The Challenge
Vanderbilt University Dining chefs and general managers operate under advanced reporting standards, with leadership continually seeking ways to improve efficiency and protect CPM. But getting accurate, actionable production data was consistently difficult because:
- Chefs spent hours untangling messy calculations scribbled onto service worksheets
- A legacy, waste-only tracking system was too slow for consistent team adoption.
- Nobody could pinpoint where forecasts missed the mark or quantify the true cost of overproduction.
- Siloed information across physical worksheets, chefs’ brains, and Illumia’s menu management system (NetMenu) made it impossible to know production actuals.
- Chefs were policing cook station results, rather than focusing on culinary improvement.
Identifying and eliminating inefficiencies would meaningfully improve CPM, but the tools to do so just didn’t exist in their kitchens.
The Partnership: Topanga, Illumia, and Vanderbilt
- Vanderbilt’s relationship with Topanga began in 2023 when the university switched its reusable packaging program to ReusePass, achieving a 99% container return rate almost immediately. The success of that partnership created the foundation for a broader collaboration.
- In July 2024, Vanderbilt became one of the first design partners for StreamLine, Topanga’s next-generation production planning and waste prevention platform. The deployment was made possible through seamless integration with Illumia’s campus dining technology ecosystem, which powers Vanderbilt’s menu management through NetMenu.
This three-way partnership between Vanderbilt, Topanga, and Illumia is a model for how modern campus dining programs can leverage best-in-class, integrated technology to achieve measurable sustainability and financial outcomes.
“It has been great to use data from StreamLine to hone in on how we can reduce costs in our operations. My line cooks actually use the system because it doesn’t slow them down, and within weeks I had enough information to start actioning on clear waste patterns. We’ve all been able to save so much time. I have used everything from paper waste logs, to now AI-assisted waste tracking, and can’t imagine going back to our way of working before StreamLine.”
Grayson Holland former General Manager, Vanderbilt University Dining
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