Environmental Action

Melamine Dinnerware 

Promotes Environmental Stewardship

In the fall of 2005, in a move to reduce its use of Styrofoam and its overall volume of trash, Village Church purchased durable reusable melamine dinnerware for use at church dinners. This purchase consists of 500 mugs and 400 dinner plates, salad plates, dessert plates, and bowls.  Depending on how the comparative costs are computed, Melissa Fees (Food Services Manager & Head Chef) figures that this investment will pay for itself within one to two years. Assuming that an average of 300 people attend our Wednesday night suppers, George Darrington (Superintendent of Building & Grounds) estimates that ten 55-gallon trash bags of Styrofoam per week will no longer end up in the landfill!

The switch from Styrofoam to melamine is an earthkeeping initiative of the Sustainable Sanctuary Task Force. Sustainable Sanctuary is a program whose goal is to reduce our church's environmental impact and to practice and model faithful and responsible stewardship of God's Creation.

In this photo, five members of the Sustainable Sanctuary Task Force are viewing some of the recently purchased melamine dinnerware. The storage carts are composed of recycled plastic material. Pictured from left to right are Rev. Dwight Tawney, Bob Siemens, Chuck Gillam, April Schmidt, and Jerry Rees.