CSUMB considers replacing eco-friendly Sodexho with a new food-service provider.

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Most cafeteria managers probably wouldn’t excitedly escort a reporter out back to their dumpster as part of a tour. But Daniel Kaupie, general manager for Sodexho at CSUMB, wants to show off a new cooking oil filter.

The tall and stocky Kaupie walks out to the loading dock. Two black five-gallon buckets are stacked in the corner. The first container filters the trans-fat free oil through what looks like a steel wastebasket. The oil then soaks through something that resembles a cotton shirtsleeve and falls into the other container, ready to be used as fuel. Professors, Kaupie says, routinely pull their bio-diesel cars behind the Dining Commons and fill up their tanks. Eventually he’d like to filter enough oil to fuel a campus shuttle.

The vegetable oil filter and the nearby compost bin are only two examples of sustainability initiatives pioneered by Sodexho. More than 40 percent of Sodexho’s on-campus produce is organic, primarily from Earthbound Farm. Menus at the Otter Bay Cafe highlight the fact that almost all veggies and fruits are organic, and the chicken is hormone- and antibiotic-free. Plus, Sodexho offers local foods, such as pastries from Seaside’s Cypress Bakery and fair-trade certified java from Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company.

The cups and utensils are eco-friendly, too. The cutlery is made from 80 percent potato starch and 20 percent soy, while the contractor uses a combination of paper, sugar pulp and a corn bi-product for its plates, bowl, containers, cups and straws. Kaupie fills up a coffee cup with hot water and then demonstrates how a biodegradable corn straw—unlike the petroleum-based standard—instantly crumples up when it is exposed to heat.

Although Kaupie says these products are about 6 percent more expensive, the cost hasn’t been passed on to the students. “It’s an expense we are willing to invest in,” he says.

Kaupie’s push for sustainability began three years when students petitioned Sodexho to offer fair trade coffee instead of Starbucks. Kaupie says students educated him about the importance of using recycled products and supporting local farmers. “I was awakened by students and faculty who were compassionate about the earth and environment,” he says.

This also prompted Kaupie to follow a raw food diet. Kaupie, who says he used to be a chubby meat eater, went vegan in January 2006. Now he weighs 110 pounds less.  

Sodexho recently agreed to a three-year contract for its 40 cafeteria workers, who are represented by Unite Here! Local 483. The company, Kaupie says, routinely hires workers from Turning Point of Central California, a rehabilitation program for drug users and people recently released from jail or prison.