental Studies and Forestry. Although we had both interacted with Gerry before and have heard general information on Yale's sustainability efforts, this was a great opportunity for us to hear more detailed information on the subject. When purchasing a product, the sustainability characteristics that are considered are divided into five categories: Regional, Eco-Sensitive, Fair, Health and Wellness, and Humane. When possible and economically efficient, Yale Dining tries to source items that are within a 300 mile radius of New Haven, CT. This is often a challenging task due to the short growing season in the region, being surrounded by ocean on one side of the land, and striving to keep fresh products available to the surrounding community. Under the category of eco-sensitive falls organic, integrated pest management, and carbon and water impact of production and transportation methods. All the paper products Yale uses in their dining facilities are all compostable and they have established a trayless dining system. A product is labeled with the sustainability characteristic of fair if it comes from a family owned company, if it is a fair trade item, and/or if a product is rainforest alliance certified. Categorized under the label humane are products where the animals were humanely raised and/or raised free range/cage free. Under the last sustainability category of health and wellness falls the labels of antibiotic free, hormone free, vegetarian fed, all natural, and GMO free. Yale Dining sustainability goals include purchasing 37% of products from sustainable sources, reducing energy use by 20%, reducing output to landfills by 30%, and increasing sustainability awareness to students, staff, and guests. Yale Dining recognizes that not all products purchased can be labeled as sustainable, but they are very conscious of the products they purchase and their sources. Yale Dining strives to be sustainable through purchasing, reducing, recycling, and education.

Site Visits
In order to check in on the processing facilities of local products, every few years Gerry, along with her sustainability and sourcing coordinator, Betty Binkley, plan visits to the production sites. This week we visited two New Haven sites where Yale purchases products from, Palmieri Food Products and Lamberti Sausage Company.  Palmieri Food Products is a small pasta sauce producing company and Lamberti Sausage Company is a family-owned sausage producing company. It was interesting to see where some of the products Yale purchases comes from directly and what conditions the products were made under.

Retail Operations
This week we got to experience the retail side of Yale Dining by meeting with BettyeJo, who is the retail manager at Yale's  KBT Cafe, Health Center Cafe, and is also the general manager for Marigolds Catering. She gave us a brief description of the 10 retail locations Yale has throughout campus and gave us a tour of several of them. The retail locations offer grab-n-go options for students and many of them serve as coffee cafes as well. The central kitchen that BettyeJo also oversees prepares the grab-n-go sandwich and salad options that are distributed to the various retail locations across campus.

Registered Dietitians
Since Nicole and I are both nutrition majors aspiring to be registered dietitians, we have been seeking the opportunity throughout our time in NewHaven to meet with RDs that are employed for Yale. This week we got the chance to meet with two RDs, one working as the employee wellness manager and the other working as a research associate.

Being Well at Yale
Lisa Kimmel is a registered dietitian who is a Certified Nutritionist and Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics. She has a Master's degree in Exercise Physiology and is currently the Wellness Manager for Being Well at Yale, the employee wellness program. We had met with Lisa a few weeks ago to discuss with her what we were doing for Yale Dining, so this visit was an opportunity for her to share with us what she was doing for the employee wellness program. This upcoming year she wants shift her focus to the Yale Dining employees and cater to the needs of that population. Each week the dining employees of each residential college dining hall have family meals. During these family meals, Lisa wants to bring a physician and health staff to them to perform basic health screenings. At these screenings, Lisa would like the employees to fill out self evaluation forms. While with Lisa, we helped her brainstorm ideas of how to format the evaluation sheet for employees to fill out, which would highlight their concerns, needs, and their desire to make a lifestyle change(s). The informational sheet is going to be formatted in a simple manner that emphasizes the purpose is to meet each employee's specific needs and concerns. Lifestyle changes that are highlighted on the sheet include weight management, diabetes management, smoking cessation, personal relationships, stress relief, eating healthier, etc. She is hoping that by reaching out to this specific employee population and catering to their needs she will be able to assist them in utilizing all health resources available to them on campus and help those who are willing make positive lifestyle changes. 

Yale Rudd Center For Food Policy & Obesity
The second registered dietitian we met with this week was Christina Munsell. Christina has a Master's degree in Health Care Policy and Management and works as a research associate at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. The Rudd Center is a non-profit organization that is funded by grants and researches topics centered around food policy and obesity. The center has numerous research teams that focus on different topics such as school food, weight bias, economics, and food marketing. Christina works largely in part with the marketing research team focusing on the topic of "food marketing to children." She recently did research on deceptive food marketing, the labeling of energy drinks as a supplement vs. a beverage, and how food is labeled to parents. She is very passionate about food policy and encouraged us to look for job opportunities in this area in the future. 

Nutrition Fact Cards
To fill our time when we were in the office, Nicole and I developed nutrition fact cards that can be displayed in the napkin holders in the dining halls. We both researched a variety of nutrition topics and made fun, easy to read cards to keep people entertained while dining. We covered a variety of topics from portion sizes to vitamins to foods that boost your memory. We thought it would be a great way to give people some general nutrition information and possibly spark their interest to research the various topics more. 

To Conclude... This week was filled with a wide variety of experiences and insights. We braved the extreme heat to have the rewarding experience of working at the weekly Uncommon Market again, we were given a lot of insight into the opportunities that are available to dietitians outside of the clinical setting, and we were more informed on what steps Yale Dining takes to be sustainable. We spent the weekend avoiding our non-air conditioned rooms by shopping and enjoying the hammocks provided in one of the Yale college courtyards.