At the Occidental Marketplace, used trays, dishes and excess food rotate around into the seeming abyss. Associate Director of Campus Dining Robert Starec said that the Marketplace was remodeled in 1999, and the tray drop system has been in place for the past 25 years.
According to Starec, guests who eat at the Marketplace take their dishes and place them on the tray drop conveyor belt. The dishes are then sent into the back where the sanitation work group takes care of them.
“Plates, bowls and cups get rinsed and stacked for preparation to go through the dish machine,” Starec said. “Silverware is set aside into a pre-soak, [which] is more effective in washing it once we send it through the dish machine, and then any disposables are sorted depending on whether it’s compostable food waste, trash or recyclable.”
Aside from the pre-wash steps that the employees perform, the dishwasher completes the sterilization process of washing the dishes, according to Starec.
“[The dishwasher] is a 27-foot long machine,” Starec said. “At one end of the machine, it has a pre-wash, a wash, a rinse and then a high-temperature sanitizing process; that temperature is 180 degrees or higher to kill any potentially harmful bacteria. In the event that there is a fluctuation in that water temperature, then it is also capable of switching to a chemical sanitizer.”
According to Assistant Vice President of Hospitality and Auxiliary Services Erik Russell, the sanitation work group employees have many jobs throughout the Marketplace. These employees are also responsible for sweeping, cleaning and mopping the floors throughout the Marketplace, meeting rooms and Branca Patio, Russell said.
“[They do] a combination of [the following]: removing the dishes from the tray, rinsing them, putting them in the dish room, collecting the clean dishes and stacking the clean dishes,” Russell said. “We have one person from that group that works in a separate part of the kitchen manually cleaning pots and pans because the dish machine is for the plates and clamshells, but the big pots and pans have to go to […] manual wash.”
After the dishes are cleaned and placed on a cart, the front of the house staff brings them back up front and refills the house dishes, Starec said.
Service Supervisor for the Marketplace John Garcia said that while he has many responsibilities, his main role is to ensure that everything in the front and back of the house runs as smoothly as possible.
According to Starec, Russell and Garcia, the tray drop system is working well and there are no major concerns. There are, however, a few minor ideas for improvements, according to Starec, one of which is increasing accessibility for guests.
“We find a particular challenge in the summer when we have conference groups and many of those participants tend to be younger,” Starec said. “It’s difficult for them to reach across to put their stuff onto the conveyor. So we would have to look at how things could be remodeled or modified to make it more accessible.”
Additionally, Russell said that the current 25-year-old conveyor belt needs replacing. Garcia said that there is also a need for a larger staff. While there is a shortage of staff, they are working on filling those positions, according to Garcia. Furthermore, Russell said that the Marketplace sanitation work group is staffed more or less based on need.
“[Staffing is] based on our guest counts and when the peak periods are,” Russell said. “We know during certain hours it’s going to be busy for lunch [and] dinner, and there’s the transition period […] between lunch and dinner — one crew is taking over and they’re handling the dishes in the back, the other crew moves to the front to clean the floors and to clean the dining room.”
Food waste is also considered at the tray drop station. According to Starec, while the Marketplace does work with the Excess Food Recovery Team, which works to minimize food waste, all food that is brought to the tray drop is not salvageable. According to the Food at Oxy Guide, they work to minimize post-consumer waste through tactics such as providing limited plates and trays to avoid overloading their plates and wasting food. However, according to the guide, there is no system in place for composting or recovering food that is brought to the tray drop.
Russell said that while the waste is sorted, everything brought to the tray drop goes to landfills. However, Russel said that he is interested in the idea of programs for composting food and compostable items.
“There’s an opportunity there for sure,” Russell said. “But then you’re adding on a layer of complexity. Instead of just taking it and dumping it, now we’d be asking them to put this piece here, put that there. How much is that going to slow them down to do it? It’s just a question that we would have to explore.”
Contact Marley Smith at msmith5@oxy.edu
