Students are ditching trays and juggling plates at UF dining halls as part of a campus sustainability effort.
Trays were removed from Gator Corner Dining Center last week as part of an effort by Gator Dining to cut down on wasted food and water, said Susanne Lewis, Gator Dining Services sustainability coordinator, in an e-mail.
Students throw less food away when they don't use trays, and dining halls use less water when there are no trays to wash, according to a study released July 24 by Aramark, UF's food service provider.
This adds up to thousands of pounds of food and hundreds of thousands of gallons of water saved each year.
UF was one of 25 colleges to participate in the study that took place earlier this year.
In March and April, UF measured the amount of food and water used on days with trays and days without trays.
Based on those numbers, it was estimated UF will save 63,460 pounds of food and 470,845 gallons of water each year between the two dining halls, according to Lewis.
That works out to just over one ounce of food saved per person per meal, she said.
Trays are still available at UF, however. They are still used during Preview, and if a student requests a tray at one of the dining halls, he or she will be given one, Lewis said.
Dedee DeLongpré Johnston, UF Office of Sustainability director, said she was skeptical about how trayless dining would be received at UF.
She said she has had a hard time adjusting to it because she has trouble carrying all her food, but she says the students don't seem to mind it.
"I was old and off the mark," she said.
