Service & Social Justice

The Loras College Cafeteria

The goal of Loras’ cafeteria is to provide students with nutritious food. Partnering with Aramark, our dining service, aligns with their “Be Well. Do Well.” program focused on making a positive impact on people and the planet. From ethical sourcing of products to composting to reduce food waste, Loras is focused on sustainable food practices in our dining facilities.

Food waste is one the most important things to redirect from the landfill, and with the help of GreenRU, Loras College has been composting since 2019 to combat food waste. Collection bins are within the cafeteria. Students are responsible for scraping their leftovers and napkins into the composting bins at the dish-ware collection site.

Learning more about how our composting system works.

Tom Blacklock Memorial Campus Garden “Where everything is free for the taking.”

To provide access to locally grown produce, including vegetables, fruits, and herbs. The garden is located between Hennessey and Science halls. Everyone is welcome take as much produce as they’d like. You are also encouraged to volunteer to tend to the garden. If you are interested, contact Dr. Sinha.

We are committed to waste reduction and do what we can to follow the three R’s of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Waste and recycle bins are located all across campus, and in traditional and alternative housing facilities, to make it easy to dispose of waste and recyclable material.

Residential Halls and Alternative Housing

Every residential hall room and alternative housing rooms are equipped with a blue bin for use of collecting recyclable items. Res hall students are able to carry these bins and dispose of them in the larger recycle bins located in their bathrooms where custodial staff will later empty and sort. Students are responsible for taking their bins from their rooms to the bathroom on their floor.

Common Recycling Streams

Loras College offers an interdisciplinary minor in sustainability.

This minor calls students to understand the physical, social, and ethical dimensions of environmental sustainability, from the local level to the global. Building on that foundation, we challenge our students to actively work together to collectively prioritize our environment for present and future generations.

On campus and within the Dubuque community, Loras students are able to be involved in sustainably activities, events, and organization. If you’re feeling the call to be more involve, check out the opportunities below.

Loras Environmental Action Forum (LEAF)

LEAF works to educate the Loras community about the importance of sustainability and environmental action. This is done through educational events, speakers, recreational outings, discussions, and more. In the past, we’ve went on canoeing trips, made eco-friendly crafts, hosted trash pickups, lead local environmental initiatives, and helped organize the annual Dubuque Ecofest.

Dubuque Sunrise Hub

The DBQ Sunrise Hub is a part of the national Sunrise movement working to mobilize our country’s youth to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and well-being of all people.

We are ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are not looking to the right or left. We look forward. Together, we will change this country and this world, sure as the sun rises each morning. The DBQ Sunrise Hub meets once a month and organize monthly climate actions. Some of our recent work has included a local climate strike, a letter campaign, printing Green New Deal shirts, and much more!