Sometimes, Western students’ eyes are larger than their stomachs. In honor of Earth Week, and in an effort to help students’ take more reasonable amounts of food, University Dining Services removed all trays from each of the three dining halls this past week.  

Chris Kenney, director of operations for Dining Services said the goal of removing the trays was to cut down on the amount of daily food waste. When students use trays, they are able to take a greater amount of food, sometimes more than they are able to eat.

The decision to go tray-less was part of a larger Earth Week effort to make dining at Western more sustainable, Kenney said. On April 21, students in each dining hall were asked to dump their food waste into a large garbage bin so Dining Services could measure the amount of food waste produced on a day when students did not have trays to use, he said.

After a measurement taken in March, Dining Services found that approximately 1,842 pounds of food are thrown away on an average day, Kenney said. Other universities across the country, such as San Francisco State, have permanently removed serving trays from their dining halls and have seen consistent reductions in the amount of food waste, he said.     

While this is the first academic quarter in which trays have been removed from dining halls, Dining Services has gone tray-less the last two summers during various conferences and summer camps, said Director of University Dining Services Ira Simon.  Not only is the amount of food waste reduced, but a great deal of water and cleaning supplies are also saved, he said.  Shorter lines for food service in the dining halls were also observed, he said.

“[The savings] are obvious to anyone who has done the math,” Simon said.

In past Earth Weeks, Dining Services has always chosen a way to demonstrate the amount of food waste produced daily in the dining halls, Kenney said.  The decision to go tray-less came about through monthly meetings with the student dining committee and discussions with Western’s Office of Sustainability, Kenney said.

Simon said Dining Services has been discussing its plans for Earth Week with the dining services committee since October 2007, but the final decision to remove trays from dining halls during Earth Week was up to the students.  
The students, Resident Advisors and faculty participating in the dining services committee made it clear they wanted to go tray-less during Earth Week, he said. The decision was made official in February.

Dining Services plans to put the money saved in the reduction of food waste and cleaning supplies back in to the dining halls, Simon said.  

In addition to the April 22 sustainability-themed dinner, which presented meals made from locally grown and organic products, Dining Services will lay out buffets of locally-grown fresh fruit for lunch and dinner on April 25, Simon said.  The money saved by the reduction in food waste will be used to pay for these special, more expensive meals, he said.    

“[Dining Services] wants to put that money saved back onto the plate,” Simon said.   

He said he received a few e-mails from students who were unhappy with the tray-less decision because of its inconvenience.  Simon said he hopes everyone will see the benefits of going tray-less by the week's end.   

Western senior Megan Walker, a member of Western's Students for Sustainable Food, said she has heard more students complain about the lack of trays over the past week than be supportive of the program.  She said she understands peoples’ resistance to the program, but thinks it is a step in the right direction for being less wasteful.  She said she would like to see Western go tray-less for good.   

Walker said Dining Services needs to focus more on bringing locally grown food to Western's dining halls.       

The largest obstacle present for local food producers is Western's safety and insurance regulations, Seth Vidaña, coordinator of the Office for Sustainability, said. Smaller, local food producers are not always able to meet Western's quality standards, Vidaña said. Western also requires the food provider pay $5 million in liability insurance in case the food proves to be harmful, he said.

Larger food producers are able to more rigorously inspect their food, offering Dining Services more assurance that the food is safe, Simon said.   

Dining Services already purchases milk from a local producer and has welcomed numerous local businesses onto campus, such as Rocket Donuts and Bellewood Acres, Simon said.

Dining Services has been working with the Office for Sustainability in identifying opportunities for education in sustainable practices, he said.

For example, Dining Services sponsored information booths in dining halls April 24, which offered a way for students to get involved in efforts to make Western's food practices more sustainable, Vidaña said.  

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