Facilities and Operations is committed to giving back to the Columbia and local communities through our work. Our efforts include a wide range of activities, ranging from supporting minority-, women- and locally owned businesses and construction workforce, to raising money for local charities, to mentoring high school students. Working with our partners, we hold apprenticeships, career expos, vendor fairs, business development programs, and more to create opportunities for local residents and businesses.
"Giving back to the Columbia and local communities is important to us at Facilities and Operations. I am proud of our long-standing commitment to developing and supporting initiatives that help those in need, create opportunities for our neighbors, and fosters the community which we are a part of."
Community Initiatives
Business Development

Columbia Dining is a member of the Harlem Local Vendors Program, designed to support Harlem food and product entrepreneurs, and carries products from several participants at its retail locations

Columbia provided space for local pop-up markets, and has also helped local vendors like Fauzia's Heavenly Delights expand their business
Community Service

Event Management’s Blue Menu offers a curated selection of local and sustainable dishes and donates a portion of the bill to benefit CCS

Columbia Dining hosts cooking events for staff to raise money and encourage donor support for CCS

Facilities and Operations donates turkeys every Thanksgiving to those in need, and distributed 560 turkeys to local organizations in 2022

Facilities and Operations staff donated toys and volunteered at West Harlem Development Corporation's Annual Community Holiday Celebration & Toy Giveaway.

Columbia Dining prepared 84,000 meals in summer 2020 as part of the Columbia Neighbors Food Relief Fund

Columbia Dining provides financial and buying support to the Columbia Food Pantry, a student-run operation dedicated to relieving hunger in the student community
Education and Career Development

Manhattanville Development Group helps mentors high school students through the Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (ACE) Mentor Program.

Through a partnership with SNACK*, a non-profit organization that supports individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other similar disabilities, two people were hired at Columbia Dining

Facilities and Operations partnered with Pathways to Apprenticeship (P2A) to offer a pre-apprenticeship program for minorities, women and Upper Manhattan residents
Health and Safety
Sustainability

A wide range of energy-saving initiatives were implemented across Columbia buildings, positively contributing the NYC building energy benchmarking program
CU Grow: Vendor Development Program

The CU Grow: Vendor Development Program is a Facilities and Operations initiative designed to help minority-, women- and locally owned business owners build capacity and develop a formal, three-year growth plan. Since its inception in 2017, 98 businesses have completed the program and have collectively earned a combined $90 million on construction projects within Columbia University.
Community News
Facilities and Operations Supports New Cohort for Pre-Apprenticeship Program to Prepare Diverse and Local Job Seekers for Union Careers in Construction
Columbia University Facilities and Operations has partnered with the New York City Small Business Services (SBS) to support the launch of a new cohort for Pathways to Apprenticeship’s (P2A) Direct Entry Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship, a workforce development program that provides New York City residents from socially and economically disadvantaged communities a pathway toward a stable job with benefits in the construction industry.
CU Grow Program Launches its Seventh Cohort of Minority-, Women- and Locally Owned Businesses
The CU Grow: Vendor Development Program welcomed 21 new firms at its matching ceremony in February, launching the program's seventh year supporting minority-, women- and locally owned (MWL) businesses in strategizing their business growth.
Facilities and Operations Supports Columbia’s Office of Alumni and Development to Host Diverse Vendor Fair
Columbia’s Office of Alumni and Development (OAD) hosted a diverse vendor fair on February 8 to introduce University departments to a new pool of local Minority- Women- and locally owned businesses (MWLBEs).