Food Waste In Schools

Student hunger is a serious problem. In the article “No One Believes We Do This to Kids: Will Congress End School Lunch Shaming?,” Heather Long explained the results of not having enough money, “A school lunch cost around $2.35. When a kid doesn’t have enough money, many schools require cafeteria workers to take a kids tray of hot food away and throw it in the trash. Children are then handed a cold cheese sandwich---or they are forced to go hungry with no food at all.” The school shouldn’t be wasting food because a student couldn’t pay. They should give the student the food because what's the point of throwing it away. In addition, the article, “Why Lunches in School Need to be Free,” the author explains that “being hungry makes it difficult to focus, makes a child’s mood more surly and

Food waste is an issue that is present at Cornell College. By going into Bon Appetit, the issue becomes clear. Students are given more food than they can eat. To go boxes are not available for students who dine in, and most students do not bring reusable containers with them. Most do not think about how much food they waste. By going over to where we put out plates when we are finished, it is easy to see many students leave a good portion of their meals on the plate. Whether they did not like what they were eating or they were in a hurry and had to leave, big amounts of food are wasted during each meal of the day. Steps can be taken to decrease the overall amount of food that is wasted on campus. Ideas such as smaller plates, vermiculture, competitions, and others can be utilized in the efforts to decrease food waste on campus.

Food waste is defined as food that can be consumed but for whatever reason goes uneaten. It was first addressed in 1977 when a report was sent to congress from the General Accounting Office. Within the report the United States Department of Agriculture’s role in food waste as well as several other aspects of food waste such as pollution and growing populations are still relevant today were spoken of (Buzby et al. 1). However in the years following the publication of this report, food waste has not lessened and instead has exponentially worsened from twenty percent in 1977 to forty percent as of 2012 (Finn et al.

So, what is food waste? Food waste is a deliberate disposal of edible items. The excessive amount of food waste has a negative impact on the U.S. economy and the environment. Annually, the United States throws away 25% of all produced food in landfills. Food waste costs America 43 billion dollars, a quarter of U.S. water consumption, and 300 barrels of oil production each year. With 43 billion dollars, two billion people can be fed, and the wasted water can provide for nine billion people. Decreased amount of food waste can result in eliminating world hunger.

The problem with school lunches in India is the “lack of proper storage facilities” (Chatterjee). The schools lacked the finances to have dry locations to store grain, and as a result, a lot had to be stored in the open. Once it starts raining, the bugs move in. Additionally, the people living in these parts of India cannot afford to throw things away. As a result, everything is reused, especially. Unfortunately, the insecticide container was not marked properly, and therefore food products were stored inside.

Many Americans struggle with food security every day. In fact, according to Diane Beasley, a writer for the CNN Wire, “One in six Americans struggles with food security,” and “40% of food goes to waste” (Beasley). America needs to fix this problem because one sixth of Americans don't get food. Chesterbrook Elementary in Mclean, Virginia has figured out a way to help. Chesterbrook Elementary has taught every student how to recycle and donate leftover food. Chesterbrook Elementary gives food to the needy, and what can't be donated, they recycle. Schools in America should implement a mandatory system in which students are required to

The food waste on college campus is at an all-time high. 40 percent of all food in this country is never eaten. We will start with the waste of food in the illini union. From the reading Binning, gifting and recovery: the conduits of disposal in household food consumption. I think that it can be noted that very little social science attention has been paid to questions of food disposal and food waste. I think that the same thing is happening with food waste in the illini union. During some observations we saw that some people in the union buy food and wasted half of it when they could have just took it to go and eat it later. Food waste not only happens in our homes, it also happens on college campuses. The average college student generates

Understanding the amount of food that we waste along with what portion may have been edible and identifying some of the root causes of why we waste food in the first place are critical steps in designing strategies for action. We are also assessing how much surplus food could potentially be directed to people in need, quantifying the opportunity for increased food donation. In Denver specifically, we will also project the financial investments in food-rescue infrastructure that would be needed to fully realize Denver’s potential for food

should be a meeting with district and school officials to discuss the food being given to

Advocates especially fear that competitive foods jeopardize the economic viability of school meal programs, because these programs are expected to be self-supporting with federal reimbursements and must have adequate sales volume to survive. The short time devoted to lunch periods in many schools also discourages students from eating full meals and encourages the purchase of competitive foods that can be eaten on the run. A helpful strategy, therefore, is to allow students ample time for lunch.

Although each school of thought (Food Literacy, Food Justice, or Food Sovereignty) is drastically important in equal ways, we decided to examine food sovereignty a little more in depth and, more specifically, food waste. The excessive amount of food waste being produced around the world is being brought to the spotlight, and many individuals and organizations have taken the initiative to assist in fighting this battle. Limiting food waste could not only decrease the damage done to the environment, but it could also assist in fixing many food insecurities around the world.

People throwing away food, allowing food to rot, and even something as simple as not completely eating an apple are examples of how food is wasted in America. Food waste appears to be nothing out of the ordinary because it is very easy for consumers to go out and buy themselves more food if needed. In contemporary society, there is a trend which shows a tremendous increase in the rates of people wasting food. We as a society in America lose about one thirds of the food that comes to us which ends up amounting to around 1.3 billion dollars worth of food. Industrialized nations have been known to waste more food that other nations like sub-Saharan Africa produce (Stewart 12). Food waste which represent unnecessary chemicals, land, and energy has become one of America’s biggest problems up to date. Through the loss of money, depreciation of food, and pollution, we are creating an unbalanced society.

Americans throw away billions of pounds of food, worth billions of dollars and enough to feed millions of people each year. Wasted food is the single largest component of American landfills. Every year, around 40 percent of all food goes unconsumed in the United States. This amounts to Americans squandering as much as $218 billion annually growing, processing and transporting food that never gets eaten. That is a fairly large waste of resources considering all that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy used was for nothing. ‘Washington Post’. Even Europe does a better job of curtailing food waste and food waste in Europe alone could feed 200 million hungry people! Food waste is often described as a “farm-to-fork” problem. Produce is lost in fields, warehouses, packaging, distribution, supermarkets, restaurants and fridges. Why? We purchase too many food products, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and we buy what is not expected.

Imagine a piece of land around 24 times the size of California dedicated to farm crops and food. Now imagine all those food being thrown away and not eaten by people who are too full to care about the people going hungry every day. Not only does society ignore the problem of food waste, it constantly contributes to it. According to an article, “Curbing Food Waste Is Good for Business, the Environment, and Society”, 2.5 billion acres of land used for farming to grow food are wasted every year (Lewis). Now think about the amount of food 18,000 times the weight of the Eiffel tower or about 1.3 billion tons, gone with every 1 out of 9 people facing starvation. Where does all the food go? Unfortunately, instead in hungry stomachs, it goes into our landfills, which then produces methane contributing to the uprising issue of global warming (Dana). United States citizens need to reduce the amount of food waste by educating younger children to prevent poor habits and charge customers based on the amount of food wasted.

High school food waste is a problem at South Tama. People are constantly throwing their lunch away because they are full or they do not like their food. Food waste is very important to the community, schools could save money by making certain adjustments on how much students should grab of food. With making these adjustments schools have saved money and help the ecosystem by throwing away less food. If observers tried a way to reduce food waste then schools save money and the ecosystem becomes healthier.