Following in the footsteps of Oberlin’s many recent environmental advances, the Dascomb Take-Out program has had a successful start. The program allows students to carry food out of the Dascomb dining hall in reusable plastic containers, as opposed to the familiar disposable ones. By showing special key chains that indicate that they have containers, students can get 25 cents in flex points whenever they take out two containers at the same time.

So far, the response to the program has been overwhelming — The Take-Out program was an immediate and unexpected sell—the 37 slots available were filled by the end of the first lunch hour and already more containers have been ordered. It is free to sign up for the program; however, if either the key chains or the containers are lost, students will be charged at the end of the year.

“I always get take-out…so I figure I may as well not throw out plastic all the time,” said College first-year Rachel Sciulli. Of course, there have been a few issues. “But a lot of employees don’t know what’s going on…they’re really nice and they’re trying really hard, but the program’s a little flawed,” Sciulli explained.

Brenda Gregory, one of the Dascomb cashiers, said, “There was kind of a communication problem [at the beginning]. Everything’s new, it’s just going to take time…I think everyone’s getting the swing of things now.”

Janet Scerney, Dascomb manager, pointed out, “The students are still learning too.”

“I’ve even sold some to the faculty,” said Gregory. More containers have been ordered and should be at Dascomb by the end of the week to accommodate the estimated 75 more people who would like to participate.

“Everybody’s really excited that we started it,” Scerney said. “I think we’re the first college to do anything like this.”