Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: Housing Guide

Doing away with trays may cut down on food waste as well as water and detergent usage. (File photo/The Daily Eastern News)

Originally ran on Sept. 11, 2008


Joe Johnson acts as a bouncer.

Except his job is not at the Panther Paw or Marty's; he is employed at Tower Dining as a dining room assistant.

"My main job is to make sure all the actual silverware stays in Stevenson," Johnson said.

Housing and Dining officials created the dining room assistant position after deciding to do away with plastic silverware at Tower Dining.

"I caught one person trying to take three cups into the lobby, I just asked him to come back and return the dishes," Johnson said.

Mark Hudson, director of Housing and Dining Services, said replacing the silverware is just one of many steps Eastern is taking to "go green."

However, some schools have taken the "going green" concept a step further.

Glenville State College, a small private school in Glenville, W. Va., rid its dining facility of cafeteria trays.

In a press release issued by the college, the idea behind doing away with trays is to reduce food waste, as well as water and detergent usage.

"Clearly, we are able to see the value in saving precious natural resources," said Glenville State College President Peter Barr in a press release. "It speaks well for our institution's consciousness in preventing an otherwise needless waste."

Glenville officials said they first started the initiative last Earth Day to see how students reacted to the change.

With the positive feedback they received, officials said they decided to fully implement the initiative, starting with the 2008-09 school year.

After Glenville State said it had much success with the initiative, will Eastern follow in its footsteps?

"We certainly have discussed it," Hudson said.

Hudson said the theory is with no trays, students will take less because they can carry less, therefore wasting less food in the end.

Eastern has already purchased smaller trays to encourage students to take less, so eliminating trays is only an idea of how to further make Eastern "green". This idea has some students feeling less than optimistic.

Graduate student Tiffany Cavoretto said she feels having no trays would be a hassle, making students juggle their food and drinks.

"I don't think it would impact students wasting food," Cavoretto said. "They'll just end up taking more trips."

Junior Liz Brown said without trays, students would still find a way to take the same amount of food.

"They'll just put more food on their actual plates," Brown said.

However, Brown said the initiative may benefit some dining halls, where take-out is less common and the food is arranged like a buffet.

But at Tower Dining, especially the east side, many students say they need a tray to carry all of their sides and main entrees.

As a checker, Meghan Silver knows the importance and ease of having trays in place.

"Checkers have to check how many sides people have," Silver said. "With a tray, all the sides are laid out and easy to see. Otherwise, you have to have them open up their bag and take out all their food."

Silver said overall no trays would mean more hassle, not just for students, but for dining hall workers as well.

"Already, people get upset when there aren't any clean trays left," Silver said.

However, getting rid of trays at Eastern is only in the discussion stage.

"The director of dining has focus studies with students throughout the year; this will be one of the topics discussed," Hudson said.


Zach Nugent can be reached at 581-7942 or at zknugent@eiu.edu.

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