RELISH AUSTIN

UT goes trayless to cut food waste

By Addie Broyles
AMERICAN-STATESMAN FOOD WRITER
Wednesday, September 09, 2009

This is the second in an occasional series on reducing the amount of food we waste.

Something's missing from the dining halls at the University of Texas this semester.

UT, following the lead of hundreds of colleges and universities across the country, has said adiós to cafeteria trays as a way to cut down on the amount of food that is thrown in the trash.

Jester and Kinsolving dining halls are still all-you-care-to-eat buffets, but starting this semester, students have to carry the plates of food they plan to eat.

"It saves food, water, soap and energy," says Scott Meyer, associate director of UT's Division of Housing and Food Service, which oversees about 23,000 meals a day at dining halls and retail outlets on campus. Texas Tech, Baylor, Southwestern University, Texas State and Oklahoma State are among the more than 600 colleges and universities that have cut back or eliminated trays from dining halls.

Meyer says a waste audit showed that dining hall patrons, which can include nonstudents because the dining halls are open to the public, threw away 112 tons of food last year. That's $500,000 worth of food, Meyer says.

Meagan Jones, and environmental specialist for the housing and food services office, says the university has been trying to cut down the amount of food thrown away for several years. She says portion and tray sizes were reduced last year and signs were hung telling students how much food was going in the trash. These actions helped reduce food waste by 30 percent, but 81 tons of edible food was still heading to the landfill.

A student focus group liked the idea of removing trays altogether, so when school started last month, the trays were gone.

Without trays, students such as Madison Springer can only take the food they can carry, a change the sophomore says she's getting used to. "At first I was annoyed because it's a little hard to balance everything, especially when you're carrying a book," she says, but she's already throwing less food away.

An unexpected bonus: Students are likely to eat less, which might help reduce the dreaded "freshman 15" weight gain. Graduate student Jaime Brown, who was dining without a tray for the first time last week, says the change already is encouraging her to eat less. "There's so much food, and it all looks so great," she says, holding a plate of cheese enchiladas. "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach."

Meyer says the university won't know for sure how much less food is going in the trash until after a waste audit in October, but he says dining hall staff are noticing that patrons are taking noticeably less food now that they don't have trays to fill.

Jones says the university's next step in reducing food waste is composting scraps. The housing and food division, which is also the largest purchaser of locally grown produce from the Sustainable Food Center's Farm Direct program, is bidding on a contract for compost removal, which Meyer hopes to start in January.

To prepare students for the switch to composting scraps, the division already has set up separate bins for biodegradable and nonbiodegradable waste in several of the retail outlets.

As a self-proclaimed tray-lover and UT employee who also eats at the dining halls, Meyer has had to adjust, just like the students. He fractured his left arm a few weeks ago. "If a one-armed guy can do it, anyone can do it," he says. Meyer added that students with disabilities may still use trays if they need them.

Schools get in the act

As the school year gets rolling, several elementary and high schools are also combating food waste. There isn't a districtwide composting program in Austin, but several schools have teacher- or parent-run composting projects that are often incorporated into the students' curriculum.

Amy Cox, a special education teacher at Brentwood Elementary in North Central Austin, has been composting with her students for two years. "We collect (food scraps) schoolwide," she says. She puts a bin in the cafeteria at the beginning of lunch, and students separate raw fruits and vegetables from dairy and meat and other materials that won't break down easily.

After school, students in her environmental club help empty the bin and take care of the 3-foot-wide and 3-foot-tall compost pile outside her classroom. "We usually fill it up by winter break and then I break out the other," Cox says.

At the end of the year, Cox and her students dump the composted scraps - now dark, nutrient-rich soil - into one of the school's 14 gardens.

At Bryker Woods Elementary in Central Austin, where parent volunteer Tim Mateer coordinates composting in the cafeteria, sixth-grade teacher Matt Nelson's students feed their food scraps and other compostable material like newspaper to dozens of worms. "They love the sports section," Nelson says.

He says composting in the classroom is a good way to teach kids ways they can reduce their impact on the environment. Those kids often pass on what they've learned - both how to do it and why - to their parents.

abroyles@statesman.com; 912-2504