According to a USA TODAY article in yesterday’s edition, college cafeterias are eliminating the familiar food trays.
One higher education expert predicted most of the nation’s 4,000 colleges and universities will phase out their use of the plastic trays over the next five years.
Action has already taken place on such campuses as the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina and New York University.
One benefit, proponents say, is that students waste less (and might even eat less) when they can’t pile food on a big flat tray. Another significant benefit is not having to wash the trays.
Aramark, the catering service for many schools, reported that 79 percent of the 92,000 students they surveyed supported the move away from trays, signaling a sensitivity toward environmental and financial stewardship as well as a willingness to put their desserts on the same plate with meat and veggies.
Of course, there are cons to be raised as well. In addition to more spilled milk to cry over — what will students use to sled down campus hills on a snow day?
I guess the Gators aren’t too worried about that one.
Every generation enjoys boring the next one with recollections of vanished items from the ol’ days: white toothpaste, pay phones, TV rabbit ears, metal hotel keys with plastic tags, etc.
Looks like one more familiar item is headed for extinction. Or they could be marketed as mini-sleds?
(P.S. My blogging partner Tony Cartledge is posting daily updates from the Baptist World Alliance gathering in Prague at tonycartledge.com.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
