After more than 10 years of weekend dining consolidation to the Taylor Dining Center, the weekend dining option will switch to the Thomas Dining Center next semester, and “trayless” dining will be implemented in Taylor and Thomas.

Mark Hudson, the director of Housing and Dining, said feedback has concluded that Thomas is the dining center that serves particular food options that students appreciate.

He said certain food options, like the breakfast bowls, are particularly popular in Taylor and will be moved to Thomas during the weekends.

On March 7 at the Residence Hall Association meeting in Carman Hall, RHA voted to recommend the change of weekend dining consolidation from Taylor to Thomas.

“Probably the biggest student influence to switch the weekend consolidation was the ongoing conversation we had with RHA and its recommendation to switch,” Hudson said.

Hudson said weekend dining has been consolidated to Taylor for more than 10 years and before that, they would rotate which resident hall was open during the weekends.

This year, trayless dining was applied in the Carman Dining Hall, and next semester, both Thomas and Taylor will be trayless.

Hudson said certain national studies show a reduction in food costs as much as 30 percent by implementing trayless dining.

“A lot of food comes back to us on the tray because people get full because their eyes are bigger than their stomach,” Hudson said.

Hudson said they used trayless dining in Carman this year as a pilot and there was a drop in wasted food.

“Without trays, students can still eat as much as they want, but they are more apt to take a more congruent amount,” Hudson said.

Modifications are scheduled in Taylor and Thomas in preparation for trayless dining.

“In Taylor, there are racks to set your tray on so we will actually be attaching trays to the racks,” Hudson said. “In Thomas, you have a conveyor belt so plates will be okay but we ran into the problem of silverware.”

Hudson said silverware can fall in between the conveyor belt and break it so they are going to install a silverware return slot.

The University Food Court in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union will still have trays available along with Stevenson Tower Dining as well.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or rjrodgers@eiu.edu.