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'Trayless Mondays' reduce food waste at LaPo

by RIKKI-LEE ULIBARRI
C&J 271

La Posada raised more than $200 for the Road Runner food bank after the kick-off of their new conservation program, Trayless Mondays.

“What we’re hoping to accomplish is to reduce the amount of wasted food,” said Donna Provost, the director of dining hall, La Posada.

The program began five weeks ago. Provost said she plans to run the program until the end of the semester.

Provost set out all the trays on the first two Mondays of the program. She then collected all the wasted food into trash bins and weighed it.

“When you come in and you’re hungry and you have all these options, you get more food and a tray makes it possible to carry it,” Provost said.

Colleges find that if students carry individual plates they will take less food, she said.

“The first week that we measured, we had 975 pounds of waste, which is quite a bit for one day,” Provost said.

Provost also calculated an estimate for the amount of waste generated by students who use take-out trays. With these totals, Provost had something to measure the outcome against.

After Provost calculated the waste, she put all the trays away and encouraged students to only use plates on the following Mondays.

“On the first Monday without trays we had a 30 percent reduction,” Provost said.

For every 5 percent reduction in waste on Trayless Mondays, Chartwells, the food management company for the university, will donate $25 worth of food to the Road Runner Food Bank, she said.

Robert Moss, a resident advisor at Laguna, said the program was proposed to a group that meets to discuss improvements at LaPo.

“It’s a council of students, some people from LaPo and some people from Resident Life, and we get together and that’s how this program started,” Moss said.

On Monday, Nov. 3, students used 1,075 plates and 861 take-out trays. Those plates generated 393 pounds of waste and Provost calculated 215 pounds of waste from the take-out trays, he said.

“That is a 15 percent reduction in waste, and $75 that Chartwells will use to buy food to donate to Road Runner,” he said.
The reason Chartwells is not giving the money directly to the food bank, Moss said, is because Chartwells has more buying power because the company buys in bulk.

Moss said not using trays is a small inconvenience for students that can benefit many people who depend on the food bank.

The program also reduces the amount of water used to wash the dishes, Moss and Provost said.

“That is one thing we noticed right away,” Provost said. “The dish machine ran less than half the time on Mondays.”

It takes about half a gallon of water to wash one tray, she said.

“I think they have their mind in the right place, but going out with trays does cause some issues,” said Philip Reid, a junior.

Reid frequents LaPo on average about four times a day and said it is a hassle to go back and forth.

“When you want a burger, fries, a slice of pizza and a drink, you can’t carry it all at once,” he said.

Provost acknowledged this issue and said this is the main problem many students are having problems with the trayless program because of the design of the dining hall.

Provost will be contacting the food bank this week to ask what they specifically need, and she said she hopes students realize how much of a difference they are making by reducing the amount of waste produced at LaPo.

Submitted Dec. 17, 2008

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