This initiative addressed student food insecurity by letting students know of any leftover food from Housing and Dining and any events in various halls. Some programs within Rams Against Hunger were unable to run at all, like the Ram Food Recovery program. People are afraid to drink water from fountains, so they buy lots of bottled water.” -Mary Liang, Assistant Director of Sustainability for Housing and Dining Services “Sustainability looks a lot different right now. For instance, the Rams Against Hunger program, which serves as an umbrella for several smaller food-related programs, had to adapt their approach to continue helping the community. But maybe we can find different ways and creative ways to pursue sustainability.”īesides programs focusing on sustainability, food waste and food security initiatives also had to restructure during the pandemic. “You see masks everywhere or gloves everywhere. People are afraid to drink water from fountains, so they buy lots of bottled water, or things like that,” says Mary Liang, the Assistant Director of Sustainability within Housing and Dining. Through restructuring, creativity has been key to finding ways to still pursue sustainability. I’ve talked to other leaders on campus and it all seems to be going pretty similar in terms of turnout.” Ultimately, that’s really where we have fallen short. But it’s really hard to encourage students, staff, faculty, or anybody to jump on another Zoom call at the end of the day. “If we went on a recycling tour at the Timberline Recycling Center, you’re welcome to come if you’re not a CSU student. “We like to broadcast our work to the greater community,” says Sara Van Hatten, director of the Student Sustainability Center. There’s a gap right now between the knowledge”Įven outreach and education initiatives have proven to be difficult with the lack of in-person gatherings. We usually get that interaction before they even start school and then we create that culture around waste prevention. Usually we help out at orientation, Ram Welcome, and different fairs. “We haven’t had those interactions with students. “We’ve had to focus more of our efforts on education because we don’t have the opportunity to actually divert waste as much,” says Fran Letts, president of the Zero Waste Team at CSU. However, the pandemic halted many of their normal procedures. In a normal year, they also work closely with dorms to educate and divert waste. Usually, club members attend football games and other various campus events to host waste diversion and up-cycling practices. From diverting waste to feeding students, many programs were forced to restructure and refocus their strategies as the pandemic upended campus life.įor instance, the Zero Waste Team had difficulties maintaining their usual venues of waste management. This past year has been challenging for campus initiatives at Colorado State University.
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