Reflection Paper On Food Waste In School

There is no clear description regarding food waste in a universal matter either historically or presently, making it perplexing in definition and comparison. What is clear is that food waste continues to grow at a rapid pace with the expansion of a world population experiencing societal and agricultural developments in an era where land and other resources are becoming more limited. The increase in waste and category of foods which people throw away has transformed with time through the advancement and evolving of varying cultures. The French labeled “Garbage” specifically as food waste and later broadened the term in applying to refuse in general.

With the seemingly unstoppable growth of the world’s population and a projected global population of nine billion by 2050, the matter of whether or not there will be enough food to support the world’s populace is brought into question (Parfitt, et al., 2010). However, amid the concern for an adequate food supply, there is an immense amount of food waste produced by the world, including the United States. In fact, “according to the Natural Resources Defense Council as much as 40 percent of all food produced in the United States never gets eaten and typically ends up in the landfills or goes unharvested in the field “(King, 2015).

Bloom, J. (2010). American wasteland: How America throws away nearly half of its food (and what we can do about it). Cambridge: Da Capo Press.

Our more developed countries in the world expects basic human needs such as food and water, which we have plenty of; North America and Oceania produce the most food waste in the world (640 pounds of food person/year). We worry that in many years from now as the population keeps increasing we won't be able to produce enough food for the world's population, but, we have enough food. we need to appreciate our food and not waste our food. I feel strongly about the issue concerning our production of food waste because I was not born in Canada, I still have family from where I was originally from and not all people are fortunate with food and water like it is in Canada. Even in Canada's big cities we would see big restaurants wasting tons of food daily and people who are homeless on the streets of Canada.

This group project was a lot of organization. At this moment, we had a lot of exams and

School lunches, curriculum focus, and daily activities have changed in elementary schools over the years. The nutritional value in school lunches often meet a bare minimum. Curriculum is focused strongly on idealistic future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; but often forget teaching basic healthy habits needed for lifelong health. Physical education is no longer required every single day. Obesity has become an epidemic and not just for adults, it is increasingly affecting children as well. Children spend a generous amount of time in the classroom. They spend more time in school than at home or anywhere else. Therefore, schools have a responsibility in preventing obesity in adolescents by teaching them healthy habits, serving them nutritious food, and providing them with adequate physical activity.

The United States of America is arguably known as one of the most cultural and distinguished places around the world when dealing with food. There are so many contributions that give people this impression. People look at the United States as if it has the ideal method on how to deal with food, not knowing that the United States of America is quite wasteful. Although the United States of America has this awe-inspiring impression on people, you should not be fooled. America is a leading country for food waste, this is problematic because there are millions of people in this country that could use this food, and it is also harmful to the environment. In fact the United States of America ruins so much food it can fill up to seven hundred and thirty football stadiums. About as much as forty percent of food in America goes uneaten giving me the impression that America is wasteful when it comes to dealing with food.

Logic suggests school lunches should be changed. While they may taste good, many choices in school cafeterias are unhealthy, or high in calories. In fact, many school districts don’t follow codes for school lunches made by the government, making them high in fat, carbohydrates and sugar content. As a result, American children who eat unhealthy meals at school will make the same unhealthy choices later in life as adults. In 2012, the U.S. Government updated the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs or NSLP (Angela). This set of standards stated that going forward, school lunch programs had to count fruits and vegetables as separate meal groups, offer fruit every day, make half of grain choices whole grains, offer different meal

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.

Have you thought about how much food is wasted? Just think about your supper last night did you throw any food away if you did have you ever thought about where it goes or what happens to it? Many people don’t realize that there is a lot of food that is thrown away every year. Not only do people in their homes throw away food but grocery stores also throw out a lot of food too. “Most people believe that grocery stores should donate their food instead of throwing it away but the reason why many stores don’t donate their food is because many stores either don’t want to get sued or many grocery stores don’t know that they should be donating it.” ( Jacobs)

This paper will examine the problem of food waste in the United States. Firstly, this paper will describe what food waste is, and why food waste in the American society is an immense issue that needs to be addressed. In addition, it will address the consequences of food waste and the possible problems that this issue may bring in the future. Secondly, the paper will discuss three policy solutions that would help solve the problem of food waste in the United States: provide an enhanced tax deduction for corporations that choose to donate their food to the food banks, performing an extensive study that covers every single aspect of food waste in the current food system, and require every citizen to compost their food waste. Afterwards, it will analyze the pros and cons, and the hypothetical strengths and vulnerabilities of each policy solution. Lastly, this paper will discuss personal opinions on the issue of food waste.

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

There was an estimated 1 billion Unpeeled, Unopened and Unwanted food items are discarded annually in America.

Growing up my mom would always say “vas a desear que tengas esa mota de comida cuando Dios venga y te mueras de hambre!” or “you’re going to wish you had that speck of food when God comes and you're starving!” Maybe it is the fact that our culture revolves around food or that her family was close to starving when she was growing up, either way, my mother considered wasting food a sin. Whether I am at a birthday party, holiday dinner, or getting street tacos at 1 a.m. after work, food is embedded in the happiest moments of my life. Given that I was raised to not only enjoy but respect food I am interested to learn why so many students at UCR don’t take food waste into consideration. I imagine that many UCR students are uninformed, overestimate the amount of food they intend to consume, and don’t have the time or means to reflect on the harmful effects of food waste.

In long term, the behaviour of wasting food can be reduced as parents make an effort on establishing the moral value in their children’s mind.