Think about how much food you eat in a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and those snacks in between. Now think about all of the food that you didn’t eat; the leftovers from ballooning restaurant portions or the extras in the fridge from dinner Friday night. Next time you sit down to eat, take a hard look at your plate and try to think about what you really plan on eating. Do you have time to eat everything you’ve served yourself in a 15-minute lunch break? Should you really be eating a salad that size?
Strive to throw nothing away from your plate. As cliché and silly as it sounds, there are starving people in this world. Children in particular have fallen victim to the hunger that looms over some of the most impoverished continents. Basic foods have become a precious and finite commodity in our world. It is disheartening to know that children go to school every day without breakfast and growling stomachs and are expected to still do their best.
No, you cannot airmail your leftovers to Africa or India to feed the hungry there, but taking a minute to think about what is on your plate before you start eating is a great step towards considering the waste that occurs all over our planet every second of the day. Are you really going to eat all of that?
- Vanessa
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
Monica Routman said,
November 28, 2008 at 4:01 pm
For thanksgiving my family ended up getting a 20 lb. turkey… for four people. The store lost our order and we ended up with a HUGE turkey. I feel like I’ve never been so greedy or wasteful in my life. Obviously, we haven’t eaten it all, but how much turkey can a person stand in the span of 3 days; not 20 lbs worth. What can be done with the leftovers that’s truly productive?
- Monica
Daniel Weber said,
December 3, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I think that the new tray-less meals at the KU dining halls have gone a long way to limit food waste. Personally, I only take one trip through the lines. This means that not only do I finish my food, but I don’t eat way more than is necessary. The less food waste there is, the less water is required to clean the plates, and so on and so forth. I agree that there are many benefits to reducing the amount of food waste.
Taylor H. said,
December 3, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I agree with Daniel. The tray-less meals did anger a lot of students, and there were many plates of food left on tables with messages written in poured salt about bringing back the trays. I was scared that the attempts to coerce Dining Services to bring back the trays would work, but I am very satisfied that they did not. It saves on food waste, water runoff, and a personal trainer!
Dominic Conti said,
December 4, 2008 at 12:28 pm
My grandma taught all her children to cook, but she also instilled this golden rule: if you don’t have left overs you did not make enough. But when looking at the state of the environment today that statement is outdated. When my family has thanksgiving we usually have to cook two big turkeys because there are so many of us. The dilemma is one turkey is not enough to feed all the family that show up so we need to use two. Unfortunately this causes us to have a lot of leftovers, which fortunately we take care of by sending food home with the family before we leave.
Grace said,
December 4, 2008 at 9:08 pm
I love the idea of the tray-less meals and I am so glad that others feel the same way I do. I cannot eat a meal in Oliver Dining Hall without hearing at least one complaint about the lack of trays, sometimes all I want to do is explain to these people that they are actually helping the environment. Wasting food seems like no big deal when you are little, maybe it is time to educate the country’s children about waste and how it effects the environment.