If you’ve heard about sustainability on Clarkson’s campus, you’ve probably heard about our composting program. Food waste — including composting and recovery — is one of the ISE’s biggest focuses. We wouldn’t be able to do all that we do without Executive Chef Amy Conger.
Chef Amy has been a key collaborator with the ISE for our food waste program, helping to make sure food scraps from the dining halls and kitchens stay out of landfills. As a Sodexo Sustainability Champion for the region, Chef Amy is continually working to make dining on campus as sustainable as possible.
Johannes Richter, student leader of the CU Food Pantry, shared that Chef Amy recently helped donate an estimated 100 pounds of food from campus dining to the CU Food Pantry, which is an amazing resource for students on campus. Graduate students in particular rely on the food pantry and are greatly appreciative of Chef Amy’s efforts, as well as the efforts of the Food Recovery Council on campus. This new council, of which Chef Amy is a part, is working to make sure leftover food from events is eaten by students and community members, instead of ending up in the landfill.
This summer, Acting Sustainability Coordinator Evelyn Laferriere was able to tag along on a tour of the Ross Brooks Dining Hall Kitchen that Chef Amy gave to high school summer camp students. Chef Amy shared how she and her staff work to repurpose food scraps and left over ingredients in creative recipes, and how food scraps are collected to be sent to the on-campus anaerobic digester.
Chef Amy does so much to make sure dining is a sustainable experience on campus, and the ISE always enjoys collaborating with her on new initiatives. We’re sure that we’ve missed many of the amazing things that she does in this write up — Chef Amy is undoubtedly a Sustainability Champion.
The Institute for a Sustainable Environment is working to feature sustainability initiatives, like Chef Amy’s efforts, taking place on campus. At Clarkson, we are committed to including sustainability in everything we do. If you have a project, story, or other sustainability work you’d like to share, please email Evelyn (laferrep@clarkson.edu).
