A new lunch policy is under consideration in order to help the Dining Hall become more economically and environmentally sustainable.  A two week trial period occurred from April 8 through 22 during the 10/12 fifth and sixth period lunches in order to evaluate whether or not to use this system next year.  The new policy would allow 10/12 students and faculty to eat lunch any time from 11:40 to 1:10 without having to be dismissed.  However, students and faculty would be required to eat in the Dining Hall, only taking paper plates for meetings with the school counselors.  Furthermore, in the new policy students bus their own dishes instead of using trays and clean their individual spots at their tables.

Laura Gilbert, Food Services Director, estimates that the school spends about $10,000 annually on paper dishes.  “The usage of paper was huge,” Gilbert said.  However, the trial seems to show positive results.  On an average day and before the open lunch trial period, 250 [disposable] plates were used.  During the open lunch trial period the East Campus Dining Hall found that only 25-30 disposable plates were used.  “This is an amazing decrease,” Gilbert said.

The new open lunch policy would also have significant environmental impacts by changing the Dining Hall policies to be more environmentally friendly. “We’re still using energy to wash [the dishes], but the energy is significantly less compared to the energy used in manufacturing, transporting and disposing of the paper plates,” said Karen Temple Beamish, Sustainability Coordinator and Science Faculty Member.   

This policy may only go into effect in the 10/12 Division.  The 6/7 Division Food Services said that they have reduced as many disposables as they can and the 8/9 Division’s lunch need to keep times structured as it is the largest lunch on campus.

Whether or not this policy is implemented next year will depend on if students clean up after themselves and what type of feedback the dining hall receives.  “Student satisfaction has seemed good,” Gilbert said.  “I think that the open lunch is a good idea, not only for the environment, but also because it allows students to leave lunch when they finish eating, so that they can work or do whatever else they would like,” Clarissa Jordan ’12 said.