6A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 29 2008
DINING
Experiment finds benefits in going 'trayless'
Photo illustration by Ryan McGeener
A recent experiment conducted by KU Dining Services investigated the effects of removing trays from dining halls. The study found that removing the trays led to less wasted food. Dining halls will continue to go without trays while the experiment's results are further investigated.
KU Dining Services study shows ditching trays means less food wasted
BY JOE PREINER jpreiner@kansan.com
Trays went missing from all three residential dining halls last Wednesday.
But this wasn't part of some strange crime spree. It was all part of the plan.
KU Dining Services conducted an experiment during the last two weeks aptly
Without trays, total liquid waste was reduced by 53.6 percent. food waste was reduced by 38.2 percent and paper waste was reduced by 12.6 percent.
named "Try it Trayless." The idea aims to eliminate much of the food wasted by students in cafeterias. Similar
"I think the results are significant and speak volumes to part of the rationale behind this change."
The trial study, which took place on two separate days, measured the amount of food and liquid waste accumulated through three meals
SHERYL KIDWELL Assistant Director, Dining Services
experiments have been successful at other college campuses, including the University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of Connecticut.
Sheryl Kidwell, assistant director of KU Dining Services, said the results had been calculated and were significant.
at each of the three residential dining halls: Oliver, GSP and Mrs. E's. On the first day, student volunteers measured the amount of waste people left on their trays.
less day, which was last Wednesday, volunteers again measured the waste from student meals.
On the tray-
"I think the results are significant and speak volumes to part of the rationale behind this change," Kidwell said.
Kidwell wandered through Mrs. E's during the trav-free meals. She
said she had heard a wide range of comments from students, most of whom seemed to understand the experiment's goal. She said many students commented they ate less food without trays, which they said would be good for them in the long run.
Rob Goetsch, Overland Park senior, volunteered at Mrs. E's for both days of the experiment. He said dining without trays made discarding food easier by reducing the amount of wasted food, but also made washing dishes more difficult because the dishwashing system was designed to use trays.
One of the volunteers in the dish room at Mrs. E's was Kim Hernandez. Hutchinson junior. She said she saw how much students threw away during one dinner session and was shocked.
"Multiply that by three other dining centers and three meals a day and the amount of waste is outrageous." Hernandez said.
Hernandez, an international studies and environmental studies major, said she noticed students reacted to the situation in different ways. She said some students disliked the change, while others were supportive of the idea and its benefits.
"Students need to start caring more about the world they live in," Hernandez said. "If this is one way KU Dining Services can help reduce KU's footprint on the environment, then I am fully supportive of their efforts."
Kassidy Spring, Garnett sophomore, volunteered in the GSP dining hall. She said the difference in food waste between the two trial days was clearly noticeable. Spring said working with the project made her more conscientious about the amount of food she wasted.
With the promising results of the experiment, Kidwell said, the residence halls will remain without trays while KU Dining Services reviews the experiment's findings.
"I really feel this proved to be a worthwhile and beneficial trial and going trayless may be the new norm for residential dining." Kidwell said.
ORGANIZATION
- Edited by Adam Mowder
Campus garden celebrates with homegrown dishes
BY RYAN MCGEENEY
rmcgeeney@kansan.com
Ask enough people why they got involved in a community garden, and one word starts to surface over and over again: "Dirt."
Marissa Meyer, Overland Park sophomore, began volunteering with the campus garden last semester.
"For me, it's just fun to get out here and be outside for a while and play around in the
dirt," Mever said.
inal founders in Fall 2005. Facilities Operations removed most of the playground equipment from the lot, which had originally been used by the Hilltop Children's Nursery. Olsen and other volunteers dismantled the decks that had covered the area and used the wood to construct the maze of garden boxes that now cover the landscape. Students then used $500 they received from Student Senate to purchase
Meyer was among about three dozen students and community members gathered in the shade of the
@ KANSAN.COM
Visit kansan.com/
photos for a gallery
from the garden
public relations building at the edge of campus Sunday afternoon for a garden party sponsored by a group known as Environmental Action to Revitalize the Heartland. EARTH is a project of the Center for Community Outreach.
soil for the garden, which was later fortified when Facilities Operations brought in more than a ton of mulch that was refuse from trees
Margaret Tran, Derby junior, and Maddie Fry, Topeka senior, co-directors of the gardening project, led tours of the garden's dozen varieties of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables, and provided materials to paint signs and rocks to adorn the garden. A half-dozen dishes were available for snacking, featuring vegetables produced by the garden. Local Burger, a Lawrence restaurant known for its organic meals and local-food, produced dishes made with the garden's ingredients.
Aaron Olsen, Overland Park senior, was one of the garden's orig.
downed by the microburst in the spring of 2006.
When Olsen left to study abroad in the fall of 2006, the garden went unused and untended for nine months, until the EARTH project adopted the area in the fall of 2007.
"When I left, I didn't just want to pass it on without somebody being excited about it." Olsen said.
Rob Ryan, Shawnee senior, said he followed Olsen into the project, and has become one of the garden's central caretakers.
CULTURE
Allison Richardson/KANSAN
"it's a lot of fun," said Ryan, "and I like to get my hands dirty."
"There's a core group of five or six people who are here about six hours a week," Ryan said. Ryan said he got involved primarily for the pleasure of it, but also for the time outdoors.
— Edited by Arthur Hur
Students drum, dance at festival The Taiko Club and the Okinawa Dance Group perform at K.C.'s Japan Festival
Hayley Fry, Wichita senior, plays the duai kaiko during her performance for the Amateur Talent contest at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival. Fry, who also plays the shime daiko, has been playing with the Taiko Club for a little under a year.
BY BETSY CUTCLIFF bcutcliff@kansan.com
Students in the University's Taikao Club and the Okinawa Dance Group drummed to a different beat Saturday during performances at the Greater Kansas City Japan Festival.
The groups showcased two types of Japanese Taiko, music created by combining beats and pitches of different types of drums.
Hayley Fry, Wichita senior, said the end result was a rhythmic, powerful pulse.
"When you hear it, you heart doesn't beat, the drum beats," she said.
While Taiko's origins are still debated, scholars agree that the rhythmic beating of the drums has been in practice for at least 2,000 years. The Taiko drum was frequently used in battles, to signify the arrival of the army, to intimidate the opposition or to call for backup. Over time the use of drums was refined and had spread from the battlefield to the emperor's court by the seventh century A.D.
While Taiko drums come in all shapes and sizes, the most popular are nagado-daiko, characterized by a high-tension drumming surface stretched over a hollowed-out section of tree trunk. The shape and size often resembles a wine barrel, and the sound is generally deep and resonating. Fry said that hearing these types of drums her sophomore year was what interested her in Taiko.
"I was completely blown away,"
she said. "The sounds just vibrated through me."
The University's Taiko Club practices modern Taiko, also known as ensemble Taiko, and wasn't established until the early 1950s. According to Japanese author Takeshi Takata in her article "The Thundering World of Taiko," the formation of modern Taiko stemmed from an increased international culture exchange after World War II and the need for "something completely different and fresh" for the war-torn Japanese culture.
One type of Taiko is the Okinawa dance, which combines synchronized drumming and music with choreographed dancing.
Hayato Shinjo, Okinawa sophomore and president of the University's Okinawa Dance Group, said the dance and colorful purple costumes were unique because they were inspired by a mix of Japanese, Chinese and Korean culture. The island's location to the south of Japan made it more susceptible to influence from other cultures, specifically
Buddhism.
"The dance is meant to channel Buddha to welcome the Asian soul," Hayato said.
Hayato's brother, Kazufuumi, Okinawa senior, said learning the traditional Okinawa dance was common on the island, and that he and his brother knew the dances from childhood and felt closer to home when they performed.
One of the differences between the Taiko Club and the Okinawa Dance Group, aside from the dancing, is the emphasis on percussion and how the beats are decided. In the Okinawa dance, drums are used as accents to particular movements or to invoke certain feelings. Traditional ensemble Taiko music relies only on the different sounds of the drums to create a melody. Also, Okinawa dances are carefully choreographed and are largely passed down from one generation to the next. Modern Taiko can be written, re-written and even improvised. Fry said that for now the Taiko Club's teacher wrote most of the songs, but members of the club ere encouraged to come up with their own melodies.
Both the groups said that they hoped to spread the Japanese cultural dance and music, and that participation in these activities gave a new perspective on East Asian culture — one that can't be replicated in the classroom.
"We all pitch in on what we think would be a little better, like a little more force or an extra beat," Fry said. "It's just the memorization of sound."
- Edited by Rachel Burchfield
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