By Paige Comeau ’26
Managing Editor of Content
Beginning the week of April 6, 2026, students were greeted by two large signs on the glass doors of the Dining Commons. One sign promotes USEFULL, Mount Holyoke College’s reusable tupperware program, while the other, lettered in a bold red, reads: “Please, no dishes and silverware beyond this point.”
These signs appeared following an email from Dining Services, sent on April 1, titled “Help Us Keep Your Dining Experience Top-Tier: A Reminder on DC Policy.” In this message, Dining Services offered students the reminder that in order “to keep our operations sustainable and our tables fully stocked, we need to ensure that our china, glassware and silverware stay where they belong: right here in the Dining Commons.”
To emphasize the importance of this message, they added that since the fall semester, they have lost almost $30,000 worth of dishes and utensils, or around 3,318 pieces of silverware, 900 large dinner plates, and hundreds of soup cups and bowls. The money they spend replacing these items, constitutes a significant portion of their budget, which they would much rather spend on other things.
In response to this email, many students noted disbelief. “I don’t believe that the couple of borrowed plates and silverware here and there amounts to 30,000 dollars,” Emily Steadman ’26 said in a written statement to MHN.
Similarly, Callie Lantz ’26 stated, “I would like the budget to go to the nice forks if we're going to be spending a lot and [being] hyper vigilant about our silverware.”
Nevertheless, Dining Services has added new procedures to the Dining Commons in order to enforce the seriousness of the issue. Alongside the signs, dining staff will now be more proactive with asking students to finish their food in the Dining Commons, or to use a USEFULL Container. Further, Dining Services will be implementing a No-Questions-Asked return policy around dishware, asking students to drop off any taken dishware on the Dining Commons carousel anytime, with no questions asked.
“We aren’t looking to assign blame,” the email states. “We just want our dishes back so we can keep serving you effectively.”
Jillian Stammely ’28 contributed fact-checking.