Dining Earth Week

This article was archived on June 30, 2008

Reducing Waste, Going Trayless, Composting, and more!

April 17, 2008

Dining Earth Week

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22 and University Dining Services is celebrating with a whole week of activities that we're calling "Earth Week," April 21 through April 25.

Less Food Waste with Trayless Dining Earth Week is a good time to reflect on how we can help reduce our impact on the environment. Did you know that each day in Western’s Dining Halls, customers throw away approximately 1,842 pounds of food? To reduce this food waste, and at the request of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and the Campus Dining Committee, the Viking Commons, Ridgeway Commons and Fairhaven Commons will be “trayless,” Monday, April 21 - Friday, April 25.

Many college campuses across the nation have been participating in “trayless” dining programs and statistics show that it works to reduce food waste between 30% and 60%. Western’s own Viking Commons reduced waste by 45% when it was trayless for the first seven weeks of Summer Quarter 2007.

Dining without trays encourages all of us to take less at one time and in turn, less uneaten food is thrown away. Since Western’s Dining Halls are all-you-care-to-eat, customers are always welcome to go back for unlimited seconds. For information about other campuses that are giving trayless dining a try, please visit http://www.wastedfood.com/trayless/.

Calendar of Events University Dining Services’ Earth Week consists of several special events.

    Monday 4/21: Weigh the Waste and Composting
  • The three dining halls will be collecting and weighing the food leftover from each meal to determine the reduction in waste from going trayless. Students will be scraping their leftover food into compost bins before putting their dishes on the belt to the dishroom.

  • The Viking Union Market & Café will have a special composting and recycling station for customers. Students, faculty and staff will be encouraged to separate their compostable food scraps and soiled paper rather than putting it in the trash.

    Tuesday 4/22: Sustainable Dinner
  • Tuesday is Earth Day. In recognition of this, the three dining halls will be holding a Sustainable Dinner with a menu featuring local and organic foods.
    Wednesday 4/23: Web Conference on Purchasing Local Food
  • A web conference titled *How to Set Up and Manage a Local Food Purchasing Program* will be held in the Old Main Solarium (OM 590) from 9:30am - Noon.
    -Agenda-
  • 9:30 Welcome/Introduction
  • 9:35 Student Presentation on Obstacles to Local Food Purchasing
  • 10:00-11:30 Web Cast
  • 11:40-12:00 Panel discussion - Dining Services staff and student advocates

This event is co-sponsored by University Dining Services and the Office of Sustainability. It is a chance for the Western community to learn about what it might take to expand the use of locally produced foods on campus. The event is free, but seating is limited. Please RSVP to sustain@wwu.edu.

    Thursday 4/24: Living Green Info Day**
  • Campus groups will be tabling in the dining halls during lunch and dinner. Students can learn about how they can reduce their impact on the environment from the Office of Sustainability, Students for Sustainable Foods, Residents’ Resource Awareness Program (ResRAP), The Outback Farm and the A.S. Recycle Center.
    Friday 4/25: Celebrate the “Fruits of Your Efforts”
  • The week of festivities wraps up with a thank you to the dining hall customers for participating in “trayless” dining for five days. A special array of fresh fruit will be served at lunch and dinner, funded by the week’s food waste savings.

Want to know what University Dining Services does on a daily basis to help reduce our impact on the environment?
Please visit our Social Responsibility and Sustainability web page or check out this list of FAQs on Dining Services' sustainability and social responsibility efforts. view pdf