Hungry after a recent day of classes, Lake Forest College freshman Peter Bacon piled an odd assortment of chicken patties, a grilled cheese sandwich, Tater Tots, mashed potatoes and meatloaf onto two dinner plates.
And he would have taken even more food, he said, if one staple weren’t missing from the college’s cafeteria: a plastic tray to carry it all.
“At most, I’ll carry two, maybe three plates on top of each other,” Bacon, 18, said. “I would love to have a tray.”
But students returning this fall to Lake Forest College and dozens of other campuses nationwide are finding that’s no longer an option. In one of the latest””and perhaps quirkiest””environmentally conscious initiatives, cafeteria trays are becoming as outdated as mystery meat.
Ditching the trays decreases food waste, conserves water and energy used in cleaning and reduces the need for polluting detergents, according to proponents of trayless dining. The move comes as campuses are competing to be the greenest by starting bike-sharing programs, adding environmental majors, focusing on energy efficiency and hiring “sustainability” coordinators.
But critics of the tray take-away, including Bacon, have a menu of complaints: It’s cumbersome to carry multiple plates. It’s disruptive to make several trips to get more food. And it takes longer to clear dirty dishes from the table.
Read it all from the front page of yesterday’s Chicago Tribune.
At age 18 I ate a lot (and never gained a pound, unlike now), but this amount of food seems excessive by any standard.
[blockquote] “the dining official, predicts a 30 percent to 50 percent reduction in food waste, allowing the college to save $30,000 annually in food purchases.”[/blockquote]
Next they should do away with the plates, sporks, tables and chairs. Preach fasting as a means to a higher intellectual state. The kids would be leaner, meaner, and the University would reduce it’s carbon footprint immensely. Eventually they could even do away with “dining officials” at considerable savings to the environment.
Maybe they could do away with meals!
[i]At Lake Forest College, dining director Michael Bennett hasn’t decided what to do with 1,000 green plastic trays stacked floor-to-ceiling in the kitchen.[i]
Where I went to school (down south) those green plastic trays came in mighty handy when we got the highly unusual (and greatly appreciated) 1/2 to 1 inch of snow during winter quarter!
oops- I didn’t close my bracket!
That last sentence was mine, not Mr. Bennett’s!