Shrinking the Carbon and Water Footprint of School Food

Julian Kraus-PolkFriends of the Earth, Food & Technology Program

Sept 6th, 2017 DC Food Policy Council Meeting

Outline1) Introduction & Overview• Climate and Water Impacts of Animal Foods• 2015-20 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

• Oakland Unified School District Study/Key Findings

2) Oakland Unified School District Strategies:• California Thursday’s, Lean and Green Wednesdays• Professional Development, Student Engagement• Cost-effectiveness of recipe/menu shifts

Photo credit: Food Tank

3) Menu Design Strategies & Municipal Procurement• Less & Better Meat• Institutional Commitments: Meatless Monday’s and Good Food Purchasing

Policy• Potential DC Pilot Project

4) Resources and Questions

Food & Climate Change

Source: (EPA) https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data

Livestock production accounts for

14.5 percent of global GHG emissions

more than the entire transport sector

combined!

Food’s Water Footprint

¼ of global fresh water is

used foranimal feed production

All Protein is Not Created Equal

Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas emissions

Source: Environmental Working Group

2017 Project Drawdownmost powerful strategies for reversing climate change

8 of the top 20 solutions are in Food

http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank

#3 Reduced Food Waste #4 Plant-Rich Diet

Americans eat 3 times as much meat & poultry as

the global average

Source: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/

“lower intakes of meat as well as processed meats and poultry are associated with reduced risk of cardio vascular disease in adults”.

2015-2020 US Dietary Guidelines Conclusions and Recommendations

• Average intake of meat poultry, eggs is too high for teenage boys and adult men

• Legumes are under consumed across all age categories. These are lean, nutrient dense protein which DGA recommends.

• Vegetarian and (lower meat) Mediterranean diets are considered as two of five healthy eating patterns described by guidelines

“these dietary patterns are associated with reduced risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer”

Culinary Institute of America and Harvard’s School of Public Health

Menus of Change 2016 Report

“Greater emphasis on plant-based foods, including plant based proteins is the single most important contribution the food service industry can make

toward environmental sustainability”

Food service directors face complex demands and

requirements, and serving kids tasty and nutritious food is and must remain their number one priority. The OUSD case study shows that plant-forward menu planning is feasible and can

support the mandate forhealthier and more

delicious food

Animal Products Dominate OUSD’s Footprint

Source: Friends of the Earth, Shrinking the Carbon and Water Footprint of School Food, 2017

http://www.foe.org/projects/food-and-technology/good-food-healthy-planet/school-food-footprint

Menu Based Strategies Developing lower-carbon menus and recipes is an effective and approachable way to shift food purchasing.

http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/bacon-causes-cancer

What if all school districts followed Oakland’s lead?

Oakland, CA California United States

If every California K-12 school food service took similar action, it would amount to reducing roughly 80 million kg of CO2 emissions, equivalent to eliminating the emissions from 17,000 cars that drive almost 200 million miles per year, or installing 11,000 residential solar systems

If every school district in the nation took similar action, the GHG reductions would be akin to driving nearly 1.6 billion fewer miles or taking 150,000 cars off the road every year or installing 99,000 residential solar systems

http://www.foe.org/projects/food-and-technology/good-food-healthy-planet/school-food-footprint

OUSD Nutrition Services

Meals Provided at Schools (~40K per day)

• Lunch at all 86 schools• Breakfast at 77 schools• Supper at 22 schools• After School Snack at 60+ schools

• Intentional Staff and Supportive Community

• California Thursdays• Lean and Green Wednesday programs

Anatomy of a Recipe: Beef and Bean Chili

By the Numbers

• 1.36 oz grass fed organic ground beef = 1 oz m/ma = $0.34• ¼ cup kidney and pinto beans = 1 oz m/ma = $0.05• Other ingredients (tomatoes, spices, onions, etc.) = $0.10 (not

credited)• 2 oz m/ma tortilla chips = $0.25

Total recipe cost (2m2g) = $0.74

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$

Investing in Nutrition Services Staff

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15

4

30.528.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

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35

SY 12/13 SY 13/14 SY 14/15 SY 15/16 SY 16/17

Staff Training Hours

• 90% increase in staff professional development hours since 2013, thanks to grants from USDA and CDFA.

• 86% of staff surveyed report an increase in knowledge since 2013.

Engaging Students

OUSD Nutrition Services has

conducted over 9000 student taste tests since 2015!

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• Taste tests at over 85 Schools and Child Development centers.

• More than 40 new or revised recipes.• Students surveyed in 2013, 2015, &

2017 to measure perceptions of school meals.• Increased student satisfaction, especially

with secondary students

Photo credit: Center for Ecoliteracy

Strategies & Next Steps

• Cost-effectiveness• Plant-based, Vegetarian,

Less & Better Meat

Menu Based Strategies:

Institutional Commitments:• Meatless Mondays• Good Food Purchasing Policy

Click to edit text

Pilot Project

Cost-Effectiveness

• Analysis of Health Care Without Harms Less Meat Better Meat program found that four San Francisco Bay Area hospitals generated an estimated food service saving of

$400,000 per year

• By implementing Meatless Monday, New Jersey Valley

Hospital was able to save $46,000 in one year

• Maricopa County Jail in Arizona serves only plant-based meals to 23,000 inmates a day at average cost per meal of $0.50 – one fifth the national average of $2.50 per meal.

Switching from plant based foods saved the county an estimated $817,000 per year

Compiled by Human Society of the US

Plant-Based Options

Sodexo Black Bean Burger

Click to edit text

Hungry Planet TM

Range-Free BurgerSanta Barbara Unified School Districts has aspirations to switch all their meat to Hungry Planet’s plant-based options

OUSD Bean & Cheese Tostada is a perfect example of what you can do with scratch cooking to enhance the flavor and freshness of low-carbon recipes

Cooking from Scratch:

Using convenient Pre-made products: Photo credit Alex Emmott

Photo credit Hungry Planet

Photo credit Sodexo

Blended Burger Donnie Barclift, OUSD Nutrition Services. Supplementing local, grassfed beef with mushrooms & tofu.

Photo credit: Brie Mazurek, CUESA

Less Meat: using blends and smaller portions

Friends of the Earth’s Better Burger Challenge

James Beard Foundation’sBlended Burger Project

Health Care Without Harm’s Blended Burger Initiative

Participants: • Over 200 k-12 schools nationwide have adopted meatless Monday • Cities have also adopted meatless Monday resolutions.

Institutional CommitmentsMeatless Monday • Global movement with a simple

message: choose not to eat meat, one day a week

• Great new toolkit • Promotional, marketing,

educational, training materials

• E-Cookbooks• K-12 cookbook (with 30 recipes that credit for at least 1ozmeat-alternate)

Institutional Commitments

Designed to do for the food system what LEED certification did for energy efficiency in buildings.

CORE VALUES :

• Local Economies• Environmental Sustainability • Valued Workforce• Animal Welfare • Nutrition

A great way to meet the environmental sustainability category is to reduce meat & therefore carbon emissions of food

Evaluating Progress Using GFPP

• Between 2012 and 2017, OUSD Nutrition Services moved from a 2 star rating to a 4 star rating, of a total of 5 possible stars.

• OUSD currently procures approximately 30% of all food items locally and has more than doubled humane, sustainable, and fair purchases as a result of implementing programs like California Thursdays and Lean and Green Wednesdays.

OUSD Nutrition Services has worked with the Center for Good Food Purchasing to evaluate food procurement since 2014.

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Additional Resources:

Tools & Technical Support • Humane Society Webinars, Technical Support and Culinary Training • Food Forward , Case studies • Meatless Monday: Toolkit and Cookbook Coalition for Healthy School Food• Lean and Green Kids• Center for Good Food Purchasing• Menus of Change: Principal Resources • Pending Recipes from Chef Ann Foundation• Friends of the Earth: Menu/recipe footprinting assistance, Shrinking the Carbon &

Water Footprint of School Food • Northwest Health & Climate School Food Summit

Summary & Take-Aways

1. Animal foods have a significant impact on climate and water;

Institutional Food Service has an important role to play to help mitigate

those emissions

2. Food shifts are achievable and inexpensive; Small Steps are important,

progress will be incremental

3. Engage with staff and students to be successful in food shifts

4. Importance of Metrics

5. Local government leadership

1. Potential Pilot Project

2. Include scope 3 emissions (centers of consumption)

We look forward to your questions!

Julian Kraus-Polk Research Consultant Email: Jkraus-polk@foe.org

Friends of the Earth, U.S.

References: • http://www.pcrm.org/health/cancer-resources/diet-cancer/facts/bacon-causes-cancer• https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015-scientific-report/02-executive-summary.asp• https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/• https://medium.com/@HCWH/less-meat-more-options-better-health-2c430d27a5d0• http://www.humanesociety.org/about/departments/humane-society-academy/food-forward-

webinars.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/• http://www.forwardfood.org/• https://www.leanandgreenkids.org/• http://goodfoodpurchasing.org/• http://meatlessmonday.com/images/photos/2014/02/021014_MM_k-12toolkit.pdf• http://www.meatlessmonday.com/images/photos/2015/06/MM_GOESTOSCHOOL_COOKBOOK.pdf• http://www.menusofchange.org/principles-resources/• http://www.foe.org/projects/food-and-technology/good-food-healthy-planet/school-food-footprint• http://greenschoolsnationalnetwork.org/greener-school-lunches-can-help-fight-climate-change/• http://www.californiathursdays.org/• https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions-data• http://www.drawdown.org/solutions-summary-by-rank