Increasingly, colleges and universities are eliminating dining hall trays to cut down on food waste. Happily, it’s become hard darn near impossible to keep up with trayless schools, but here’s an incomplete list of who’s doing what:
St. Joseph’s College (ME)–Started the whole thing (blog)
Colby College (ME)–”Trayless Thursdays” for the last few years
Northwood University (FL)–Trayless since Fall 2006
San Francisco State (CA)–eliminated trays (blog)
Middlebury College (VT)–Trayless since Fall 2007
University of Central Oklahoma–Trayless for October, 2007 (blog)
Tulane University (LA)–Every meal, every day, starting in 2008
Alfred University (NY)–Trayless across campus, starting in 2008
UC Santa Cruz (CA)–One day, Jan. 29, 2008
Harvard (MA)–One dining hall, four nights in February, 2008 (blog)
University of Connecticut–One dining hall in February, 2008 (blog)
Morrisville State College (NY)–Optional for February, 2008 (blog)
Ohio University–Experimented with it, February, 2008 (blog)
San Diego State (CA)–Fridays starting in March, 2008
Columbia University (NY)–weekly pilot program, spring semester, 2008
Williams College (MA)–weekly program, started March, 2008 (blog)
University of New Hampshire–weekly program, spring semester, 2008
Elon College (NC)–Trayless across campus, February, 2008
Palm Beach University (FL)–trayless campus, gave away trays.
University of Florida–one-week experiment, April 2008
William & Mary (VA)–trayless experiment, spring 2008
Wartburg College (IA)–one week experiment, March-April 2008
University of Alaska Fairbanks–one week experiment, March 2008
University of Montana–Missoula–pilot project, April 2008
Virginia Tech–one-week experiment, April 2008
University of Kansas–Earth Day trial, April 2008
Drexel University (PA)–”Trayless Tuesdays,” started April 2008
Western Washington University–Earth week experiment, April 2008
Luther College (IA)–Trayless Week, April 2008
East Carolina University (NC)–August 2008
University of Minnesota–September 2008
University of Vermont–September 2008
Mount Mercy College (IA)–September 2008
I’ve heard that these schools have gone trayless, but I can’t find links:
Dartmouth College (NH)
Skidmore College (NY)
University of Pennsylvania
Evergreen State College (WA)–trayless during Earth Week 2008
the university of alaska fairbanks (UAF) went trayless for a week in March this year. I think it was last week… but I don’t have a meal plan, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the project. I can’t find any documentation online, but I’ll keep looking. It might show up in the student paper this week.
www.uaf.edu/food is dining services’ website.
~andrea
Thanks, Andrea. I’ll be on the lookout and please do let me know if you see anything online.
The University of Montana - Missoula is unrolling a Trayless Pilot Project in their all-you-can-eat venue, The Food Zoo, as part of the Earth Week Celebrations starting April 21st. More information at University Dining Services webpage: http://ordway.umt.edu/sa/uds/
Drexel University, Trayless Tuesdays started this month
The Evergreen State College is testing Going Tray-less for Earth Week as a part of the Green Thread Program that has just recently been adopted in Food Service. We plan to test Tray-less this week to see if it’s feasible to go completely tray-less for the next academic year.
Western Washington University went trayless for earthweek
Nice Site. Keep up the good work….
We recently visited our older daughter’s school, St. Cloud State University, and they are doing some trial runs of “trayless.” I sure hope it sticks…although it was nice to have a tray when ushering around a 2 year-old during family weekend.
http://www.scsudining.com/news.html
Thanks for the link, Rena. It’s good of Sodexho to publish that information. If you’re ever at St. Cloud State again on a trayless day, you can ask for a tray. Most schools, even ones who are trayless every day, keep some around for those with special needs.
Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota just held a trayless experiment. They saw a reduction in food and liquid waste!
There has been a lot of discussion generated about making the switch. Right now the college has not decided the fate of the trays but it is becoming a student led initiative.
Jonathan,
Please add East Carolina University to your list of “trayless universities”. We tested going trayless last year and were surprised by the food savings. We saved even more than expected. Anyway, here is the website for more information http://www.ecu.edu/studentlife/campusliving/recycle.cfm
Keep up the good work!
Bill, consider it done!
The University of Connecticut has removed trays in all but one dining hall on campus. This other dining hall has significantly reduced the size of the trays. This new policy was instituted after the positive results from the pilot program and food waste audit conducted in one of the dining halls during the last academic year 2007-2008.
Another article on trayless-ness at universities, quoting Jonathan!
http://www.nwf.org/campusEcology/climateedu/articleView.cfm?iArticleID=18
[…] It’s big news these days. From colleges cafeterias going trayless, to food banks receiving, (or not receiving) the leftovers from big events. […]
The school I attend, Pitzer College in Claremont, California has also gone trayless. Here’s the link: http://www.pitzer.edu/sustainability/news/trayless_dining.asp
Knox College in IL has went trayless and uses the Eco ClamShell for takeout food!
http://www.galesburg.com/education/x1213463418/Knox-scrubs-trays-Styrofoam-from-cafeteria
Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota went trayless in January 2008.
bentley university just went trayless this semester
Tiffin University goes trayless beginning next Monday, January 12, 2009.
When I first came to this country, from a poorer one, some years ago for college, I worked for the dining services on campus. I was so utterly astounded by the amount of food waste in the cafeteria that I complained to my supervisor. He was dismissive, of course. Now, everywhere I look, all I see is an entitled people taking their material abundance completely for granted. Hard to respect these people.
Goucher College is also trayless!
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln went trayless March 2009
Beloit College just went trayless in the fall of 2008
http://www.beloit.edu/belmag/08_fall/08_fall_content/08_fall_news.html
Fitchburg State College has gone trayless since April 13th, 2009.
Hi my name is Ravi and I’m trying to get my school to go Trayless. The only problem is that the main dishwasher in the dining complex runs all day long so it doesn’t seem that eliminating trays would lead to any savings. Does anyone know of any solutions/had experience with this at another school?
Thanks!
Ravi,
I’d focus on the $ savings and environmental benefit from wasting less FOOD. The water savings are nice, but nobody has really quantified that factor, anyway. (if someone has, please let me know!!)
Monmouth College in Illinois will start trayless dining in the fall of 2009. Here is a link to the story: http://www.monm.edu/news/story.aspx?id=98
Call me at 309-457-2117 if you have any questions. I wrote the news release.
Lasell College converted to trayless dining in the fall of 2008 (http://greenatlasell.blogspot.com/2008/09/trayless-dining.html). We measured food waste in December and found a significant reduction in waste (http://greenatlasell.blogspot.com/2008/12/food-waste-2008.html).
FYI nytimes.com reported on trayless today at Without Cafeteria Trays, Colleges Find Savings
Loyola University tried tryless but it only seems to offer a marginal improvement. We feel the real problem is that the “all you can eat” cafeteria simply enourages food wast. Plans are being made for the conversion of all campus cafeterias to a la cart style.
Mars Hill College, NC went trayless this year!
Jonathan,
My father-in-law brought to my attention that UNLV is also going trayless. Thought I’d share the article.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/going-trayless-saves-water-59930782.html
Drury University is a wonderful Liberal Arts school located in Springfield, Missouri. The institution became trayless in February 2009, thanks in part to Think Green, a student organization of which I am a member. Drury promotes sustainability to its students and community, and has even installed solar panels atop one of the dormitories to save energy used for heating water. One of the reasons I chose the university was because of its many continued efforts toward a more sustainable future.
http://www.drury.edu/multinl/story.cfm?ID=23039&NLID=325
[…] Wasted Food – Johnathan Bloom blogs about American food waste and ways to avoid it. 40 percent of USA food raised for consumption is wasted — overlooked by mechanical harvesters, “culled” by packers, wholesalers and supermarkets because of visual imperfections and bad packaging, left to rot in our refrigerators. some remedies: Glean, recover food and donate unused eats, go trayless, shop and eat better. […]
It’s great that people are going trayless– it saves so much energy/food/etc! I also think they should have “to-go” policies, so kids can take food with them if they don’t finish it.
-Sylvia
hi! Thought I would point out that my school, American University, went trayless last April after conducting a study showing how much food waste is prevented.
Here is the press release they put out:
http://academic3.american.edu/~hayesd7/AU_Food_Waste_Research_Press_Release.htm
and an article about it in our school paper:
http://www.theeagleonline.com/news/story/tdr-goes-tray-less-after-eco-study/
thanks!
Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA is in the second semester of its first year being trayless, as well.