Food Services

AVI Food Service is committed to sustainable and eco-friendly practices as much as the Sarah Lawrence community is to their deep and substantive pedagogy. Listed below are some of the few ways in which AVI keeps up with the latest innovations in green dining. For more information on our dining program and menus, please visit us at slc.avifoodweb.com.

Trayless Dining

• While an increasingly small amount of trays are still offered for utility sake, AVI hopes to make Bates a trayless dining facility, similar in that respect to the Pub.
• Cutting down on trays reduces the loads dishwashing machines need to clean, saving water, electricity, and time.

Stations

• Bates food stations produce personalized, á la carte dishes that meet dietary concerns (vegan, sandwich, and pasta stations) and individual tastes.
• We try to promote portion control by offering pre-plated, serving sized amounts of food at many of our stations.

Batch Cooking

• One of the most successful ways in which AVI runs green is by "batch cooking" or cooking food as needed for the expected number of diners, without gross overestimations. If more of a dish is necessary, a smaller batch is made to order.
• Individual portions are prepared per-capita at our Vegan-Vegetarian, International, and Homestyle stations as needed throughout the meal period to eliminate waste.

Scratch Cooking

• Our pizza dough is made entirely in house. This means we only have to ship flour to the kitchen (as opposed to much heavier frozen dough), thereby further reducing our carbon footprint.
• Our "Grab and Go" products are also made in house daily, so we can adjust and minimize our orders of ingredients based on demand (and not wholesale pricing) alone.

Recycling

• 100% of cans used in kitchen are recycled
• 100% of plastic containers of all sorts used in kitchen are recycled
• Fryer Oil is 100% organic, naturally produced, and biodegradable

Equipment

• New "Energy Star Partner" refrigeration units at stations and in kitchen replaced older water cooled units (which used significantly more energy)
• New "Energy Star Partner" Dish Machine utilizes steam heating from existing boiler unit in Bates, rather than supplying its own, energy expensive heating module

Community Involvement

• Being an active and receptive partner in sustainability efforts in SLC community through support of sustainability-related student ventures, recycling awareness, commitment to healthy dining options, local food support, homeless outreach support, etc.

For more information on AVI's sustainability efforts, please visit us at aviloveoftheearth.com.