Outdated website and unclear training misrepresent reality of PLNU sustainability

Point Loma Nazarene University claims to be a sustainable campus, yet the inaccurate and outdated information found on their website is misleading to the reality of their efforts. The composting program has just begun making its way back since being shut down during COVID-19, according to Gustavo Bernal, assistant director of campus facilities. Staff workers in the university’s food establishments weren’t aware of the composting process and only a select few actually know where food waste ends up.

The PLNU webpage, “Why Sustainability Matters at PLNU,” states that leftover food from the cafeteria, Bobby B’s and Point Break are donated to the San Diego Rescue Mission through the Food Recovery Network, a nonprofit. However, this hasn’t happened since COVID-19, according to Raquel Alvarez, the Point Break supervisor. 

Conflicting this information, Tim Fessler, the cafeteria’s general manager, said donating food does happen on rare occurrences. There are no food donations except following events such as New Student Orientation when a great amount of leftover food is stored in an outside area, Fessler said. For it to be donated, the food must be kept at a hot temperature then frozen; following that, PLNU calls the Food Recovery Network to pick it up.

Cafeteria food from the self-serve stations cannot be donated because it is both illegal and unsafe, due to the exposure to hundreds of students each day and the amount of time it’s been sitting out, Fessler said.

The website states that pre-consumed food from all food establishments, including the cafeteria, Bobby B’s and Point Break, is donated, but according to Alvarez, it is thrown into waste. 

“Our website is so outdated,” Bernal said. 

Bernal said that managing the website was recently added to his number of responsibilities following Alessandra Konzen’s, PLNU’s sustainability officer, resignation two years ago. Konzen is still listed as being in this role on the website. 

Bernal said the composting program was left behind because of COVID-19 and because Konzen was the person leading the initiative, it’s been a slow process since she’s left to restart the program. According to Bernal, there is no one filling Konzen’s position because there isn’t a need for it until the compost program ramps up.

The push for Creation Care week was what inspired “bringing back older programs,” Bernal said. “And composting is kind of next in line.”

“It’s been a slow process of rebuilding the sustainability department,” he said. “Everything is just in stages.”

There are new compost bins in Bobby B’s and Point Break this year due to the California state law AB 1838, which requires food providers to have sorted bins for refuse – a technical term for trash, recyclables and compost. However, food waste thrown in these compost bins is not composted, but tossed with refuse, according to Point Break student workers Kara Griffin and Cianna Jones.

Fessler said student workers were supposed to be trained to sort through the compost bins and separate the food and refuse, but Griffin and Jones said they have not been. Fessler was not aware of this.

“The manager [at Bobby B’s and Point Break, Joseph Villafuerte] is telling me [workers] have not gotten good at coming to separate it,” Fessler said. “I’m assuming student workers didn’t know because there’s such a small quantity [of food waste], but I’ve challenged [Villafuerte] to figure that out and get whatever container he might need to make it efficient.”

“Even though there’s not much [food waste], we need to make sure that the material gets transported into that food compactor,” Fessler said.

Villafuerte was under the impression that students were separating compost from the bins and taking them to the compactor. He said there are several new student workers this semester so training “might have been overlooked,” but that could also be because the student who closes at night failed to properly instruct them on doing so. 

“I’ll circle back with my closing supervisor just to double check – make sure that they are being properly trained in that aspect,” he said, “but they are supposed to be emptying it out in the compost upstairs.”

Ally Gilmeister, a fourth-year environmental studies major and the student sustainability program coordinator, is making efforts to bring back the composting program and was disappointed to hear there has been miscommunication.

“That’s a problem,” she said. “We have this composting system in the cafeteria but then there’s this communication breakdown where student workers aren’t trained how to bring [food to the compactor]. I think bridging those gaps is incredibly important to be able to facilitate proper composting.”

Griffin and Jones did say they knew of a composting process for excess and leftover food from each day but that the manager of the shift is the one who takes care of it. Alvarez said the students’ job is to put all food scraps in a trash bag and then transport it to the disposal area which is in the loading dock within the cafeteria, the same area as the cafeteria’s disposal. 

They leave the trash bag inside one of the trash cans near the compost compactor and waste management comes to put the scraps inside the compactor. This is the same for the cafeteria’s leftovers, Sodexo workers Tyrell Alforque and Lennon Riley, said. No one except Fessler expressed that they know where the scraps go or if they are really going to compost.

Alvarez, Alforque and Riley said they do not know what happens after the scraps go into the compactor. Fessler confirmed that EDCO, the city’s waste management, is who picks up the scraps once a week on Fridays and delivers them to a section of Miramar Greenery’s landfill where only food scraps are dumped. PLNU and EDCO have a paid agreement to pick up and deliver all campus waste.

“I can’t tell you if it’s exactly composting, but it’s been done for many years,” Fessler said.

Another Sodexo worker, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being fired, said they did not think the cafeteria composted at all and that all food scraps were thrown with refuse. They also said staff is not allowed to take home leftover food. Alvarez said that was because of liability issues and that if a staff member was to get sick at home from the food, PLNU would be held liable; so instead, all food goes to waste.

The website states that each residence hall kitchen has a compost bin but that hasn’t been true since before 2020, according to Bernal.

Bernal said that Fessler is the person to contact about compost bins in residence halls, but Fessler said Sodexo is not responsible for that. Fessler said he confirmed with Bryant Moore, PLNU’s director of custodial services, that there are no compost bins in any of the halls.

“If the school had them before, I don’t know where they would have gone,” Fessler said. 

He said that when he first started working at PLNU, he was aware of some sort of department that may have overseen residence halls’ composting, but since then, he hasn’t heard anything more about it.

“Custodial [Moore] isn’t aware either,” Fessler said. “So maybe something fell through the cracks at some point in previous years, and it still resides on a website that says there are composting bins in existence. So that’s probably a website that needs to be updated.”

Bernal said that while the process is slow, the university is moving to revive composting efforts.

The on-campus garden by the Nease Residence Hall was renovated last month, he said, and the sustainability department is in the early process of generating a compost plan for it. 

According to the sustainability webpage, it says students can grow their own food in this garden, however, that isn’t true yet. Bernal said the department is working closely with residence directors about making it possible for students to sign up for their own piece of land to grow plants and produce.

Gilmeister plans to create a compost bin for the garden, a rectangular box with three compartments, each a different state of decomposition. 

Bernal said they are hoping it will be ready by the spring. When it is ready, they said they will create a student job to maintain the bin and the different stages of decomposition. Students would be able to bring their own food waste, drop it in the compost bin and use it for their growing.

Gilmeister said it was in the student population’s interest to garden and start a composting program. 

She said she is trying to educate students about food sustainability through Instagram posts on @sustainplnu. She said she intends to create marketing posters to promote compost education, but she hasn’t made any efforts to provide resources on the subject yet.

“We want students to know where their food scraps are going,” she said.