Villanova's Trayless Dining program Expanding

Starting in January, Villanova will join hundreds of other colleges and universities around the country in going "trayless" in its resident dining operations. Among the greatest benefits of implementing trayless dining is a reduction in the quantity of wasted food and beverages. Additionally, far less water and chemicals are used without the need to wash trays, and the amount of pre- and post-consumer compost that goes into the sanitary sewer system or is removed to an off-campus composting site will also decline.

Going trayless will mean that students, staff and faculty entering the three “all you care to eat” dining halls on Villanova University’s campus – Donahue Hall, Dougherty Hall and St. Mary’s Hall – will be asked to go through the serving lines as usual but without the use of a tray. The University began testing trayless operations in St Mary’s Hall at the beginning of the fall semester. Several retail dining service locations across campus including Belle Air Terrance in The Connelly Center, the Italian Kitchen and Corner Grill in Dougherty Hall and The Exchange in Bartley Hall, will continue the use of trays.

Nearly 500 institutions across the nation have made the move to trayless dining. In a recent national survey conducted by Aramark of more than 92,000 students, faculty and staff at 300 trayless institutions, 79 percent of all respondents supported the removal of trays.

Institutions where trayless dining has already been implemented have reported patrons wasting less food and beverages. The same institutions have also reported additional benefits such as a reduction in the use of water.

This is an idea whose time has come. Anyone who enters a dining hall can now make a contribution toward sustainability. I expect that this will be just one of many such changes that all of us will be asked to embrace in all phases of our life as our society strives to make our world a greener, more sustainable place. Beyond the ‘green’ benefits of wasting less food is the opportunity for the University to offset rising food costs.

Posted at 11:31AM Dec 11, 2008 by Timothy Dietzler in Sustainability  |