There are growing concerns on campus about the new cafeteria having a completely trayless system.

I think that these concerns stem primarily from the inconvenience and chaos of Trayless Tuesdays in the current cafeteria. Next semester the new cafeteria will be much more conducive to trayless dining.

The seating in the new cafeteria will be integrated into the kitchens.

It will reduce the distance from the tables to the food stations – in some instances they will be separated only by five feet or so. Beverage stations will also be distributed throughout the dining room.

The most important reason for the switch from our current eating situation – where food is gathered on trays in the buffet area and then eaten in the dining area – to a trayless one is to help the environment by reducing the amount of waste created by students. When Sodexo, the catering service used at Chapman, implements permanent trayless dining in the fall of 2009, the company anticipates there will be one ounce less food waste per guest per meal.

Sodexo serves about 2,000 meals per day in the dining hall, so this will reduce food waste by 125 pounds per day. Several other advantages of trayless dining include the reduction of electricity, water and chemical usage because there are far fewer dishes and trays to wash.

This effect alone can save thousands of gallons of water every day and generate hundreds of dollars in detergent and electricity savings. Water savings are calculated to come to 350 gallons saved per day, or about 88,000 gallons per year when trays are eliminated at Chapman.

Trayless dining will also positively, if indirectly, impact student health. It discourages overeating, as there is no need to load your tray full of food before you leave the buffet area, and it requires students to get up and walk to get more food rather than having a tray-full already in front of them.

This service style also cuts back on dining overhead cost because there is no purchase or ongoing replacement cost for trays.

Sodexo is currently undertaking myriad sustainable practices and initiatives, such as using environmentally friendly products like biodegradable disposables.