Kitchen Cabinet
October 14, 2019
Steve Kjellgren, Jeri Miller, Lisa Heldke, Jen Donkin, James Dontje, Mark Hansen, Chuck Niederriter, Danielle Burger, Peter Maiers, Tim Sisk, Audrey Ochtrup-Dekeyrel, Aviva Meyerhoff, Dessa Thomas, Rafael Soriano Campos, JJ Akin, Kevin Birr, Jessica Braun, Guest – Rachel Belvedere
Summary of the KC Origin/Intent/Aspirations – Lisa
Fall 2007 is when this group got off the ground. Kitchen Cabinet serve as an advisory committee to the dining service director, as a clearing house for food related issues on campus as well as initiators of projects, disseminators of ideas and propellers of change. Examples – Gustie Ware and the composter came out of this group. One aspiration would be focusing on aesthetic aspects of food and being good for the environment.
Report on Nobel Conference and Diner/Consumer Participation – Lisa
One of the most talked about things was the food which was all vegetarian. A class last spring worked on recommendations for how the food could represent climate change and have climate attentive meals. Many guests were challenged by this and felt entitled to meat & that they didn’t get a good value with not having meat. There was discussion on future Nobel conferences and should it relate to the menu offerings. Cancer is the topic for next years topic. There was recommendation that staff should be educated on the what and why of the food and inform the attendees what the menu plan would be prior to the conference. There were many complaints on the food but also participants thanking us for the menu and relation to the conference topic. One of the presenters was inuit and has a meat based diet and this was a deep inconvenience to her to not have meat on the menu.
PESC Update – Jim
Presidents Environmental Sustainability Council. Working on renewable energy projects, energy reduction goal plan. A proposal has been sent to President Bergman. The PECS is represented from students all the way up to the president. Rachel Belvedere & Victoria Franchose are student representatives. There is a website with information on the group. In the kitchen there have been modifications on air handlers to help decrease energy use.
Waste Stream Presentation – Rachel
Shared presentations she did for Southwest & IC students promoting & explaining composting on campus. The 1-2 gallon compostable bags can be used on campus with the composter and disposed of in the compost bins by the loading dock at the back of the kitchen. Composting buckets are available from Dining Service – limited amount at this time.
Campus Kitchen – Rafael
Rafael has found more students interested in the project and a couple of outside organizations including the St Peter Food Access network and the St Peter Food Shelf. They have finalized the process of becoming an organization on campus. They have also connected with the food shelf in town and have opportunities to collaborate with them.
Dessa Thomas is as sophomore and her 2nd year working with Campus Kitchens. She is now working on figuring out transportation and what places would like to receive from us. They have had a lot of interest from students this year. Hope is for this to continue to grow over the next few years and help eliminate food waste and distribute usable foods to be shared in the community. The food shelf would like to have a calendar to be able to share with clients. The students goal is to offer more healthy food for people. There is still more planning and logistics that need to be figured out. They also have had a reach out from the new homeless shelter and what the college could offer.
Sustainable Development Goals – Danielle
Molly attended a Fair Trade conference and a video was shared on sustainability and 17 sustainable development goals.
In the bookmark they are working on how to handle the packaging that items are delivered in.
MPCC Oct 24th College Food Insecurity Awareness Day
MN Office of Higher Ed has a student advisory council and next Thursday has been declared by Gov Tim Walz as College Food Insecurity Awareness Day. We are not aware of a large food insecurity problem on campus but want to work on supporting this and have some tabling.
Composting Across Campus – Jim, Peter, Tim
As far as custodial services go they are here to help with anything they can. Composting is continuing to grow on campus and are looking for ideas. They have added the new Nobel building to the composting on campus, but since 2002 have had a 30% loss in custodial staff. It can take 2-2 1/2 hours to collect the composting which takes workers from other work that needs to be done. They are looking at ways to help make this more efficient. Also looking at making buildings compost ready – need to know where should collection be, is there somebody willing to be responsible if problems come up, etc. Jim has been working with Peter and Tim to work through these questions and staffing issues. There are also a couple of students trying to figure out how they can do research with the composting. There was a suggestion to have education in the buildings to help students and employees know how to do this, what our role is and what we can do to help. Currently custodial staff are only involved with composting in the new Nobel building, but Tim is working to help the custodial staff become more involved with composting and improve their efficiencies. Lisa suggested a list be shared of what others can do, such as chairs being put up on tables to help the custodial staff be more efficient and have more time for other duties.
Next Meeting: November 11, 2019