While we’ve talked about traylessness for a while, that’s not the only way to reduce college food waste. It appears that whether or not the food is self-serve or dished out by cafeteria staff makes a world of difference. At least it did at East Tennessee State.
One dining hall at the Johnson City school switched to staff service and found that it cut waste in half. Unfortunately, the article fails to explain exactly how they prevented so much waste, so we’ll have to speculate:
First, students are more likely to overindulge when they’re serving themselves. It’s the classic eyes vs. stomach conundrum.
On a similar note, a little outside influence goes a long way. Students may not take three scoops if they have to ask someone else for it.
Third, there’s less cross-contamination. For example, someone uses the soup ladle to spoon out mashed potatoes, leading to workers not being able to reuse the spuds the next day.
On the flip side, students being served might receive more than they’d like. Light eaters might want less than the standard dollop. And it prevents students from taking the specific piece they’d want. For example, a crusty edge versus a middle piece of lasagna.
But staff service isn’t necessarily a blunt method. When I visited St. Joseph’s College, I was impressed that the staff asked diners how much they wanted. It was sort of like the Subway approach, with the staff serving as lunch line artists.
What’s your take on self- versus staff-service?
4 Comments
I’d be interested to read a more comprehensive study of student food waste. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that the a la carte dining systems are less waste intensive than the buffet style ones, but I’d like to see something like what Aramark did with their cross-campus assessment of trayless dining in buffet facilities done across the board. I’m particularly interested in the phenomenon of food waste on campuses where all of the dining facilities are a la carte and all controlled by the same service provider; there is still a tremendous amount of waste in these facilities, but since they are a la carte, there’s sort of a moratorium on even discussing the issue.
My particular take on the issue is staff service, all the way. Buffets are unsanitary, and leftovers are ineligible for donation or source waste reduction. I am, however, a bit wary of solutions to food waste that tend to quell discussion. There are still so many issues around not just American food consumption, but cafeteria food service that warrant further discussion that, I think, we should always be wary of the easy solution.
So far as food waste is concerned, there are fundamentally different economic paradigms operating in the a la carte and buffet dining situations. The former is a business model where sales are key; up-sell the customer, encourage greater consumption. It doesn’t matter if they eat the chicken fingers or throw them at one another, just so long as they paid for them. In the latter case it’s a pay to play system; you pay for access to the line, and they supply food concurrent with as many people as they predict would access the line during any given meal. In the buffet case, there is an economic motivation to reduce food waste, while in the a la carte system there is a motivation to increase sales.
Peace and Love,
Dan
Dan, thought-provoking comment, as usual. In particular, you make an excellent point about served food being eligible for donation. I can’t believe I forgot to mention that factor. Because, from a food use standpoint, that’s huge.
As a college student who spent three years eating at campus cafeterias, my take on buffet vs. staff-served is mixed. My friends and I often got more food from the serving staff than we wanted (particularly of sides) and there were a lot of comments that if we could serve ourselves we’d take less. There was also a self-serve salad and fruit bar, and some buffet breads and pastries, and I don’t really recall seeing much of that food get thrown away (however, sides like fruit probably aren’t quite the same as main courses in respect to how much people think they will eat).
On the other hand, I know there was a real problem my freshman year with people taking the whole fruits (apples and oranges) and not eating them and throwing them at each other instead. And I know that all the buffet food got thrown away each night, so there was obviously a lot of waste there. I’m not sure there is a one-size-fits-all solution…what works for some people will lead to a lot of waste with others. I think the discussion is positive though, and at least makes people aware of something that they might not think about otherwise.
I am working on a study of food waste generation at the Univ. of South Carolina in Columbia. Phase 1 is a correlation study to food waste audits done at other universities, Phase 2, if enacted, will include actual measurement.
USC has 26 dining establishments on campus; 3 all-you-can-eat, four cafeterias, 11 fast-food establishments and 7 to-go food sources.
Looking at other data out there is relatively consistent. Most audits have looked only at post-consumer food waste and only at all-u-can-eats (not surprisingly, as most fast food waste is not food, but packaging).
Some data:
Virginia Tech- April 2008 – pre and post – 0.553 lbs per patron daily average over 5 days
Ohio University – Jefferson Dining Hall – post-consumer only -0.337 lbs/meal served
Univ. of VA – Observatory Hill Dining Hall – October 2008 – post-consumer only – 0.197 lbs/patron
Univ. of Oregon – 9 audits 1995-2003, average of 0.257 lbs/meal post-consumer only
Univ. of Vermont – Simpson Dining Hall – 2007 -0.2 lbs/patron, post-consumer only.
Craig