Changes Hap­pen­ing in the Din­ing Com­mons

MISHAWAKA- There are a lot of up­dates hap­pen­ing in the Din­ing Com­mons re­cently. Sev­eral of these changes are meant to de­crease food waste and take steps in car­ing for the planet.

For most stu­dents, the biggest news is that self-serve came back on Wednes­day, Sept. 22.

Be­cause of COVID-19, stu­dents have not been able to serve them­selves for sev­eral months, but that has now re­turned, along with the ce­real sta­tion. Ac­cord­ing to the Gen­eral Man­ager of Food Ser­vice, Jen­nifer Moritz, stu­dents were very ex­cited about this change.

Be­fore COVID-19, the Din­ing Com­mons had in­tro­duced reusable to-go trays and cups in place of their Sty­ro­foam ones as a step to­wards be­ing more sus­tain­able. The use of these trays had to be put on hold once the pan­demic started, but they have now re­turned and may be pur­chased for a one-time fee of $5.50. The Sty­ro­foam con­tain­ers will be com­pletely dis­con­tin­ued on Mon­day, Oct. 4.

In  an ef­fort to de­crease the amount of food that gets wasted every day, the Din­ing Com­mons is also en­cour­ag­ing stu­dents to skip the trays. Hav­ing a tray al­lows stu­dents to take more plates which gives a greater op­por­tu­nity for food waste. There will still be trays avail­able for stu­dents, but they are en­cour­aged not to use them. There are cards in the front that stu­dents can fill out and share on so­cial me­dia about why they choose to go tray­less.