Loyola University New Orleans Receives Recycling Grant!

Congratulations to Loyola University New Orleans! They were one of only fifty institutions nationwide to win the 2017 Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Public Space Recycling Grant. The funds from this grant will be “used to purchase 30 new recycling bins to be placed in all five residence halls.” This initiative is expected to recycle an additional 45,000 gallons of waste per year.

The grant is thanks in part to the Student Government Association who wrote and won the grant as part of its sustainability initiative titled “Maroon, Gold, and Green.”  Loyola’s SGA is now planning an event on campus “to promote recycling and create awareness of the grant and new bins, which will collect paper, plastic, and aluminum.” The sustainability efforts taken by Loyola have only increased over the years. In addition to the recycling bins, Loyola has implemented solar paneled outdoor charging tables earned them the title of being one of the 2017 “Green Colleges” by Princeton Review.

To read more about Loyola University New Orleans’ initiatives, visit Loyola news.

Merrimack College Helps Pack 15K Lunches for Local Food Bank

Merrimack College recently partnered with the Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations and Outreach Inc. to pack 15,000 meals for the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. This is the fourth year that volunteers gathered together to pack meals in assembly lines which gave them the opportunity to “meet people of other faith traditions while engaging in dialogue and reflection-making the day even more meaningful.”

Fr. Raymond Dlugos, vice president for missions and ministry at the university, noted that the event “allows the wider community to appreciate the culture of care, concern, and respect for the dignity of others that is a hallmark of our campus. And it demonstrates that this culture not only exists in a few individuals who go out and serve, but it is actually a part of the air we breathe here on this campus.”

To read more about this food drive, visit Merrimack news.

Loras College Hosts Panel aimed at Reducing Waste

Loras College recently hosted a panel discussion on reducing food waste in an effort to become a more sustainable campus. The event was sponsored by the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency (DMASWA) and Green Iowa AmeriCorps and is open to the public. The panel was prompted by the statistic reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that approximately “one third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide is lost or wasted.”

The panel conversation focused on ways to “limit the amount of food put in landfills by reducing waste, feeding people in need, providing food for livestock, and compost and renewable energy.”

To read more about this panel hosted by Loras College, visit Loras news.

CST Themes Connect

How does sustainability relate to other aspects of social justice and Catholic Social Teaching?  A recent post on the blog Catholic Ecology emphasizes the connections between caring for God’s creation, promoting the life and dignity of the human person, and honoring the call to family, community and participation while musing over the possible content of Pope Francis’s upcoming “eco-encyclical.” How else are the themes of Catholic Social Teaching interconnected? Encourage your campus to reflect on how everything we do ultimately affects another member of our one human family.

This “culture of waste” tends to become the common mentality that infects everyone. Human life, the person is no longer perceived as a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if poor or disabled, if not yet useful – such as the unborn child – or no longer needed – such as the elderly. This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Once our grandparents were very careful not to throw away any leftover food. Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times, we are no longer able to give a just value, which goes well beyond mere economic parameters. We should all remember, however, that throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the the poor, the hungry! I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away and wasted food to identify ways and means that, by seriously addressing this issue, are a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with the needy.

– Pope Francis