Southern Maine Community College instructors Maureen LaSalle and Anthony Pouline received the 2023 Green Award recognizing their commitment to teaching sustainability and the importance of agriculture in culinary education. The national award is sponsored by the United Soybean Board and the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education.

LaSalle and Poulin have engaged in several areas to reduce the college’s carbon footprint and increase its environmental sustainability programs. A few of their programs include:

• Contracting with a local composting company to pick up the culinary program’s food waste twice a week. In return, the college receives composted material to use in their on-campus community gardens and horticulture program.
• Contracting with Maine BioFuels to pick up the culinary kitchen’s spent cooking oils. The company converts the oils into biodiesel for home heating and vehicle fuel use.
• Packaging leftover food and unsold meals as ready-to-eat meals that are distributed to the campus’s food pantry, The Captain’s Cupboard.
• More than 75% of the school’s vendors are small vendors located throughout Maine and New England that specialize in locally grown, raised and produced foods.
• The college’s culinary menus are seasonal to take advantage of fresh and readily available ingredients while packaging and flatware items used in the take-out meals are made of compostable/biodegradable materials.

Click here to go back to the 2023 CAFÉ award recipients list.