Island Eats, an incoming renewable dining pilot program, announced in a press release it is partnering with five Martha’s Vineyard restaurants to provide takeout bowls made up of 75 percent recycled stainless steel starting this summer. These restaurants are Bobby B’s in Vineyard Haven, MV Salads and Pawnee House in Oak Bluffs, and Black Sheep and Katama General Store in Edgartown.
“We’re very excited to do so,” Black Sheep owner Mark Venette told The Times.
The pilot is an effort to reduce the impact of single-use packaging on the environment.
Jessica Mason, Chilmark resident and Island Eats founder, said the renewable bowls approach was selected because of how conscious the Island community is about the land and ocean.
“I think we have a community here that is really aware of our connection to the environment,” Mason said. “When I look around at my neighbors and friends and members of our community, I see a group of people who really are committed to sustainability.”
Mason said the pilot works through an exchange system of bowls and tokens. Participants use tokens, which cost $25 each, in exchange for the bowls to hold their food orders. The bowls can be returned to any of the participating restaurants in return for the token. The used bowls will be cleaned and sanitized at the Kitchen Porch’s commercial facility near Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
Food will be served with these bowls beginning on Saturday, May 28, through the end of September.
What happens if a bowl is lost?
“If you end up keeping your bowl, you’re not getting your token back, and so theoretically the cost of the token would have covered the loss of that bowl,” Mason said. “But we don’t want that to happen. Of course, I’d love for people to keep these recycled, stainless, reusable bowls and use them in their lives. But I would much rather we kept them within our system so that our system can benefit many people, and not just one person.”
The pilot will be limited to 120 participants. Sign-ups will go live on Saturday, May 14, and can be done online at the Island Eats at islandeatsmv.com or in person at the Martha’s Vineyard Climate Action Week festival at Grange Hall in West Tisbury. More information can also be found on the Island Eats Instagram page at bit.ly/3srsGpy.
