While most of the impacts of Servo seem to affect the environment there is also a huge human element attached to the dining facility. Students play a huge role in determining how dining services on campus operate. Not to mention that many students are active workers who have witnessed first hand the effects of Servo To-Go.
Now we have Hannah Rinehart, an English w/ Writing Concentration major and Mathematics and German Double Minor. She is currently a Dining Staff-Student Worker at Servo and began her work with the dining facility last semester.
Rinehart provides additional insight on the Servo To-Go process beginning with her assigned place in the Yogurt and Fruit station.
Rinehart says, “We had 2 types of containers, the first was the small square containers with the lid which were easy to work with and then when we ran out we switched to the cups which were hard to fill.” Showing not only the kinds of containers used but the impact these containers had on student workers and workers overall.
She described that it always took long for people to get food because everyone was coming to “purely get food to-go.”
Rinehart helped defined the flow of Servo as the following:
Now that we can visualize the process of Servo To-Go thanks to Rinehart, How do students feel about the process? How do they feel about Servo To-Go before and after learning about the impacts towards the environment?
We have many students who have conflicted feelings about Servo To-Go like Allison Walsh, a Junior Biology major with a French Minor who got to experience Servo To-Go said, “Servo To-Go was convenient when I didn’t want Bullet and when I didn’t want to sit down.”
She acknowledges the convenience which many students argue for like Srey Nich Vunn, a Senior Economics and International Affairs double major who said, “At the time of COVID I thought [the] to go bag was convenient because I didn’t have to sit down in the dining halls and worry about catching COVID.” These perspectives are not unique to them as many students appreciated the change during the pandemic, whether it was for convenience or safety.
When asked about the plastic and the effects they were very reflective and acknowledged the har, being done to the environment. Vunn stated, “This was actually really bad looking back because I lived in Ice so every time I come to main campus to get food at Servo I would literally get as much food as I can so the amount of plastics I would get per meal would be around 5 or 6 plastic containers. I would come like at least twice a day so that would be like 10 which is really bad.”
Walsh expressed similar feelings saying, “But it was kinda sad to see how much plastic we were using.” When asked to quantify her containers used per meal she said she used a plastic bag, 4 food containers, and 4 drink containers per meal. All of this waste was produced which turned out to be a real problem for some students when it comes to disposing of the waste.
Both Vunn and Walsh expressed their struggles with trash with Vunn stating, “The way I dispose for wastes from Servo id that my roommates and I have the recycling bin and also like trash cans for like other things that can’t be recycled so we would put the plastics and the containers in the recycling bin and then reheat them or just throw it away.
Rinehart stated, “I would take out the trash several times a week because they [the plastic containers] would take out so much space.” She also stated that she should produce 2 or 3 bags of trash and she would feel like a “slob” and “didn’t want anyone to see her take out the trash.”
She also acknowledged that she tried to keep the plastic bags to repurpose as trash bags but the amount of bags was not enough for the amount of trash produced.
Although all of these students tried their best to reduce their impacts on the environment, when asked if they want Servo To-Go back they said yes, but with a couple of changes.
Walsh expresses interest in the return of Servo To-Go “if they used paper containers like the ones at Bullet right now because they can be compostable.”
Vunn has a different perspective with focusing more on policy stating, “Absolutely I definetly wanted to be more environmentally friendly but I think it’s really hard as an environmental student to do it, to make a greater impact I think there’s a need to be more policy from the school. I think administrators need to take more actions and make bold policies that prioritize the environment.”
While we see that all of the students here identified and reflected their experiences with Servo To-Go, they all have great and individual perspectives which bring promise for how we can move forward with sustainability in the future.