Morgan State University’s dining services announced its new Greenware initiative earlier this semester in an effort to reduce waste on campus. 

This program allows students to take food to go from Rawlings Dining Hall with reusable trays. 

Morgan’s dining services vendor, SodexoMAGIC, encourages all universities to cut down on waste by utilizing the Greenware program. 

The program is not at full capacity yet as it was just implemented in February. However, the program received 300 sign-ups within the first two weeks. 

Students that signed up for the free Greenware program are able to get a reusable tray and cup by retrieving a green token from the cashiers located at the entrance of the dining hall. 

They can then go to the designated stations in the dining hall and give the green token to one of the chefs who will fill the reusable tray with food of their choice. 

Students must return the reusable trays and cups to the dining hall to avoid the $4.99 fine.

Raquel Saber, marketing specialist at MSU Dining, said students are only allowed to select one station to fill up their food tray.

Saber said, “If you do lose your cup or your greenware you have to pay a $4.99 charge, so that’s why I’m trying to keep all your information. So sort of like a contract you sign saying ‘Hey, I’ll be a part of this program and promise to bring it in return, but if I do lose it, I pay for it.’” 

As part of the program’s next level, MSU Dining will begin to implement side dish trays that will allow students to get smaller portions of food from other stations within the dining hall. 

Last semester, students utilized the Bite app, an app designated for MSU Dining that allowed students to order food to go, but often complained about its inefficiency. 

Kimora Jenkins, a freshman business major, said the Greenware system is a smoother process than the Bite app.

Jenkins said, “It’s a lot more convenient than the Bite app because the Bite app, you would only order your stuff online and sometimes they would get it wrong, which would be irritating, but with the Greenware, you could just get your chip and go in and get whatever you want when you need it.” 

As the program is starting to roll in this semester, not all students have tried it, but many like Tyrane Graham, a junior political science major, find it convenient as students were not able to take food out of the dining hall before this. 

Graham said, “From what I’ve seen, I feel like it could be used for people who don’t necessarily want to sit in the refac, but also people who are like health conscious because it’ll be a lot of people in there and like to be worried about catching COVID or like something like that, the greenware is a good option for that.”

Saber said MSU Dining still plans to utilize the Bite app, despite the order section listed as unavailable on the app.

After Spring Break, the Bite app will transition to retail restaurants on campus where students pay with their dining dollars or cash. These restaurants include Halal Shack and Baba’s Pizza.

The Bite kiosk relocated to the food court in the University Student Center, also known as the Canteen.

Saber said, “After spring break, as soon as you guys come back on the 21st, we will be transitioning to Bite, so you can order. It’ll be Halal Shack, Cold Spring Station, Farmer’s Hill, Delicious, so you can order those things now on the Bite app and you can just come, grab and go, just like how you used to do in resident dining.”

Saber also mentioned the Bite app will collaborate with the newest additions to Morgan’s campus, Kiwibots. 

The Kiwi robots are currently in training so they can start delivering food to different buildings on campus after spring break. 

Saber encourages students to download the Bite app so they can utilize the Kiwi bots when they get settled to campus.