Three Hawaii colleges have committed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 Food Recovery Challenge to further reduce food waste on campuses.

"About 40 percent of what we buy at the supermarket or farmers market ends up in the garbage can. If you think about all the energy it takes to make that food in Hawaii (and) all the energy it takes to bring the food here, we need to make sure first and foremost that food does not get wasted," said Jared Blumenfield, the EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest, at a news conference last week at Hawaii Pacific University at the Aloha Tower Marketplace.

HPU, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Kapiolani Community College joined more than 90 other colleges across the nation to participate in the program, which requires schools to cut food waste by at least 5 percent in one year, said Julianne Bertone, an HPU graduate student interning for the Rewarding Internships for Sustainable Development program. She approached HPU Campus Sustainability Coordinator Josh Prigge about the food recovery challenge.

"I knew it’d be a great program for HPU," Prigge said.

Speakers from private environmental organizations Aloha Harvest and The Green House talked about programs to reduce food waste and feed Hawaii’s hungry. The Green House offers classes in sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. Aloha Harvest mirrors the City Harvest program in New York City, partnering with major hotels and businesses to feed about 70,000 of Hawaii’s hungry and homeless per month with food that would otherwise be sent to landfills, said Executive Director Kuu­lei Williams.

In the U.S., food waste makes up 25 percent of all materials in landfills and incinerators, according to an EPA news release. Decomposing food releases methane, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

College representatives talked about ongoing campus initiatives for waste reduction.

Doorae Shin, a junior at UH-Manoa and a campus sustainability activist, said the university has a ban on plastic foam, no longer uses trays in its two Sodexo cafeterias and donates leftover food to pig farms and Manoa’s Student Organic Farm Training program.

While Manoa’s changes are recent, KCC has had programs for the past 15 years, hoping to train young chefs and restaurateurs in the art of sustainable food production. Ron Taka­ha­shi, department chairman of KCC’s culinary arts program, said all food preparation waste is composted through on-site processing systems. The school just received a bioprocessor, which converts waste oil to biodiesel.

Prigge said the changes made by HPU were influenced by Sodexo cafeteria manager Debbie Day, who runs a program in which all the excess food generated by HPU students is measured, weighed and listed in the campus cafeteria.

An HPU student worked on a commercial food processing project in which 100 percent of the cafeteria waste was composted between February and May. An average of 270 pounds of food per week was returned to the environment, Prigge said.

Each school is ramping up efforts before the EPA review in December. For example, UH-Manoa is asking vendors on campus to keep track of what they are doing with food waste, Shin said.