Hello Freshmen, Goodbye Trays…
This week we had the first of two groups of incoming freshman, eating with us, as part of the New Students Orientation program (NSO). This is always a big deal for dining services, as we want to provide students and their families with a pleasant, thorough, and informative introduction to UMass Dining. Of course, the food and services must be great when they arrive for their first meal; that is a given! This year, we had the idea to go trayless during the NSO program, which we have never done before; the rational behind this idea, is since our freshmen have not used trays to begin with, they might not miss them. Ideally, four thousand plus freshmen could be trained to “go trayless” after 2 days on campus. Our intention was to also work out any kinks before everyone returns in September and we officially “go trayless.”
In terms of going trayless, at first I was not a big proponent of the trayless option. I never use a tray when I dine at the DCs; perhaps I am too lazy to pick one up and then go through the line. But more importantly, I thought UMass students should have the option of using a tray or not. I even went on NPR and spoke against my peer Matt at Middlebury who advocated going trayless; whereas, I believed in options. Sure, it is more convenient to have a tray and select everything at once. We even had poster made with students on it; one with a tray in hand and one without. The message with the poster was to encourage students to take only what they can eat and then come back for more, if necessary; having a tray sometimes meant students took more than they could consume. Our initial promotion worked slowly; we noticed 20% of our students did not use trays.
Over time I was convinced that our students might be ready to go trayless. Students such as Rachel of SGA approached me to go one step further and actually go trayless. The organization told us that students are ready to go green and support the trayless cause. Even with the use of a tray, we already noticed the average waste of student per visit has been decreasing to 5 ounces, one ounce less than before. My peers from UConn who decided to go trayless last year, told me it has worked well for them and advised us to make sure we have the support from the students from the very beginning. With rising food costs and the importance of taking a leadership role in supporting the environment, plus, support from students, we have made the decision to go trayless this fall.
I was still a bit apprehensive, the day before eliminating the trays, talking to my managers and making sure we were ready and had proper signage in place. We even assigned an extra manager to be on duty on Monday.
Everything worked well and went smoothly. Our freshmen and parents did not notice the absence of the trays and some of them, when informed of our plan, even commented on what a great idea it is. Yes, it might mean another extra trip for another plate of food or a refill; however, there was not one complaint. The dishroom staff also told me the wastage was less than normal, as well.
So to all the incoming freshmen, thank you for your support of going trayless; and welcome to the wonderful world of UMass Dining – be prepared to be amazed!
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu