MU’s dining hall staff continue to go green with the hope that next fall every meal served will be trayless. Food services increased the amount of trayless days from one to three this semester.
The program main goal is to minimize food waste, although other areas have been affected as well. Food waste is the main issue trayless days changed, says Food Service Director Bruce Deeble. During the fall semester, food services used an experiment to see how much food waste was being eliminated, he says.
“In the fall we weighed all the food wasted on a tray day and all the food wasted on a trayless day, [and] the amount was significant,” he said.
According to members of Cougars for Change, a group that participated in this experiment, there was a 30 pound difference in food waste between tray and trayless meals. Trayless meals are worth the extra hassle, especially because it is all for a good cause, according to Cougar for Change members.
“Trayless meals, to most people, seem annoying because you actually have to get up a second time to get more food,” says Ashley Ballard, junior member of Cougars for Change. “What people don’t realize is that we are saving so much food waste by taking away the trays.”
The amount of food wasted from trayless days reduced because students weren’t able to carry as much food as they could have with a tray, says Deeble. He says mostly freshmen would get overwhelmed with the number of food options offered by the dining hall, but much of the food would end up in the garbage.
Some students disagreed, saying that trayless days are not as successful as they are being told.
“Trayless days are a nuisance. I waste the same amount of food, if not more,” says sophomore Matt Leighow. “It’s not like taking away the tray made the food taste any better, so it still gets thrown away.” Leighow works in the food service industry during summers and knows how the industry works.
Leighow says “Trayless Tuesdays” are saving resources too. “They should bring back the trays or charge us less since they are saving money on food and dishwashing labor. They get to save money and all we get is a warm fuzzy feeling inside?”
Deeble said the goal is greener than just cash. “It’s not really about saving money -- that amount isn’t big.” The program causes students to take less and not waste, he said. Although Deeble has not determined exact numbers, and is trying to figure them out to keep a record of them. Still, he said waste is down.
Ballard thinks the complaints stem from the routine to which MU students have grown accustomed, and that they should be glad to change that routine and go trayless. “I think it’s just a luxury we have had and now it’s time to put other people’s needs before our wants,” says Ballard.
Going trayless has not turned students off from eating in the dining hall. “I haven’t seen the amount of meals served change since trayless days,” says Deeble.
Some students do not want to waste their meal plans, and the dining hall staff said they do whatever they can to insure that students have the opportunity to use up the meals on their plan by the end of each semester. Students can participate in equivalency meals or bring in friends to use some of their meals in the dining hall.
“Students can come in and swipe 19 people if they wanted to,” said Deeble.
Junior Kyle Karpich thinks students should see more of a benefit for complying with the trayless meals. “I think that it’s just a hassle,” he said.
Students are not the only ones being affected by the trayless change though. Dining hall employees are being benefited by having less trays to wash, said Deeble. “We serve 1,300; 1,400; 1,500 meals a day,” he said. “That’s a lot of trays.”
Deeble said trays are especially trying to wash because they dry very slowly. By eliminating trays dishwashers get to save a little time during their shifts too.
Because trayless days are saving on food waste, MU hopes to continue contributing to the ever-increasing “Go Green” philosophy, and there is a great possibility that trayless days will not only become permanent, but will be every day of the week, whether or not there is full support.
“No thanks,” said Leighow, “I’d rather have cash in pocket.”
MU Plans to Go Green; Monday through Friday
By Julia Truax
Published: Sunday, March 29, 2009
Updated: Sunday, March 29, 2009 20:03
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