food waste in school essay

• Daily Point of Light

California Teen Fights Food Insecurity by Reducing Food Waste in Schools

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Colin Chu . Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.  

Sixteen-year-old Colin Chu loves his community. He plays water polo with a local club and French horn with a youth orchestra, and he spends his free time with friends and family. He loves his community while recognizing that not everyone has a similar level of support.  

The pandemic caused a lot of struggles, but upon returning to the classroom, Colin saw two problems that could solve each other. By eliminating food waste from his school, he could fill stomachs at the nearby shelters. With some initiative and follow through, his vision came to life as Homeless Heroes .   

Colin and his volunteers have donated more than 135,000 meals and impacted the lives of 1,000+ unhoused people. Aside from the obvious benefits, Homeless Heroes has empowered hundreds of young people to engage in service, and putting uneaten food to use has removed the equivalent of 1,000 trees-worth of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.   

Read on to learn more about Colin’s story.  

What inspires you to volunteer?  

I’ve been passionate about making a positive impact in my community from a young age, and more recently, I’ve seen environmental and social justice issues that really affect it. I’m inspired by the people and diversity here and want to find ways to support those who have less fortunate circumstances than me.   

Coming back to school after the pandemic, I noticed how many meals were being thrown out in my school’s cafeteria. Just a few miles away from my school, there were people who didn’t have food to put on the table. That’s what inspired me to found my nonprofit.   

Tell us more about founding Homeless Heroes. Did you have any challenges that you had to overcome, or anything that surprised you?   

In my research, I was shocked to learn that about one-third of the food produced globally is wasted. I attend school in San Mateo, but three of the top 10 cities with the highest rate of housing insecurity in the country are in the Bay Area: San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco.   

I reached out to the staff at my school’s cafeteria to see if we could redistribute the unused, unexpired food. It was a pretty lengthy process. This is something that they have seen as an issue for a while but have never really found a solution for. We did things like creating a liability waiver so that the school wasn’t legally responsible for the food after it left for the shelters, and we continue to coordinate between schools and shelters while ensuring we understand their specific needs. Going into this project, I wanted to focus on areas where environmental justice issues impact marginalized people even more.

What does your day-to-day look like?   

I still get to do a lot of deliveries. I also manage some of our other projects, like an interview series where students like myself interview unhoused clients. One of my favorite parts of this work is being able to meet the people who receive our food. They share their stories, including how they became unhoused, how they found shelter, what they wish people knew about being lacking permanent shelter and more. It’s been really moving for me. We’re really trying to bridge that gap between students and the older generations we serve and between those facing housing insecurity and those who aren’t.   

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?  

We have the potential to expand across the state and further. We’ve reached out to and are currently working with about 10 to 12 other schools in the Bay Area to create more chapters. I’m also excited to see how we can expand beyond delivering food and build other systems to address sustainability and malnutrition.  

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?  

The outreach component, being able to work with community stakeholders and find ways to communicate with them. Getting a good grasp on scheduling and following up was really helpful, because I needed to reach out to other schools and shelters.   

Also, there are a lot of misconceptions about people who are unhoused and the challenges they face. Many of them have talked about how it’s a struggle to even find a place to sleep or somewhere that’s warm and quiet. During one of our deliveries, someone came up to me and shared how they hadn’t received dairy for an entire month. They were happy for the delivery of our extra milk cartons. These small conversations with them have shed a lot of light on how meaningful their stories are and how using those stories can generate change by building empathy. 

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?  

Sometimes we don’t see the full picture. We don’t see what other people are experiencing. We don’t even see other parts of our own city or neighborhood. By volunteering and getting engaged, we gain new perspectives. We also get to meet a lot of incredible community members. I’ve been able to build meaningful connections with students, members of the housing insecure community and our clients.  

How can people address these issues in their own communities?  

I encourage everyone to visit the website and contact us if they’re interested in starting a chapter at their school. We provide a lot of support for the best ways to reach out to your cafeteria. If they require a liability waiver, we already have one drafted. We have the processes and steps in place to help them get that started.   

What do you want people to learn from your story?  

If you’d asked me before COVID if I thought I would have done any of this, I probably would have said no. But I wanted to follow something that I was passionate about and wanted to see change. That’s what started this. Never underestimate yourself and focus on something that you believe needs to change. Regardless of who you are or your background, you have the power to make a difference. It’s just about coming together and finding a community to do that.   

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Colin ? Find local volunteer opportunities.  

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Expert Commentary

School meals: Healthy lunches, food waste and effects on learning

A collection of research on school meals, including cafeteria food waste, effects on academic performance and efforts to improve school lunch quality.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource April 13, 2017

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/school-free-lunch-meals-waste-healthy/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

Policymakers pay a lot of attention to the meals served in public schools. In the midst of a nationwide childhood obesity epidemic, lawmakers are working to improve the nutritional value of foods and beverages served on campus. Some research suggests healthier lunches lead to higher test scores and that many kids rely on school meals as their main source of food.

The federally funded  National School Lunch Program  helps education leaders gauge the needs of a school. Students who are most likely to eat meals prepared in school cafeterias are from lower-income households and qualify for free- or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches. The percentage of students receiving subsidized meals is often used to measure a community’s poverty. Some education funding is earmarked specifically for schools where a large proportion of students get free- or reduced-price meals.

Nationally, 51.3 percent of public school students were eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches in 2012-13 – up from 38.3 percent in 2000-01, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The states with the largest proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches in 2012-13 were Mississippi (71.7 percent), New Mexico (68.2 percent) and Louisiana (66.2 percent).

This collection of academic research on school meals looks at the link between lunch quality and academic performance, the effectiveness of efforts to improve school meals and the amount of food waste in campus cafeterias.

Other helpful resources include fact sheets on the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program . The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases annual reports on the amount the federal government pays for school meals. A 2016 survey by the School Nutrition Association (SNA) tracks trends related to school meals, including how schools handle students with cafeteria debts. SNA, a professional organization, released a statement in 2017 on “school lunch shaming.”

——

School meals and learning

“School Lunch Quality and Academic Performance” Anderson, Michael L.; Gallagher, Justin; Ritchie, Elizabeth Ramirez. Working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 2017. No. 23218.

Abstract: “Improving the nutritional content of public school meals is a topic of intense policy interest. A main motivation is the health of school children, and, in particular, the rising childhood obesity rate. Medical and nutrition literature has long argued that a healthy diet can have a second important impact: improved cognitive function. In this paper, we test whether offering healthier lunches affects student achievement as measured by test scores. Our sample includes all California (CA) public schools over a five-year period. We estimate difference-in-difference style regressions using variation that takes advantage of frequent lunch vendor contract turnover. Students at schools that contract with a healthy school lunch vendor score higher on CA state achievement tests, with larger test score increases for students who are eligible for reduced price or free school lunches. We do not find any evidence that healthier school lunches lead to a decrease in obesity rates.”

“Food for Thought: The Effects of School Accountability Plans on School Nutrition” Figlio, David N.; Winicki, Joshua. Journal of Public Economics , 2005. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2003.10.007.

Abstract: “With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, school accountability is now federal law, continuing the recent trend of states implementing significant accountability systems for schools. This paper studies an unusual yet powerful school response to accountability systems. Using disaggregated school lunch menus from a random sample of school districts in Virginia, we find that schools threatened with accountability sanctions increase the caloric content of their lunches on testing days in an apparent attempt to boost short-term student cognitive performance. Moreover, we find that the schools that responded the most along these dimensions experienced the greatest improvements in standardized test scores.”

“Not Just for Poor Kids: The Impact of Universal Free School Breakfast on Meal Participation and Student Outcomes” Leos-Urbel, Jacob; Schwartz, Amy Ellen; Weinstein, Meryle; Corcoran, Sean. Economics of Education Review , 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.06.007.

Abstract: “This paper examines the impact of the implementation of a universal free school breakfast policy on meals program participation, attendance, and academic achievement. In 2003, New York City made school breakfast free for all students regardless of income, while increasing the price of lunch for those ineligible for meal subsidies. Using a difference-in-difference estimation strategy, we derive plausibly causal estimates of the policy’s impact by exploiting within and between group variation in school meal pricing before and after the policy change. Our estimates suggest that the policy resulted in small increases in breakfast participation both for students who experienced a decrease in the price of breakfast and for free-lunch eligible students who experienced no price change. The latter suggests that universal provision may alter behavior through mechanisms other than price, highlighting the potential merits of universal provision over targeted services. We find limited evidence of policy impacts on academic outcomes.”

School food waste

“Nutritional, Economic, and Environmental Costs of Milk Waste in a Classroom School Breakfast Program” Blondin, Stacy A.; et al. American Journal of Public Health , 2017. DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303647.

Results: “Of the total milk offered to School Breakfast Program participants, 45 percent was wasted. A considerably smaller portion of served milk was wasted (26 percent). The amount of milk wasted translated into 27 percent of vitamin D and 41 percent of calcium required of School Breakfast Program meals. The economic and environmental costs amounted to an estimated $274,782 (16 percent of the district’s total annual School Breakfast Program food expenditures) and 192,260,155 liters of water over the school year in the district.”

“Younger Elementary School Students Waste More School Lunch Foods than Older Elementary School Students” Niaki, Shahrbanou F.; et al. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.08.005.

Conclusions: “Overall, younger students in elementary schools (K-Gr-1) consumed less of the foods they selected for their lunch meals, and wasted more than older elementary school students. Future studies should investigate why younger children wasted more food and potential strategies to reduce food waste by younger students.”

“‘It’s Just So Much Waste.’ A Qualitative Investigation of Food Waste in a Universal Free School Breakfast Program” Blondin, Stacy A.; et al. Public Health Nutrition , 2015. DOI: 10.1017/S1368980014002948.

Results: “Stakeholders perceived food waste as a problem and expressed concern regarding the amount of food wasted. Explanations reported for food waste included food-related (palatability and accessibility), child-related (taste preferences and satiation) and program-related (duration, food service policies, and coordination) factors. Milk and fruit were perceived as foods particularly susceptible to waste. Several food waste mitigation strategies were identified by participants: saving food for later, actively encouraging children’s consumption, assisting children with foods during mealtime, increasing staff support, serving smaller portion sizes, and composting and donating uneaten food.”

“School Lunch Waste among Middle School Students: Implications for Nutrients Consumed and Food Waste Costs” Cohen, Juliana F.W.; et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine , 2013. DOI:  10.1016/j.amepre.2012.09.060.

Conclusions: “There is substantial food waste among middle school students in Boston. Overall, students’ nutrient consumption levels were below school meal standards, and foods served were not valid proxies for foods consumed. The costs associated with discarded foods are high; if translated nationally for school lunches, roughly $1,238,846,400 annually is wasted. Students might benefit if additional focus were given to the quality and palatability of school meals.”

Free and reduced-price meals

“Concentration of Public School Students Eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch” Report from the National Center for Education Statistics, Updated 2017.

Summary: “In school year 2014–15, nearly half of Hispanic and Black public school students, one-third of American Indian/Alaska Native students, and one-quarter of Pacific Islander students attended high-poverty schools. In contrast, 17 percent of students of two or more races, 15 percent of Asian students, and 8 percent of White students attended high-poverty schools.”

“Low-income Children’s Participation in the National School Lunch Program and Household Food Insufficiency” Huang, Jin; Barnidge, Ellen. Social Science & Medicine , 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.12.020.

Abstract: “Assessing the impact of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) on household food insufficiency is critical to improve the implementation of public food assistance and to improve the nutrition intake of low-income children and their families. To examine the association of receiving free/reduced-price lunch from the NSLP with household food insufficiency among low-income children and their families in the United States, the study used data from four longitudinal panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP; 1996, 2001, 2004, and 2008), which collected information on household food insufficiency covering both summer and non-summer months. The sample included 15,241 households with at least one child (aged 5–18) receiving free/reduced-price lunch from the NSLP. A dichotomous measure describes whether households have sufficient food to eat in the observed months. Fixed-effects regression analysis suggests that the food insufficiency rate is .7 (95 percent CI: .1, 1.2) percentage points higher in summer months among NSLP recipients. Since low-income families cannot participate in the NSLP in summer when the school is not in session, the result indicates the NSLP participation is associated with a reduction of food insufficiency risk by nearly 14 percent. The NSLP plays a significant role to protect low-income children and their families from food insufficiency. It is important to increase access to school meal programs among children at risk of food insufficiency in order to ensure adequate nutrition and to mitigate the health problems associated with malnourishment among children.”

Moving to healthier options

“Healthier Standards for School Meals and Snacks: Impact on School Food Revenues and Lunch Participation Rates” Cohen, Juliana F.W.; et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine , 2016, Vol. 51. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.02.031.

Conclusions: “Schools experienced initial revenue losses after implementation of the standards, yet longer-term school food revenues were not impacted and school meal participation increased among children eligible for reduced-price meals. Weakening the school meal or competitive food guidelines based on revenue concerns appears unwarranted.”

“Effect of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act on the Nutritional Quality of Meals Selected by Students and School Lunch Participation Rates” Johnson, Donna B.; Podrabsky, Mary; Rocha, Anita. JAMA Pediatrics , 2016. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.3918.

Results: “After implementation of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, change was associated with significant improvement in the nutritional quality of foods chosen by students, as measured by increased mean adequacy ratio from a mean of 58.7 (range, 49.6-63.1) prior to policy implementation to 75.6 (range, 68.7-81.8) after policy implementation and decreased energy density from a mean of 1.65 (range, 1.53-1.82) to 1.44 (range, 1.29-1.61), respectively. There was negligible difference in student meal participation following implementation of the new meal standards with 47 percent meal participation (range, 40.4 percent-49.5 percent) meal participation prior to the implemented policy and 46 percent participation (range, 39.1 percent -48.2 percent) afterward.”

“Lunch, Recess and Nutrition: Responding to Time Incentives in the Cafeteria” Price, Joseph; Just, David R. Preventive Medicine , 2015. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.11.016.

Conclusions: “Our results show the benefits of holding recess before lunch and suggest that if more schools implement this policy, there would be significant increases in fruit and vegetable consumption among students who eat school lunch as part of the National School Lunch Program.”

“Nutrient Content of School Meals Before and After Implementation of Nutrition Recommendations in Five School Districts Across Two U.S. Counties” Cummings, Patricia L.; et al. Preventive Medicine , 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2014.03.004.

Results: “School districts in both counties made district-wide changes in their school breakfast and lunch menus. Menu changes resulted in a net reduction of calories, sugar, and sodium content offered in the meals. Net fewer calories offered as a result of the nutrition interventions were estimated to be about 64,075 kcal per student per year for LAC [Los Angeles County, California] and 22,887 kcal per student per year for SCC [Cook County, Illinois].”

Farm-to-school efforts

“Daily Access to Local Foods for School Meals: Key Drivers” Ralston, Katherine; et al. Report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, 2017. EIB-168.

Abstract: “Farm-to-school programs began in the 1990s and have been encouraged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) through grant funding, technical assistance and changes to school meal procurement regulations. In 2012, USDA’s Farm to School Program was formally established to improve access to local foods in eligible schools. Today, more than 4 in 10 school districts report serving local foods or implementing other farm-to-school activities. To examine progress toward USDA’s goal of daily availability of locally produced foods for all students and to identify potential targets for technical assistance, this report uses data from the 2013 Farm to School Census to measure the prevalence of school districts that serve local food daily and the characteristics of those districts.”

School meals as a main source of food

“The Contribution of the USDA School Breakfast and Lunch Program Meals to Student Daily Dietary Intake” Cullen, Karen Weber; Chen, Tzu-An. Preventive Medicine Reports , 2017. DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.016.

Abstract: “In the United States, the National School Breakfast (SBP) and School Lunch Program (NSLP) meals are provided for free or at a reduced price to eligible children, and are a nutrition safety net for low income children. Consuming both meals could provide 58 percent of daily intake. This paper evaluates the contribution of SBP and NSLP meals to the dietary intakes of 5-18 year old children participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2007 through 2012. The participants completed 24-hour dietary recalls. Least-square means and standard errors of the mean for energy and food group intakes for the total day and by school meal, and the percent of daily energy and food groups contributed by school meals were computed by analysis of covariance, with BMI, ethnicity, sex, age and poverty level as covariates. Of the 7,800 participating children aged 5-18 years in the entire dataset, 448 consumed both SBP-NSLP meals on a weekday. Almost one-half (47 percent) of the day’s energy intake was provided by the two school meals. For the major food groups, the contribution of school meals ranged from between 40.6 percent for vegetables to 77.1 percent for milk. Overall, these results provide important information on contribution of the SBP and NSLP meals to low income children’s daily dietary intake.”

School breakfast

“Expanding the School Breakfast Program: Impacts on Children’s Consumption, Nutrition and Health” Schanzenbach, Diane Whitmore; Zaki, Mary. Working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, 2014. No. 20308.

Abstract: “ School meals programs are the front line of defense against childhood hunger, and while the school lunch program is nearly universally available in U.S. public schools, the school breakfast program has lagged behind in terms of availability and participation. In this paper we use experimental data collected by the USDA to measure the impact of two popular policy innovations aimed at increasing access to the school breakfast program. The first, universal free school breakfast, provides a hot breakfast before school (typically served in the school’s cafeteria) to all students regardless of their income eligibility for free or reduced-price meals. The second is the Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) program that provides free school breakfast to all children to be eaten in the classroom during the first few minutes of the school day. We find both policies increase the take-up rate of school breakfast, though much of this reflects shifting breakfast consumption from home to school or consumption of multiple breakfasts and relatively little of the increase is from students gaining access to breakfast. We find little evidence of overall improvements in child 24-hour nutritional intake, health, behavior or achievement, with some evidence of health and behavior improvements among specific subpopulations.”

School meals vs. packed lunches

“Eating School Lunch Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality among Elementary School Students” Au, Lauren E.; et al. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , 2016. DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.04.010.

Results: “Students who ate school breakfast had higher total fruit (P=0.01) and whole fruit (P=0.0008) scores compared with students who only ate breakfast obtained from home. Students who ate school foods had higher scores for dairy (P=0.007 for breakfast and P<0.0001 for lunch) and for empty calories from solid fats and added sugars (P=0.01 for breakfast and P=0.007 for lunch).”

“Nutritional Comparison of Packed and School Lunches in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Children Following the Implementation of the 2012–2013 National School Lunch Program Standards” Farris, Alisha R.; et al. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior , 2014. DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2014.07.007.

Conclusions: “Packed lunches were of less nutritional quality than school lunches. Additional research is needed to explore factors related to choosing packed over school lunches.”

Length of lunch break

“Amount of Time to Eat Lunch Is Associated with Children’s Selection and Consumption of School Meal Entrée, Fruits, Vegetables, and Milk” Cohen; Juliana F.W.; et al. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics , 2016. 10.1016/j.jand.2015.07.019.

Conclusions: “During the school year, a substantial number of students had insufficient time to eat, which was associated with significantly decreased entrée, milk and vegetable consumption compared with students who had more time to eat. School policies that encourage lunches with at least 25 minutes of seated time might reduce food waste and improve dietary intake.”

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Denise-Marie Ordway

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Finding Solutions to Food Waste: Persuasion in a Digital World

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

Students explore the problem of food waste using electronic and traditional modalities. They begin by tracking food waste in the school cafeteria. Then they examine the waste on a larger scale, using multimodal resources and applying metacognitive reading strategies. Considering radical and basic solutions to the problem, students plan persuasive arguments and create blog posts appropriate to their purpose and audience. By interacting with videos, blogs, and online articles, students become more flexible and confident in this emerging area of literacy, learning not only to access and analyze, but also to produce and publish persuasive text in a multimodal environment.

Featured Resources

• ReadWriteThink Persuasion Map : Students use this interactive to help analyze and deconstruct persuasive arguments and to plan their own blog posts.
• TED Video Talk: Marcel Dicke: Why Not Eat Insects? : This video shows students how a persuasive argument can be presented in a different format than words on the page.
• Food Waste Basics : This website gives students an overview of food waste in the United States.

From Theory to Practice

• Researchers agree that multimodal literacy should become a standard part of literacy curriculums.
• Students should be exposed to multiple texts that evoke emotional responses and tap into popular culture.
• There is a correlation between overall dispositions toward reading on the Internet and online reading comprehension ability.
• Positive interactions with online text lead to successful online readers who are able to manage complex texts with confidence and flexibility.

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
• 8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
• 11. Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).

Materials and Technology

• Computers with Internet access
• LCD projector and screen
• The Art of Persuasive Writing PowerPoint presentation
• Persuasion Map (click on “Print Blank Map”)
• Cafeteria Waste Activity Sheet
• Why Not Eat Insects? Notes Organizer (student version)
• Why Not Eat Insects? Notes Organizer (teacher version)
• Research Guide
• Waste Not, Want Not (Note that this blog is formatted as a PDF for easy classroom use; ideally though, it should be posted to your class website or blog for students to access rather than handed out.)
• Persuasive Blog Rubric
• Metacognitive Strategies Chart

Preparation

• At least one week ahead of time, set up and test student blogs. Students should be divided into blogging communities of eight to ten members so that they are not overwhelmed by having to read and respond to too many blogs. If you feel you need a refresher about using student blogs, refer to the resources at Setting Up Student Blogs by Kathleen Morris.
• Copy and paste the  Waste Not, Want Not blog on to your class webpage or blog, or print it and make a copy for each student.
• On your teacher website, create links to the ReadWriteThink Persuasion Map , TED Talk: Marcel Dicke: Why Not Eat Insects? , Food Facts: Your Scraps Add Up , Food Waste Basics , and the student blog you choose so students can access them quickly and efficiently.
• Prepare the  Metacognitive Strategies Chart to share with the class, either in hard copy or with your LCD projector.
• Why Not Eat Insects? Notes Organizer
• Persuasion Map (if you do not plan to have students use the RWT interactive option for Session 5, click on “Print Blank Map” to make print copies)
• Schedule computer lab time for Sessions 3, 4, 5 (optional), 7, and 8. Decide whether more than nine sessions should be prepared, based on the level of scaffolding needed for student mastery and the grade level taught; plan for any additional sessions.

Student Objectives

Students will

• Develop research skills by conducting a brief investigation of food waste in the school cafeteria
• Analyze and evaluate persuasive techniques by deconstructing a persuasive argument from an audio/visual source and online resources
• Apply metacognitive reading strategies to understand written text
• Identify facts and supporting arguments in online articles to answer specific research questions
• Develop persuasive arguments supported by evidence gleaned from research
• Apply persuasive argument techniques by creating a blog post that includes a thesis and quality arguments appropriate to the writer’s purpose and electronic audience

Presession: Waste in the Cafeteria Survey

• Assign students to conduct a personal survey of the amount of food they throw away each day at lunch using the Cafeteria Waste Activity Sheet .
• After five days of data collection, divide students into groups of three to five. Have them compile and analyze the information they have collected by determining the overall percentage of food wasted over the last five days.
• Have each group of students synthesize their findings into a pie chart that can be displayed. Have the class draw conclusions about the findings as they examine the charts. Collect students’ activity sheets for assessment.

Session 1: PowerPoint Presentation

• Teach persuasion basics using The Art of Persuasive Writing PowerPoint presentation , having students take notes. Use the presentation notes included at the bottom of some of the slides to guide your discussion. Stop frequently to allow students to share their own examples of persuasive speech. Presentation highlights include types of persuasive speech, elements of the persuasive essay, and persuasive vocabulary like logos, pathos, ethos, and counterarguments.

Session 2: Analysis/Deconstruction of the Persuasive Argument in Video Format

• Watch TED Talk: Marcel Dicke: Why Not Eat Insects? as a class.
• As they watch the video, have students take notes using the Why Not Eat Insects? Notes Organizer .
• After watching the video, discuss the presenter’s purpose and intended audience with students.
• Have students use their notes to fill in the ReadWriteThink Persuasion Map , identifying the thesis and major supporting arguments. Collect their notes organizers for assessment.

Sessions 3–4: Research (computer days)

• Set a purpose for reading the following articles: Food Facts: Your Scraps Add Up , Food Waste Basics , and the  Waste Not, Want Not blog. Review what students know about food waste.
• Review the four metacognitive strategies in the Metacognitive Strategies Chart : connect, question, infer, and evaluate. Remind students to preview the articles by reading the titles, examining the graphics, and reading the captions.
• Have students explore the online articles for answers to the food waste problem. Briefly model the process of collecting information from the online articles.
• Have students record their findings on the Research Guide .

Session 5: Developing Thesis and Arguments (optional computer day)

• Briefly model the process of developing a single, focused thesis and arguments from the Research Guide . Some students may want to tackle all of the issues discovered in their research, so you should provide the necessary scaffolding as students work to narrow their focus. (Please note that the focus of  Waste Not, Want Not is reducing food waste at home; however, students should be free to choose any food waste topic from their research when writing their own blogs.)
• Have students develop a thesis and arguments for their own blog post, offering persuasive solutions to the waste problem. Students should refer to facts from the Research Guide to craft their arguments.
• Have students consider the appropriate tone for their electronic audience. Since students are addressing their own academic community about a social issue, the tone should be thoughtful and insightful. Caution students to avoid informal or flippant remarks.
• Students may use the  ReadWriteThink Persuasion Map to plan their blog. If a computer lab is not available, students may use a hard-copy persuasion map instead (click on “Print Blank Map” on the interactive page).
• Have students print out their work at the end of the session. Collect both the Research Guide and the Persuasion Map for assessment.

Session 6: Writing the Rough Draft

• Hand out and explore the Persuasive Blog Rubric . Explain to students that assessment for the remaining sessions is ongoing, based on the rubric, and culminates in each student publishing a blog post and two responses.
• Model applying the Persuasive Blog Rubric to the mentor text, Waste Not, Want Not . Ask students to identify the thesis statement and supporting arguments. Extend the discussion by having students evaluate the quality of each blog post argument and whether or not the author has successfully tailored those arguments to an electronic audience.
• Have students apply what they have learned by writing the initial draft of their blog. Students should write about a topic from their research that interested them. For example, they could write about the costs of meat production, how restaurants can reduce waste, or how food waste contributes to rising methane levels.

Session 7: Revising and Publishing Persuasive Blogs (computer day)

• Have students evaluate their blog post drafts using the Persuasive Blog Rubric . Students may work in pairs or as individuals. Have students check to make sure each blog post includes a thesis statement, supporting arguments, and a well-developed conclusion; has an appropriate academic tone; and is free of convention errors.
• Have students revise based on self-evaluation and, if working in pairs, peer feedback.
• Have students publish blog posts.

Sessions 8–9: Response and Reflection (computer day)

• Briefly review the  Persuasive Blog Rubric for the response criteria.
• Display the  Metacognitive Strategies Chart on the board, and discuss how the strategies lead to insightful responses that further the blogging conversations.
• Examine the blog post responses in Waste Not, Want Not . As a class, rate each response according to the criteria outlined in the Persuasive Blog Rubric, identifying the responses that are insightful and further the conversation. Brainstorm other possible responses.
• Have students read at least two other student blogs and respond to each.
• Circulate around the room to check for student understanding and response quality. Scaffold and support students by offering specific feedback. Look for evidence that students are crafting well-thought-out responses by making connections, questioning, inferring, and/or evaluating.
• Review each student’s blog posts and responses, and evaluate them according to the Persuasive Blog Rubric.
• Have students plan a “No Waste” class party.
• Find and deconstruct another TED Talk video about reducing waste or recycling.
• Have students organize a cafeteria waste reduction program for your school.
• Start a class blog or online forum where students can share their ideas about another community or school issue.
• Create an advertisement for the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
• Open the EPA’s Food Waste Basics and follow the link at the top of the page titled, “Source Reduction/Prevention.” Scroll down to “Source Reduction and Prevention Success Stories.” Have students plan a campaign for your community, and express their ideas in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Review the Cafeteria Waste Activity Sheet to assess student research and investigation skills.
• Review the Why Not Eat Insects? Notes Organizer to assess student understanding of persuasive techniques.
• Review the Research Guide to assess student ability to apply metacognitive reading strategies to comprehend, identify facts and supporting arguments, and answer specific reading questions.
• Review the ReadWriteThink Persuasion Map (interactive or hard copy) to assess each student’s ability to craft a well-supported, persuasive argument.
• Use the Persuasive Blog Rubric to assess student ability to apply persuasive argument techniques in a blog post and responses written for an electronic audience.
• Informal assessment is ongoing as you and each student conference throughout the process of doing research, developing arguments, and creating the blog post.
• Strategy Guides
• Lesson Plans
• Calendar Activities

Students analyze rhetorical strategies in online editorials, building knowledge of strategies and awareness of local and national issues. This lesson teaches students connections between subject, writer, and audience and how rhetorical strategies are used in everyday writing.

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• Kindergarten K

Food Waste in Schools and Strategies to Reduce It

Written collaboratively by Jennifer Folliard, Mikalya Hardy and Francesca Benson.

USDA’s Let’s Talk Trash initiative has created an infographic that shows that about 90 billion pounds of edible food goes uneaten each year, which is about $372 per person. This means that daily, about 387 billion calories are going unconsumed, which is about one half pound per person per day. About 19% of this food waste comes from vegetables. According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council ( NRDC ), 8% of all wasted food comes from institutional and foodservice settings. These settings would include places like hospitals and schools. These statistics show that food waste is a major problem and steps need to be taken reduce the amount of food waste produced on a daily basis.

You may be wondering what can schools do to help in these food waste reduction efforts? Schools can reduce, recover, and recycle the food that goes uneaten by students. They can reduce food waste through improved ordering, prepping, and storage techniques, they can recover wholesome uneaten food and donate it to feed people in need, and they can recycle discarded food for other uses including animal feed, compost, and energy generation.

Food Recovery Hierarchy

One tool that can be utilized by schools when determining which steps to take is the Food Recovery Hierarchy . This upside-down pyramid goes through the steps that anyone can take in reducing food waste from the most preferred at the top or largest part of the pyramid to the least preferred methods at the bottom or smallest part of the pyramid.

The first step in the food recovery hierarchy is source reduction or controlling the amount of food wasted at the source by producing only the necessary amounts of food. The second step is feeding hungry people, such as donating food, or utilizing share tables in a school setting. The third step is to feed animals followed by the fourth step of industrial uses. The fifth step is composting the wasted food, and the final step is incineration or sending the food to the landfill. The final step is the least preferred method of disposing of food because it is resulting in that wasted food ending up in the landfill, which is the least desirable result. Food that ends up in landfills can produce methane gas which travels into the ecosystem and can have harmful effects.

Nutrition Program Strategy

In school nutrition programs there are a variety of steps in which food loss can be controlled ranging from planning the meals to serving the food. During the planning process menu planners can review items that students like or dislike and potentially remove the items that students do not like and replace them with new items for students to try. During the purchasing process, ensure that only enough food is being purchased and that over purchasing is not occurring. If there is a surplus of a food item in storage, do not order more of that item until it is needed. During the receiving process, ensure that food is kept at the appropriate temperatures so that it can be utilized rather than thrown out. During the storing process, food should be stored correctly to help keep it at its peak freshness and quality. Keeping a close eye on storage room, freezer, and cooler temperatures to ensure that they stay within the appropriate ranges is also very important to reduce food waste. During the production process, ensuring that food service staff are trained on knife skills to reduce food waste from fresh fruits and veggies.

Another production waste reduction strategy is ensuring that food service staff pay close attention to foods that are being cooked so that they do not burn or come prepared with a quality that students will not consume or will be more likely to throw away. Finally, during the serving process, schools can implement procedures such as offer versus serve so that students can take the items that they want, rather than being required to take all of the meal items.

Overall, utilizing active managerial control and paying close attention to food safety, monitoring, training of staff, and supervision of staff can help to reduce food waste in all of these areas. Also utilizing the feedback from the serving process all the way back to the planning process to benefit the planning process in the future is key.

Food Waste Audits

Schools can conduct a school food waste audit to determine how much food is wasted at their school or in their district. USDA, the EPA, and The University of Arkansas have developed a "Guide to Conducting a Student Food Waste Audit" resource for schools to utilize. This resource will walk schools through the step-by-step processes that should be taken to conduct an in depth food waste audit. Schools can also take more simple approaches as well and modify the food waste audit to fit their needs and ability. A Food waste audit is one of the best ways to learn which foods are going uneaten. It can help to determine how much food is being wasted and as mentioned, can be very simple or very complex. An example of a very basic food waste audit is the food service director standing by the trash can simply tallying how much of certain foods are being thrown in the trash – for example, fruits and vegetables.

Offer vs. Serve

There are a variety of ways that schools can help to reduce food waste. Schools can implement offer versus serve so that students have the ability to select or decline parts of their meal. When schools utilize offer versus serve they can reduce disposal costs, it may increase student fruit and vegetable consumption, and more meals can credit as reimbursable. When students are able to make choices about the food they are eating, they are less likely to throw food items away. USDA’s Team Nutrition Initiative has tons of resources available from posters to tip sheets for schools to hang up and utilize.

Salad bars a great way to give students choice in their meals! When students are able to pick the food items that they will be eating, there is less waste created. Salad bars provide a larger variety of food items, which means more options for students and they will be more likely to actually eat the items that they are taking. Utilizing smaller pan sizes on a salad bar is another way to help decrease food waste and allows for more options to be placed on the salad bar as well. Also, the salad bar can be filled utilizing USDA Foods items to help cut back on cost. DOD Fresh/FFAVORS can provide fresh fruits and veggies for your salad bar and more variety at a little cost. Utilizing a salad bar can also help schools to cut back on plastics that they are utilizing. This is a win-win because funds that were previously spent on packaging can now be put towards food AND less overall waste from the plastic containers.

Share Tables

Share Tables are defined by USDA as tables or stations where children may return whole food or beverage items they choose not to eat, if it is in compliance with local and State health and food safety codes. These stations can be anywhere in the lunchroom as long as they are monitored by foodservice staff but they are typically found near the serving area. Share Tables allow children to take an additional helping of a food or beverage item from the table at no cost to them. Students put items that they do not want on the share table for other students to take. The food items placed on the share table must be items that are easily identifiable as not tampered with. Items in packaging, such as a milk carton or packaged carrots or whole fruits such as bananas, apples, oranges are examples of items typically utilized on share tables. Food and beverage items that are left on the share table may be served and claimed for reimbursement during another meal service such as the afterschool snack program or remainder of the lunch service. Items may also be donated to a non-profit organization such as a community food bank, homeless shelter, or other non-profit charitable organization. If food items are being placed on the share table that have food safety requirements, such as milk, all food safety procedures and temperature controls must be put into place as well. Some food safety tips for Share Tables are as follows:

• Follow Federal, State, and local health and food safety requirements.
• Establish clear guidelines for food components that may and may not be shared or reused as a part of a later reimbursable meal.
• If sharing items that require cooling is permissible under local and State laws, establish strict food safety guidelines to prevent the risk of foodborne illness.
• Supervise the share table at all times to ensure compliance with food safety requirements.
• Promote the share table to children and families.

For more information about Share Tables, check out the USDA memo "SP 41-2016: The Use of Share Tables in Child Nutrition Programs."

Implementing Smarter Lunchroom Strategies

The Smarter Lunchrooms Movement was created to help nudge students towards more healthful food choices during lunchtime in schools. There are several evidence based strategies that schools can implement to help improve their lunchrooms and increase their students intake of healthful foods and in turn decrease food waste. There is a Smarter Lunchrooms Scorecard that schools can fill out to determine which strategies they are already doing and which ones they could implement. A few examples of smarter lunchroom strategies that reduce food waste are; cut up whole fruits and veggies, improve meal quality, and schedule recess before lunch. Cutting up whole fruits and veggies makes them easier for kids to eat and more appealing to eat as well. Also, training yourself and your staff on proper knife skills and cutting up fruits and veggies can reduce the amount of those fruits/veggies that you are wasting during the prep process. Offering sliced fruits and veggies can increase consumption by 70%! Improving meal quality is a pretty obvious suggestion. When meal quality is better, more students want to eat and they are more likely to eat what they are served.

Recess before lunch is also a huge factor in reducing food waste with students. When students are allowed to go to recess before they eat, they are less worried about going outside to play with their friends during lunch time and can focus more on eating. Also, there are studies that show that people have more of an appetite after some physical activity, which means increased consumption. Recess before lunch is considered a best practice and studies have shown that when recess is before lunch 40% less food is wasted and 54% more fruits and veggies are actually consumed. Recess before lunch can also lend itself to a more calm lunchroom environment.

The amount of time that students are given to physically sit and eat is important for them. Studies show that students should have at least 20 minutes to actually sit and eat, not a 20-minute lunch period. Changing lunch periods from 20 to 25 minutes had a 13% decrease in waste, however, the best practice is actually a 30-minute lunch period. When students have longer to sit and eat they are consuming more of their food instead of feeling rushed. Meal times are traditionally a social time in our culture, so allowing students the time to eat and socialize is important. A seat time study was conducted at a school district at each school. The district has one high school, one middle school, and three elementary schools. The students at the middle and high schools choose when they get up to dispose of their trays so the amount of time that they are seated is more up to them than the elementary students. The students at the elementary schools are told when to get up and dispose of their trays regardless of if they are finished eating or not. On average students at the elementary schools had only 18 minutes to sit and eat, however, the younger grades typically had less time than that. It may be necessary to increase lunch times for younger students or at the beginning of the school year because it may take longer for students to go through the lunch line.

Involve Students

When students are involved in making their food choices, they are more likely to consume the food served to them. This can decrease food waste but also increase healthy foods that students are eating. There are many ways to involve students in your school meal programs and here are a few ideas:

• Student taste testing.
• Let students vote on new menu items to let you know if they liked it or not.
• Have a contest for creative menu item names.
• Generate excitement among students with cooking demos or classes.
• Educate your customers (students) about menu items and meal requirements.
• Form food recovery teams made up of students that help educate other students on which food items can be donated and which can be composted. These student teams can also help with donation and collection drop offs.

Donate Leftover Food Items

Yes! This is allowable! The SD Child and Adult Nutrition Services (CANS) Office has a Memo that specifically references the donation of leftover foods. CANS NSLP memo "#220-1 – Leftover Food Items" can help you to make an action plan for your leftovers. The main focus of the memo is to establish a policy to handle how or who should be in charge of disposing or donating leftovers.

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How to Pack a Planet-Friendly School Lunch That Your Kids Will Love

You can turn a daily packed lunch into a nutritious, tasty, and more sustainable meal.

Start With Lunch

Reduce single-use items, reduce the carbon footprint of lunch food, reduce school lunch food waste, keep it cute.

Packing school lunch every weekday may not be everyone's favorite task, but one thing is certain—it is an action full of opportunities. According to numerous studies, food accounts for 10 to 30 percent of a U.S. household's total carbon footprint—and being thoughtful about how we approach what we eat can make a significant impact on mitigating the climate crisis. School lunches are a great place to start. We spoke to an eco expert and a chef to get their insights.

• Alexandra Zissu, eco-lifestyle expert , author, and consultant at Moms Clean Air Force
• Dom Crisp , parent and executive chef of The Lonely Oyster in Los Angeles

"School lunch can be the start of an environmental conversation. These kids have really inherited quite an overwhelming legacy with the climate crisis, and anything we can do to scaffold them and show them there are things we can do now to support them with the Earth they're inheriting, I think is beautiful," says Alexandra Zissu, eco-lifestyle expert, author, and consultant at Moms Clean Air Force , an organization dedicated to protecting children from air pollution and climate change.

How do you turn a daily packed lunch into a nutritious, tasty, climate-friendly meal? It takes creativity, but with a bit of planning, it isn't hard.

Single-use containers are quick and easy but wreak havoc on our planet, health, and wallets. Thankfully, all sorts of cute, fun, reusable lunch containers have popped up on the market in recent years. Here are a few to keep on hand:

Reusable water bottle: You can rinse these out daily or even pop them in the dishwasher, and using one cuts down on the waste generated by plastic water bottles or juice boxes.

Reusable sandwich and snack bags: Stay away from single-use plastic bags, but remember that if your goal is to also cut down on plastic, you should read carefully what the reusable bags are made of. "A lot of them are sold in fabrics that actually contain plastic, so if your goal is to be plastic-free, you have to sleuth a little, but they're reusable, so if your goal is to keep stuff out of the landfill, you want the most durable fabric you can find," says Zissu who prefers simple cotton bags for lunch use.

Reusable stainless steel or glass containers: These are excellent options for avoiding plastic. Glass containers are a nice option for keeping food fresh and secure, but they are heavier, and some school districts might not allow glass containers. " Stainless steel or silicone bento boxes , cut down on single-use plastics and weigh less," says Zissu. 

Thermos: Don't forget a thermos, especially if you have a child who is not a sandwich fan. It's great for soups, stews, pastas, and even reheated leftovers.

Cloth napkins and stainless steel utensils: Having reusable utensils cuts down on waste and will save you money—as long as your child can remember to bring them home!

After you have the tools, think about the food that will go into your child's lunch. 

Keep it varied: We love variety in our home, says Dom Crisp, parent and executive chef of Los Angeles restaurant The Lonely Oyster . "Giving my kid a changing array of starches, fruits, and proteins always keeps them interested and excited about finishing their food." Even if they are locked into one food every day, add different spreads or mix it up a little. So, if an apple is a must-have, accompany it with different peanut butter or seed spreads for dipping to enhance their interaction with the meal.

Avoid packaged snacks when possible: Choose whole, in-season fruits or vegetables over pre-packaged snacks. Shopping at a local farmers market is a great option if it's available—and/or look for organic, regenerative, and fair-trade certifications in supermarkets. When it comes to shelf-stable snacks, buy in bulk and portion out servings in reusable bags or containers if you can, but don't forget to cut yourself a break if you can't. "We're all tired. If you need to stick a yogurt in there, that's not something you made yourself in your instant pot, go for it," says Zissu.

Pack less meat and dairy: Another way to reduce the carbon footprint of packed lunches is to cut down on meat and dairy products.  A 2023 study of more than 55,000 people and 38,000 farms in 119 countries found that plant-based diets produce 75 percent less heat-trapping gas, generate 75 percent less water pollution, and use 75 percent less land than meat-rich diets—those that include at least 100 grams of meat daily, the equivalent of one steak about the size of a deck of cards. Start small; try packing one vegan or plant-based lunch per week.

Let them choose: Finally—and perhaps most importantly—don't forget to have your kids help choose the foods that go in their lunch; it'll likely help reduce waste.

In the U.S., food is the single most common material found in landfills. Once there, trapped under other debris, food rots and in that oxygen-starved setting, emits methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide . According to the EPA, food waste accounts for up to eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, as kids are constantly changing their preferences and sometimes they're too excited to eat at school or lunch is at a strange time when they aren't hungry, your children will likely have leftover food. Some school districts offer composting, which is a great option for reducing the greenhouse emissions of food waste. However, even if your child's school composts, you might still want your child to bring their leftover food home.

"I liked them to keep the food because on the way home, if I'm the one doing pickup that day, we eat what I call second lunch," says Zissu. Crisp also supports the idea of bringing food home: "As a chef myself, I like to be the household garbage disposal and make the little dude food I like to eat myself. This way, we are mirroring each other as we eat, and I can also feel good about eating after them if they don't finish." It's also another way of figuring out how much food your child is eating and what kinds of food they are, which can help you and them pack the lunches they will eat.

Your aim is to get them to eat, to enjoy what they eat, and also not to create waste. Let them help pick out the supplies and food items, and remember that small flourishes can go a long way. You may not have the time or inclination to go full arts-and-crafts with their food, but just playing with shapes and colors can make it all more engaging. One final thing might not seem important but we think it is: Don't forget to write little notes in their lunchbox. "I get yelled at for that, but I know they love it, and when they started telling me it was really uncool, I started writing them from the cats, and nobody complained," says Zissu.

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Systematic literature review of food waste in educational institutions: setting the research agenda

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

ISSN : 0959-6119

Article publication date: 29 January 2021

Issue publication date: 6 May 2021

In the recent past, academic researchers have noted the quantity of food wasted in food service establishments in educational institutions. However, more granular inputs are required to counter the challenge posed. The purpose of this study is to undertake a review of the prior literature in the area to provide a platform for future research.

Design/methodology/approach

Towards this end, the authors used a robust search protocol to identify 88 congruent studies to review and critically synthesize. The research profiling of the selected studies revealed limited studies conducted on food service establishments in universities. The research is also less dispersed geographically, remaining largely focused on the USA. Thereafter, the authors performed content analysis to identify seven themes around which the findings of prior studies were organized.

The key themes of the reviewed studies are the drivers of food waste, quantitative assessment of food waste, assessment of the behavioural aspects of food waste, operational strategies for reducing food waste, interventions for inducing behavioural changes to mitigate food waste, food diversion and food waste disposal processes and barriers to the implementation of food waste reduction strategies.

Research limitations/implications

This study has key theoretical and practical implications. From the perspective of research, the study revealed various gaps in the extant findings and suggested potential areas that can be examined by academic researchers from the perspective of the hospitality sector. From the perspective of practice, the study recommended actionable strategies to help managers mitigate food waste.

Originality/value

The authors have made a novel contribution to the research on food waste reduction by identifying theme-based research gaps, suggesting potential research questions and proposing a framework based on the open-systems approach to set the future research agenda.

• Plate waste
• School cafeteria
• University cafeteria
• Out-of-home consumption
• Consumer behaviour
• Food waste cause

Kaur, P. , Dhir, A. , Talwar, S. and Alrasheedy, M. (2021), "Systematic literature review of food waste in educational institutions: setting the research agenda", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 1160-1193. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-07-2020-0672

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Puneet Kaur, Amandeep Dhir, Shalini Talwar and Melfi Alrasheedy.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

unavoidable food waste: expired or spoiled ingredients, food scraps such as meat scraps (e.g. end pieces of baked ham after slicing, meat pieces after trimming) and vegetable scraps (e.g. tomato ends, outer leaves of lettuce, potato peels, vegetable stems); and

avoidable food waste: meal scraps such as peeling or trimming waste arising from the less proficient handling of food items; overproduction for banquets, events and catering; poor ordering procedures; poor food rotation practices, causing food spoilage; and poor inventory systems, leading to food and plate waste such as unconsumed pasta ( Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ).

Academics categorize food waste based on the stages of waste generation, such as pre- and post-consumer food waste ( Prescott et al. , 2019b ). Pre-consumer waste occurs at the production level, and post-consumption waste occurs at the consumer level. Scholars argue they associate different factors with food waste generation at these stages. Accordingly, various mitigation approaches perhaps can reduce such waste ( Papargyropoulou et al. , 2016 ). Furthermore, thorough diagnoses of food waste generated at various stages are crucial for ensuring the effective management of waste ( Dhir et al. , 2020 ).

Food waste is an important concern because it threatens the environment and sustainability. In fact, it is a serious concern in the hospitality and tourism domain (Okumus et al. , 2020). Close to 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food is wasted annually, leading to severe financial, environmental and health outcomes ( Gustavsson, 2011 ). Past research has identified several adverse outcomes of food waste, such as threats to food security ( Wang et al. , 2018 ), climate change and greenhouse gas emissions ( Kallbekken and Sælen, 2013 ; Katajajuuri et al. , 2014 ) and monetary loss (Hennchen, 2019). For instance, the annual emissions because of food waste in Finland constitute more than 1% of the country’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions ( Katajajuuri et al. , 2014 ). Similarly, scientists found the ecological impact of food waste in hotels, cafés and restaurants nearly twice the size of the arable land in Lhasa ( Wang et al. , 2018 ). Notably, sustainability has come under intense focus in the hospitality industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (Jones and Comfort, 2020). In addition, studies have underscored the nutritional loss associated with food waste. For instance, Blondin et al. (2017) revealed that, in the USA, fluid milk waste results in 27% and 41% losses, respectively, of the vitamin D and calcium required under school breakfast programme meals. Consequently, scholars argue that reducing food waste is critical from financial (e.g. food cost) and non-financial (e.g. sustainability) standpoints ( Okumus, 2019 ). In fact, research reports suggest that, by saving one-fourth of the food being wasted, we can feed 870 million hungry people ( Khadka, 2017 ). Similarly, the sustainable development goals of the United Nations (UN) have also emphasized responsible production and consumption, underscoring the importance of mitigating food waste ( Gustavsson, 2011 ).

Regarding food waste generation, prior studies have indicated that a large amount of food waste is generated at the consumption stage, which includes both out-of-home and at-home dining ( Martin-Rios et al. , 2018 ). Households represent at-home dining, whereas the food service sector represents out-of-home dining. The food service sector includes both non-commercial and commercial establishments ( Betz et al. , 2015 ), such as restaurants, hotels, health-care companies, educational institutions and staff catering.

An important subdomain where out-of-home dining takes place is food service establishments at educational institutions. In this context, prior studies have observed that school cafeterias are a major source of unconsumed food ( Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014 ; Adams et al. , 2016 ). For instance, in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the USA, more than 30% of the food served is wasted ( Byker Shanks et al. , 2017 ). In fact, food waste in educational settings is a significant issue ( Yui and Biltekoff, 2020 ). What is most worrying in this context is that, in spite of the acknowledgement of such a high quantity of waste generated, the authorities in educational institutions, food service managers in schools and university food service companies’ staff are not intent on reducing food waste ( Wilkie et al. , 2015 ). Furthermore, the academic research in this area is limited, with most studies in educational settings (particularly in the context of schools) skewed towards using food waste as a measure to estimate the amount of nutrients lost. Food waste does not hold a central place in the existing debate. Other studies have focused on aspects such as the composition of waste generated in the food service operations in schools (Hollingsworth et al. , 1995) and the monetary implications of various waste disposal strategies (Wie et al. , 2003).

the substantial volume of meals that educational institutions handle at a single location ( Wilkie et al. , 2015 ); and

the opportunity that such research presents for creating a culture of sustainability and for reinforcing the pro-environment habits of future consumers by making them ecologically aware of the food system and its importance ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ).

analyze the research profile of studies on food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions (RO1);

identify, comprehend and evaluate the thematic foci of the existing research on food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions (RO2);

critically assess emergent themes to highlight gaps in the extant literature and suggest potential research questions (RO3); and

develop a framework that multiple stakeholders can use as a reference to understand the contours of food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions (RO4).

To achieve the ROs of the study, we used the systematic literature review (SLR) approach to identify, analyze and synthesize past studies in the area in consonance with recent studies ( Kushwah et al. , 2019 ; Dhir et al. , 2020 ; Ruparel et al. , 2020 ; Seth et al. , 2020 ). Towards this end, we conducted the following steps. First, we defined the extraction method of congruent studies concerning the conceptual boundary, database identification, keyword choice and actual search and shortlisting of relevant studies. We formulated a robust search protocol based on 18 keywords as well as comprehensive inclusion criteria (IC) and exclusion criteria (EC). We also conducted a peer review of shortlisted studies to finalize the total number of studies to be included in the review (88). Second, we conducted a research profiling of selected studies to present the summary statistics related to publication frequency, publication sources, geographical scope of each study, type of educational institution investigated and theoretical framework. Third, we performed a manual content analysis of the congruent studies to delineate the thematic foci of such studies. This helped us identify seven distinct themes. The emergent themes were critically analyzed to identify the gaps in the extant research and to suggest theme-based potential research questions and future research avenues. Fourth, we developed a framework (the food waste ecosystem) for presenting a systems view of food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions by building on the key findings of the review that we conducted (i.e. research themes, research gaps and avenues of future research). Fifth, we discuss herein the theoretical and practical implications of the study, followed by the study limitations, which should be kept in mind while implementing the results of this study.

2. Research method

Step I. Planning the review: Setting the conceptual boundary and identifying the relevant keywords and databases to identify the congruent studies.

Step II. Specification of the study screening criteria: Defining the IC and EC.

Step III. Data extraction: Using multiple levels of screening to identify congruent studies.

Step IV. Data execution: Presenting the research profile and the thematic foci of the congruent studies uncovered through content analysis.

2.1 Planning the review

We proposed to review studies on food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions. These institutions include pre-schools, schools (primary, secondary and upper secondary), tertiary education centres, colleges and universities. Furthermore, we distinguished between food waste and food loss. Some prior studies used the terms “food loss” and “food waste” interchangeably ( Betz et al. , 2015 ). However, many scholars have treated them as two different concepts. They described food loss as food gone to waste in the initial stage of the value-added chain and food waste as food lost at the end of the food supply chain ( Parfitt et al. , 2010 ). Our understanding is that “food loss” pertains to food leaving the supply chain initially. “Food waste”, though, pertains to the food that is not consumed at the point of food consumption. Therefore, in this SLR study, we treated food waste and food loss as distinct concepts. Accordingly, we identified an initial set of keywords for use in searching the studies to be reviewed, as follows: pre-schools, schools, tertiary education centres, colleges and universities. We searched for these keywords on Google Scholar, and we analyzed the first 100 results to update the keywords list. Afterward, we examined leading journals from the areas of nutrition, food waste and hospitality to confirm if the list of keywords was exhaustive. We selected the final list of 18 keywords after consultation with three experts from the area of hospitality and food waste (two professors and one practitioner; Table 1 ). Finally, in consonance with Mariani et al. (2018) , we selected Scopus and Web of Science as the two academic databases from which to retrieve the relevant studies. These two are the most comprehensive databases of social science and hospitality academic studies, with extensive disciplinary coverage ( Mongeon and Paul-Hus, 2016 ).

2.2 Specification of study screening criteria

We specified ( Table 2 ) the IC and EC at this stage to screen the studies found using pre-specified keywords.

2.3 Data extraction

We converted the final set of keywords ( Table 1 ) into search strings using * and Boolean logic, as well as the connectors “OR” and “AND”. We then executed the search strings on both databases to search for the title, abstract and author keywords. The search was conducted from January 1 to March 28, 2020. In Scopus, we found 550 journal articles in English, with 420 articles in Web of Science. We used the pre-specified IC and EC to select studies congruent with the area at hand. First, we screened duplicated articles using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. We identified articles with the same authors, title, volume, issue number and DOI. Subsequently, we removed 276 duplicated studies from the Web of Science list. After further screening of the joint pool of 694 studies, we excluded 350 studies from the pool.

For the next level of screening of the remaining 344 studies, three researchers with experience in food waste research reviewed the titles and abstracts of the retrieved studies based on the conceptual boundary and IC and EC. To ensure robust screening, the three researchers performed the task individually, after which they shared their shortlists with one another. The researchers discussed any variances in their respective shortlists to arrive at a consensus list that could be further analyzed. This process excluded 230 studies incongruent with the specific area and conceptual boundary of the current study. At the penultimate step of screening, 3 authors analyzed the full texts of the balance 114 articles to reconfirm their eligibility for inclusion in the review. By consensus, we removed 14 articles, as these dealt with issues not immediately relevant to the review, such as sustainability and food insecurity. In the final stage of the study screening process, two professors and a practitioner from the area of hospitality and food waste examined the 100 shortlisted studies and supplied feedback. Based on their observations, we eliminated 12 studies, making the final sample of 88 articles. Subsequent sections of this work will disclose the results of the research profiling and content analysis, which constituted the data execution process.

2.4 Data execution: research profiling

We present the research profile of the retrieved congruent studies concerning descriptive statistics, such as publication year, publication source, educational institution investigated, geographic scope of each study and theoretical framework. The year-wise publications ( Figure 1 ) indicate that there were few studies on food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions until 2012, after which the studies increased, reaching a peak of 15 articles in 2019. Furthermore, the studies were published in a variety of journals in nutrition and waste management ( Figure 2 ). Figure 3 presents the number of studies that focused on each type of educational institution (e.g. school versus university). Figure 4(a) and (b) presents the countries where the studies were conducted for schools and universities, respectively. Interestingly, the reviewed studies drew upon seminal theories to propose a hypothesis and/or discuss findings ( Table 3 ).

3. Thematic foci

The studies included in the review examined food waste from different perspectives and investigated distinct aspects of it. To synthesize such diverse studies systematically, we attempted to identify the common themes within the studies. The key themes in the selected studies were identified through content analysis, in consonance with the recently published SLR literature ( Seth et al. , 2020 ). To ensure that emergent themes would present an unbiased view of the literature, we followed a three-step process. First, three researchers performed the open coding. Later, the deductive and inductive methods of axial coding identified relationships among the open codes. Second, to ensure consensus and inter-rater reliability, the three researchers discussed the identified codes and aligned their thought processes. As food waste is a universally understood phenomenon, there were no disagreements except in the sequencing and presentation of the themes. Third, two professors from the hospitality and food waste areas commented on the identified themes. Finally, seven themes synthesized the existing literature. These were the drivers of food waste; quantitative assessment of food waste; assessment of the behavioural aspects of food waste; operational strategies for reducing food waste at the pre- and post-consumer levels; strategies and interventions for inducing behavioural changes to mitigate food waste; food diversion and food waste disposal processes; and the barriers to the implementation of food waste reduction strategies. A mind map of the emergent themes and the related subthemes is showcased in Figure 5 .

3.1 Drivers of food waste

Two perspectives can assess food waste at food service establishments in educational institutions: pre- and post-consumer waste ( Prescott et al. , 2019a ). “Pre-consumer waste” is kitchen waste arising at the time of storage, preparation and production, whereas “post-consumer waste” consists of leftovers or plate waste ( Burton et al. , 2016 ; Bean et al. , 2018b ; Zhao and Manning, 2019b ). Scholars have also used the term “serving waste” or “display waste” (especially regarding buffet meals) to represent waste at the point of consumption ( Abdelaal et al. , 2019 ). Prior scholars examining food waste at the pre-school, elementary and middle school levels have discussed uneaten meals, representing post-consumer waste, to a large extent ( Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014 ; Adams et al. , 2016 ; Zhao et al. , 2019 ). Most studies focused on food waste measurement as a tool to assess the nutritional aspects of leftovers from meals consumed in schools ( Getts et al. , 2017 ).

Pre-consumer waste : It is generated based on various functional, behavioural and contextual factors, as presented in Table 4 . A key driver of food waste in school food service establishments at this stage is production waste, which can also increase because of various regulatory requirements and contractual obligations. For instance, food safety guidelines may prevent food service establishments from re-using the extra amount of food prepared for a particular meal ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ). As such, serving an agreed-upon variety of food offerings as per a contract may force kitchen staff to prepare and serve food that ultimately may not be consumed ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ).

Post-consumer waste : The drivers of post-consumer waste comprise behavioural, contextual and demographic factors, as Table 4 presents. Within post-consumer waste, the key drivers of wasted, edible food at both the school and university levels are taking a portion size larger than required as per one’s age and satiation level ( Thorsen et al. , 2015 ; Huang et al. , 2017 ; Zhao and Manning, 2019a ); and the time allowed for eating (i.e. recess; Cohn et al. , 2013 ; Abe and Akamatsu, 2015 ). Students’ dietary habits ( Liu et al. , 2016 ) also influence the amount of food waste generated in the school dining halls. Other factors that contribute to food waste at the university food services were incorrectly labelled food items (which led to the choice of wrong food items), differences in appetite and diet-related choices ( Wu et al. , 2019 ; Yui and Biltekoff, 2020 ).

Low self-efficacy in finishing one’s meal if it does not taste good is a significant predictor of plate waste only among boys ( Abe and Akamatsu, 2015 ).

Male students tended to waste staple food less compared to females ( Wu et al. , 2019 ).

Male consumers were more likely to finish their meal compared to females ( Zhao and Manning, 2019b ).

Young consumers tend to waste more food than adults on average ( Ellison et al. , 2019 ).

Within the student groups, younger students wasted more food than older ones ( Dillon and Lane, 1989 ; Huang et al. , 2017 ; Niaki et al. , 2017 ).

Individuals with more disposable incomes waste more food ( Wu et al. , 2019 ).

Middle-income students generated more food waste compared to students with poorer backgrounds ( Dillon and Lane, 1989 ).

3.2 Quantitative assessment of food waste

the type of waste quantified;

the unit of measurement used; and

the method used for quantification.

The key concerns covered by each of these aspects are described below.

Type of waste: Some studies have measured all waste, edible or avoidable as well as inedible or unavoidable ( Langley et al. , 2010 ; Costello et al. , 2015 ). In comparison, many studies quantified only edible or avoidable food waste ( Whitehair et al. , 2013 ; Thorsen et al. , 2015 ). The items considered edible or avoidable food wastes are meat protein, soy protein, fruits, rice, potatoes, bread, pies, juice, beverages, milk, vegetables and salads ( Langley et al. , 2010 ; Thiagarajah and Getty, 2013 ; Blondin et al. , 2017 , 2018 ; Eriksson et al. , 2018b ). Conversely, the inedible or unavoidable food wastes are fruit or vegetable peels and spines, eggshells, bones and skins and seeds ( Langley et al. , 2010 ; Whitehair et al. , 2013 ; Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ). The greatest amount of food waste is derived from vegetables, fruits, salads, main entrées and milk (Carmen et al. , 2014; Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014 ; Blondin et al. , 2015 ; Silvennoinen et al. , 2015 ; Wu et al. , 2019 ).

Unit of measurement: In this regard, the reviewed studies collected wastes for quantification at different stages of food services. Accordingly, the serving waste, plate waste and production waste (prepared food left over after service) were quantified ( Gase et al. , 2014 ; Eriksson et al. , 2017 ; Boschini et al. , 2020 ). Hence, scientists measured the entire mass of food waste generated at every meal (Carmen et al. , 2014; Painter et al. , 2016 ); the aggregated discarded food at the pantry, kitchen, service station or plate level ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ); or the individually/aggregately weighed plate waste ( Chapman et al. , 2019 ). The most commonly used unit of food waste quantification is plate waste, which is the quantity/percentage of edible food served on a plate but left unconsumed ( Huang et al. , 2017 ). In schools, where the focus is nutrition, plate waste is the quantity of edible vegetables and fruits students did not consume during lunch ( Adams et al. , 2016 ; Capps et al. , 2016 ). In this context, studies have revealed that students waste 40% and 30%, respectively, of the fruits and vegetables they receive ( Templeton et al. , 2005 ; Carmen et al. , 2014). Most of the studies included in the review used plate waste as a unit of quantification of food waste ( Cohen et al. , 2013 ; Liz Martins et al. , 2016 ; Chapman et al. , 2017 ; Hudgens et al. , 2017 ).

Methods of quantification : There are multiple methods of quantifying and measuring plate waste, and one can observe method variations in the plate waste quantification approach that selected studies used, such as direct physical measurements and indirect visual observations ( Eriksson et al. , 2018b ). Plate waste can be weighed in grams per portion served ( Eriksson et al. , 2018a ) or as aggregate plate waste per meal ( Eriksson et al. , 2017 ). Although weighed plate waste is considered the gold standard for determining the quantity of plate waste, scientists have also applied visual assessment approaches such as the quarter-waste method, which is considered reliable ( Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ; Getts et al. , 2017 ; Niaki et al. , 2017 ). In fact, the three visual waste measurement methods (photograph, half-waste and quarter-waste) have been found to be as accurate as the plate weighing method ( Hanks et al. , 2014 ). Visual methods are appealing, as they offer advantages such as convenience, time savings and ease of using a larger sample size to monitor plate waste ( Liz Martins et al. , 2014 ). Within visual methods, many studies have used photography ( Smith and Cunningham-Sabo, 2014 ; Yoder et al. , 2015 ; Bean et al. , 2018a ; Katare et al. , 2019 ; Prescott et al. , 2019a ; Serebrennikov et al. , 2020 ). Moreover, scholars have discussed the use of rubbish analysis to quantify food waste ( Dresler-Hawke et al. , 2009 ; Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ).

Prior scholars have also tried to ascertain the efficacy of different methods of plate waste quantification. For instance, Bean et al. (2018a) compared a weighed and digital imagery-based assessment of plate waste and confirmed the accuracy of the digital imagery method in terms of plate waste estimation. However, Liz Martins et al. (2014) contended that the visual estimation method is not as accurate as the weighing method in assessing nonselective aggregated plate waste. Previous studies have used food waste audits to quantify the amount and type of food waste generated ( Wilkie et al. , 2015 ; Costello et al. , 2017 ; Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ; Derqui et al. , 2018 ; Schupp et al. , 2018 ; Prescott et al. , 2019a ). Figure 6 depicts an overview of the stages of waste generation, the types of waste quantified and the key methods of quantification.

3.3 Assessment of the behavioural aspects of food waste

key methods;

type of data collected; and

variety of respondents.

Key methods : The methods used for assessing food waste include direct observation ( Marshall et al. , 2019 ), field notes ( Yui and Biltekoff, 2020 ), cross-sectional questionnaire ( Abe and Akamatsu, 2015 ), semi-structured interviews ( Zhao et al. , 2019 ), non-structured interviews ( Falasconi et al. , 2015 ), structured interviews ( Burton et al. , 2016 ), focus group discussion ( Blondin et al. , 2015 ), experiments ( Kim and Morawski, 2013 ) including randomized controlled experiments ( Katare et al. , 2019 ), quasi-experiments ( Visschers et al. , 2020 ), longitudinal studies ( Lagorio et al. , 2018 ; Marshall et al. , 2019 ) and pre- and post-test-based intervention studies ( Kowalewska and Kołłajtis-Dołowy, 2018 ; Kropp et al. , 2018 ; Lorenz-Walther et al. , 2019 ; Visschers et al. ,2020 ). Figure 7 presents a snapshot of the methods.

Type of data collected : Scientists use self-reporting questionnaires quite frequently to identify the key factors influencing food waste, the reason for plate waste and preferences ( Thorsen et al. , 2015 ; Liu et al. , 2016 ; Huang et al. , 2017 ; Kowalewska and Kołłajtis-Dołowy, 2018 ; Derqui et al. , 2020 ). In addition, questionnaires gathered eating behaviour-related information and food preferences ( Baik and Lee, 2009 ). Notably, prior scholars have made limited qualitative attempts to assess consumer behaviour concerning food waste generation. For instance, Jagau and Vyrastekova (2017) conducted a study to observe the differences between the intention to prevent food waste and the actual waste that consumers generated. Similarly, researchers examined staff and students’ insinuated intentions related to food waste ( Zhao and Manning, 2019b ). A few studies have also analyzed the changes in behaviour with regard to food waste and its reduction ( Whitehair et al. , 2013 ; Pinto et al. , 2018 ; Boulet et al. , 2019 ; Visschers et al. , 2020 ). Along the same lines, fewer studies have focused on the ethnic background of students or other demographic factors. For example, only two studies using a mixed-method approach have undertaken ethnographic investigations ( Lazell, 2016 ; Izumi et al. , 2020 ). Similarly, a limited number of researchers ( Nicklas et al. , 2013 ) have used a demographic questionnaire (e.g. age, ethnicity). Langley et al. (2010) acknowledged the effect of gender-based differences in food consumption and waste; they selected dining areas for the study based on gender composition.

Regarding the variety of respondents, qualitative studies have taken place with many stakeholders, such as kitchen managers, nutrition service directors and sustainability staff ( Prescott et al. , 2019b ), professionals engaged in food recovery ( Prescott et al. , 2019a ), stakeholders along the supply chain ( Liu et al. , 2016 ), school head teachers ( Derqui et al. , 2020 ), managers and staff in schools and catering firms ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ), key informants about stakeholder accountability ( Cohn et al. , 2013 ), food service managers, catering personnel, students ( Marais et al. , 2017 ), teachers ( Prescott et al. , 2019a ) and parents ( Baik and Lee, 2009 ).

3.4 Operational strategies for reducing food waste

strategies to reduce food waste at the pre-consumer level; and

strategies to reduce food waste at the post-consumer level.

This work will explore both strategies in what follows.

Pre-consumer level : The reviewed studies discussed several operational strategies to reduce waste at the pre-consumer level. The main objective of these strategies was to reduce food waste at the kitchen level. Waste at this level occurs largely because of overproduction, mishandling, staff inefficiency and the quality of food prepared. Accordingly, strategies largely target these issues ( Table 5 ). Post-consumer level : The operational strategies to reduce waste at the post-consumer level largely relate to avoiding serving food that would not be consumed. With plate waste being the focus of waste quantification, many previous scholars have discussed strategies to reduce plate waste. Most of the suggestions relate to the serving portion size based on age, going trayless and making better food choices, as Table 5 illustrates.

3.5 Interventions for inducing behavioural changes to mitigate food waste

communication; and

financial and economic incentives.

Education and communication have been suggested to be the most effective approaches for behaviour change ( Whitehair et al. , 2013 ).

Education : Past studies have recommended a holistic approach to decrease food waste, which involves multiple stakeholders in society, including parents and catering staff ( Marais et al. , 2017 ; Wu et al. , 2019 ; Izumi et al. , 2020 ). Studies also have indicated the need to identify and increase the engagement levels of families that have the lowest level of engagement in food waste reduction behaviour ( Boulet et al. , 2019 ). Students can receive education, as an intervention, through lectures on morals, sustainability and related environmental issues, or through a hands-on experience such as visiting landfill sites or segregating their plate waste themselves by putting the leftovers in separate bins ( Wu et al. , 2019 ). Curricula should integrate student engagement and social norms related to eating without waste into food-waste-related discussions, along with nutrition education ( Izumi et al. , 2020 ). Table 6 presents the key educational interventions introduced at the pre- and post-consumer levels. Besides discussing the interventions, some prior studies also tested their efficacy. For instance, Kowalewska and Kołłajtis-Dołowy (2018) revealed that students’ exposure to film was more effective in reducing food waste among students than giving an informational leaflet to parents or guardians. Similarly, Whitehair et al. (2013) reported that a to-the-point prompt-type message effectively reduced food waste by 15%.

Communication : Interaction among varied stakeholders is essential to reducing food waste ( Cohn et al. , 2013 ; Marais et al. , 2017 ; Derqui et al. , 2018 ). Clear and continuous communication among kitchen managers, kitchen staff, students and school authorities boosts the success of food waste reduction efforts ( Prescott et al. , 2019b ; Zhao and Manning, 2019b ).

Financial and economic incentives : These incentives encourage consumers to finish their meals ( Sarjahani et al. , 2009 ). However, there is a challenge here. Providing financial incentives to motivate food waste reduction behaviour among students is effective. However, a non-intended adverse outcome of such incentives for finishing the food on one’s plate could be overeating and obesity. Therefore, any intervention related to food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions should be integrated with healthy eating policies ( Katare et al. , 2019 ).

3.6 Food diversion and food waste disposal processes

The processes related to the diversion and disposal of the daily waste of food service establishments in educational institutions are important aspects of food waste reduction and control efforts. The primary objective at this stage of handling food waste should be to divert it from landfills through recycling ( Wilkie et al. , 2015 ). Such diversion processes are a way of reducing food waste, as they decrease the actual amount of scraps destined to be buried in landfills ( Prescott et al. , 2019a ). The reviewed studies discussed the following approaches to handling food waste: reuse (e.g. staff meals), recycling (e.g. composting) and disposal ( Derqui and Fernandez, 2017 ).

the redistribution of edible, non-perishable and perishable food by donating it to food banks, shelters and other food-insecure groups ( Burton et al. , 2016 ); and

the recovery of food waste through anaerobic digestion and composting, which are the processes of converting leftovers into useful end products, such as nutrient-rich soil amendments and bio-energy ( Sarjahani et al. , 2009 ; Wilkie et al. , 2015 ; Burton et al. , 2016 ; Wu et al. , 2019 ).

The key disposal method discussed by the past studies is the landfill. The approaches discussed by the extant studies range from pulping waste for landfilling to lunchroom food-sharing programmes and leftover lunch service in the form of redistributing leftovers ( Babich and Sylvia, 2010 ; Laakso, 2017 ; Prescott et al. , 2019a ).

Although a limited number of studies have discussed the food diversion and disposal processes in detail, most seem to agree on the donation of edible recovered food as a feasible option to redistribute waste. For instance, Deavin et al. (2018) revealed the popularity of a novel breakfast programme based on donated food to increase food security. Schupp et al. (2018) discussed a “backpack programme” where food-insecure students were to carry temperature-controlled leftovers home. Many other studies have discussed food donation to reduce food waste but emphasized that it is possible only through the collaborative efforts of food service establishments and the beneficiaries of such donations ( Hackman and Oldham, 1974 ; Sarjahani et al. , 2009 ; Blondin et al. , 2015 ; Marais et al. , 2017 ; Balzaretti et al. , 2020 ; Derqui et al. , 2020 ). The results of our study indicate that much of the generated food waste is landfilled, even though landfilling represents a missed opportunity to recover food and promote sustainable behaviour ( Prescott et al. , 2019b ). Finally, prior studies have contended that the sustainability initiatives of diversion, recovery and redistribution can be made successful and effective through proper waste sorting and waste audits by food service establishments ( Prescott et al. , 2019a ).

3.7 Barriers impeding the implementation of food waste reduction strategies

pre-consumer;

operational;

post-consumer;

food waste tracking; and

food diversion and recovery levels.

a lack of willpower and a negligent attitude;

the pressure to quickly finish one’s work; and

less experienced and incompetent personnel.

Prescott et al. (2019b) revealed that limited storage capacity for dry/cold storage also acted as a barrier to success in reducing food waste by impacting the inventory management plans of kitchen managers.

short lunch breaks and too few kitchen staff to allow the adoption of the batch cooking approach as a waste mitigation strategy ( Prescott et al. , 2019b );

the increased breakage of meal utensils and the need to wipe dining tables more frequently, which made it challenging to use the strategy of going trayless to reduce waste ( Thiagarajah and Getty, 2013 );

parents scolding their children for bringing home leftovers and providing bins at school, which presents an easy way to dispose of unconsumed food through the reuse of leftovers ( Boulet et al. , 2019 ); and

the timing of recess ( Chapman et al. , 2017 ).

Post-consumer level : The behavioural and perceptual aspects at the post-consumer level also help impede efforts to reduce food waste. In this context, Zhao et al. (2019) cited the differences in satiation level and social influences as key barriers. Consumers tended to throw away food that they disliked but found it unacceptable to waste the food that they liked. Similarly, Prescott et al. (2019b) argued that factors such as weather, changing tastes and preferences, and seasonal changes also acted as barriers to the success of the efforts to reduce food waste. Other barriers to food waste reduction also stemmed from consumers’ intention−behaviour gap (Lazell, 2). In addition, unsupportive school policy in terms of not allowing students to share food they did not want with others or take leftovers home also hampered food waste reduction efforts ( Zhao et al. , 2019 ).

the time devoted to weighing and keeping a record of food waste;

difficulties in weighing certain items, such as soups;

the ongoing training required for the weighing of waste because of employee turnover; and

spatial constraints.

food safety concerns and food quality standards, which impose limits on the donation of edible leftovers for human and animal consumption;

the prohibitive cost of transportation, heat treatment of waste for making it safe for animal consumption and setting up onsite composting units compared with the low cost of landfilling waste, making redistribution a financially unviable solution;

adverse publicity for the effectiveness of nutrition programmes, highlighted by the waste generated and where legal liability also acts as a disincentive; and

the lack of a clear understanding of the kinds of recovery activity the law permits.

4. Research gaps and potential research questions

We critically assessed the emergent themes to identify the gaps in the literature on food waste reduction measures. We mapped the identified gaps onto the seven themes to present theme-based gaps. We also suggested potential research questions that future researchers can address to close these gaps. The multiple gaps in the literature concerned the seven themes. Table 7 demonstrates potential research questions.

5. Framework development

Based on our content analysis, we identified the key themes on which the extant research on food services in educational institutions focused. The learning emerging through these themes has helped us develop a deeper understanding of the area. Our review has revealed that the entire food service–food waste debate represents a complex ecosystem consisting of different stakeholders and processes that interact but are driven by diverse priorities, as some of the reviewed studies also have argued ( Prescott et al. , 2019b ). Consequently, we have built on this learning to apply the systems approach.

a repeated input–process–output–feedback cycle; and

the influence of the external environment.

We adopted the systems approach to develop a framework that presents various aspects of food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions as an open system that provides a holistic view of food waste in educational settings ( Figure 8 ). We call the framework developed by us the “food waste ecosystem (FWE)”. FWE consists of the following:

the internal and external environment;

transformative processes;

competing forces;

output; and

feedback loop.

FWE posits that food waste generation and mitigation in educational institutions depend on the interaction of various subsystems that are interdependent and integrated into an organized whole.

To begin with, the food waste system is conceptualized as an open system influenced not only by cues from the internal environment but also by cues and stimuli from the external environment. The internal environment represents the environment within the food service establishment in educational institutions and includes factors such as school policies and methods of food production. It impacts how transformative processes are executed. The external environment represents the environment outside the educational institution and includes factors such as government regulations, composting facilities and food banks.

Inputs are the first block in FWE. Inputs represent the first step in a systems model, and represent the decisions at the beginning of the process that finally result in waste generation. Typically, at this stage, they include decisions such as what is to be served per meal, the food service regime that mandated a particular type of meal to be served, dietary guidelines (particularly in the context of schools), the dining facility and the number of consumers. These decisions affect the amount and type of food prepared, the use of local produce, the storage facilities required, the beverages served, the use of temperature-controlled food items, the portion size, the method of service (self-serve, tray system or trayless system) and the ambiance of the dining area. The decisions at this stage set the tone for the extent to which food waste is generated in the next step in the systems model: the transformative process.

The four key transformative processes at this stage are food production, food service, food consumption and food diversion. Each of these processes presents a potential point of food waste generation. As discussed in the themes, food production is a part of the pre-consumer phase, where the kitchen staff’s role is important. Food service represents serving food for consumption. The food consumption stage is where consumers enter the picture. Food diversion is a process that takes place after the consumption phase is over.

These four activities are the subsystems of the transformative process that is a chaotic tradeoff of competing forces and conflicting priorities. FWE identifies seven broad competing forces based on the reviewed literature: functional issues, behavioural factors, demographic influences, contextual issues, interventions, waste tracking systems and supportive policies. For instance, the functional issues that can generate food waste are overproduction, a lack of trained staff, the mishandling of ingredients and the lack of awareness of the seriousness of food waste among the staff and consumers. Similarly, the size of the portion in staff-served meals, the amount of food added to serving dishes, meal presentation and spillage during handling can generate food waste. Functional issues associated with the donation of edible waste for human consumption, the treatment of waste for animal consumption, composting, anaerobic digestion or landfills also affect the amount of waste generated.

Regarding behavioural factors, the negligent attitude of a kitchen and service staff, the lack of willingness to prevent waste, food preferences, level of satiation, the influence of the social group and family, and the inherent intention–behaviour gap may lead to food waste. Demographic influences in terms of age, gender, household income and ethnic background also influence the amount of food consumed or left unconsumed, contributing to food waste. Contextual factors such as the quality and taste of meals, the unpleasant ambiance of the dining room, the extent of supervision (for younger consumers) and the eating duration can potentially increase food waste.

The four competing forces (functional, behavioural, demographic and contextual) represent the reasons behind the increased food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions. However, interventions, robust waste tracking systems and supportive policies can reduce food waste. The challenge is that most of the interventions require some expense and effort in terms of time and money. For instance, offering financial incentives may reduce food waste, but for food service establishments, such food waste savings will make economic sense only if the money saved from less food going to waste is more than or at least equal to the financial incentive. Similarly, interventions such as education campaigns may cost money, and whether they are worthwhile will depend on the money saved from less food going to waste. One way of compensating for costs is for a government’s support policy to make the expenses incurred for food waste mitigation efforts tax-deductible. In addition, the initiatives for food diversion, such as food donations, have an associated legal liability that suitable policy guidelines can reduce.

The supportive policy of educational institutions can help by granting permission to take home leftovers, share food, provide better dining areas and make provisions for adequate eating time between academic commitments. In the case of the food tracking system, the immense effort required for sorting, weighing and training the staff to operate such a system represents a cost that must be offset by balancing the savings in food costs. In this way, the food waste ecosystem is an interdependent mass of competing forces that interact to increase or decrease the quantity of food generated, and the food waste mitigation decisions at the micro level are a trade-off between costs and benefits. The output of the transformative process is the quantity of waste generated. The amount and composition of the waste provide feedback, which can help revise decisions at the input level.

6. Conclusion, implications, limitations and future research areas

6.1 conclusion.

This study presents the status of food wastage in food service establishments in educational institutions, as reflected in the extant literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no contemporary SLRs that have analyzed food wastage in the food service establishments in educational institutions as a separate vertical. The current study addresses this gap to offer insightful implications for theory and practice. First, it sets the conceptual boundary by including all food service establishments in schools and universities. We selected this subdomain because the focus of the studies has largely been school lunch, where researchers have mainly assessed food waste to compute nutritional loss. In comparison, studies focused on food waste as a central concern, and studies examining food waste in higher education are limited. This indicates a need to catalyze research in the area. Thereafter, the study rigorously follows the SLR method to identify, synthesize and critically evaluate the 88 studies on the topic to reveal their research profile and thematic foci. The seven themes we identified through content analysis are the drivers of food waste; quantitative assessment of food waste; assessment of behavioural aspects of food waste; operational strategies for reducing food waste; interventions for inducing behavioural changes to mitigate food waste; food diversion and food waste disposal processes; and barriers to the implementation of food waste reduction strategies. The review goes beyond presenting the state-of-the-art in the area to uncover the gaps in the extant investigations and to suggest potential research questions that could motivate future academic research from the hospitality perspective. In addition, we developed a framework based on the open-systems approach to depict the complexity of the area and the multiple factors that influence its decision-making.

For the novel contributions of this study, it is the first SLR to review food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior review study has systematically reviewed and evaluated the extant research on food waste in the education sector. The only other review study on food waste in the area was the review of the NSLP in the USA ( Byker Shanks et al. , 2017 ). This review focused on the methods of quantifying food waste and the respective results of each method in the NSLP context from 1978 to 2015. The current SLR goes beyond both quantification and NSLP. Another novel contribution of this study is that the gaps that we identified in the extant research are theme-oriented, paving the way for encouraging future academic research through tangible suggestions in the form of theme-based potential research questions. This study also presents a systems view of the dynamics of food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions by identifying the input decisions; the transformative processes; the influence of low-threshold interventions and barriers; and the output in terms of the quantity of food waste. Finally, the practical inferences offered by the study are actionable, useful, contextual and easily transferable across various food service establishments serving educational institutions.

6.2 Theoretical implications

SLR has four key theoretical implications. First, although several researchers have investigated food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions, most have skewed towards the nutritional implication of unconsumed food in the school lunch context, with the quantification of food waste merely serving as a basis to capture nutritional loss. The hospitality literature has yet to focus on the issue of food waste in institutional settings in spite of its strong implications for sustainability and direct association with food services, an inherent part of the hospitality sector. By presenting the key themes, we have provided a ready platform for hospitality researchers to expand the scope of their investigations to include food wastage in educational institutions.

Second, we identified theme-based gaps ( Table 7 ) in the extant research that need to be addressed through empirical investigations from a hospitality perspective. Besides identifying theme-based gaps, we also suggested potential research questions ( Table 7 ) in consonance with prior reviews ( Swani et al. , 2019 ), which can help set the future research agenda in the area. Furthermore, our study revealed that future studies need to focus on food waste as contributing to increased carbon footprints and food insecurity. Such studies will take the focus beyond the nutritional emphasis on ecological implications for the greater good.

Third, in addition to identifying the theme-based gaps and potential research questions, we conducted research profiling of the retrieved and screened literature to identify the scope of the future research concerning the need for theory-based examinations, geographies that need attention and the type of educational institutions that have remained neglected in food waste research. The need for theory-driven investigations, which are now quite deficient, is supported because “theory” alone can yield consistent conclusions from causal patterns in data ( Han,2015 ). The need to explore diverse geographies is justified, considering that food consumption and leaving food unconsumed may be rooted in culture ( Yoder et al. , 2015 ; Pinto et al. , 2018 ; Izumi et al. , 2020 ). The need to focus on hitherto under-explored subsectors in higher education is justified because more granular findings are required to help food service establishments, regulators and university authorities plan and execute sustainable food waste control strategies targeting a group that makes independent decisions. Finally, the FWE framework that we developed presents a systems approach to food waste management that provides researchers with a bird’s eye view of the key areas to investigate in a study examining food waste generation and mitigation in food service establishments in educational institutions.

6.3 Practical implications

SLR has six key practical implications. First, a systematic tracking system can help create awareness and motivate anti-food-waste behaviours at the pre-consumer level, as prior studies have discussed ( Burton et al. , 2016 ). Therefore, catering companies offering food services in educational institutions should implement software with a simple interface to capture food-waste-related data, forecast the number of meals, identify popular menu items and classify waste into edible and non-edible.

Second, the overemphasis on nutritional content and rigid food-serving guidelines can increase food waste, as school authorities may determine portion sizes accordingly. This could be counterproductive from both the nutritional and waste perspectives if the food served is not consumed. For instance, the larger portion sizes that the school determines may cause overnutrition and obesity ( Balzaretti et al. , 2020 ). Therefore, the dietary guidelines that the concerned authorities issue should be indicative so portion sizes are adjusted according to hunger level and personal preferences. Competitive foods that usually have higher fat and sugar contents ( Templeton et al. , 2005 ) can be removed or vended at other times to ensure that the served meals are consumed to satiate hunger.

Third, formal guidelines for quantifying food waste should be prepared and made available to the food service managers in the cafeterias. There also should be a board or display where the aggregate daily food waste at the pre- and post-consumer levels is displayed for everyone to see. This likely will increase food waste awareness and encourage kitchen staff and students to reduce food waste.

Fourth, as food waste is a critical issue, school and college authorities hiring catering services (including cooks and kitchen staff) can also adopt a more structured approach to discouraging food waste. For instance, an inefficiency index ( Falasconi et al. , 2015 ) can be calculated weekly as the percentage of food wasted at the pre-consumer and serving stages compared to the amount of food prepared. Such an index will highlight the deficiencies in the kitchen processes, the slackness of the staff and the inaccurate forecasting of the number of consumers.

Fifth, the proper sorting of food waste can reduce it in two ways: by increasing the chances of recovering edible leftovers for donation and by making concerned stakeholders aware of the waste they are generating. Therefore, regulators or administrative authorities at the educational institution level can make it compulsory for every dining hall to have separate bins with labels for the disposal of different types of waste, including liquid waste, according to Schupp et al. (2018) . Furthermore, consumers should be asked to throw their individual plate waste in the designated bins.

Finally, from a regulatory standpoint, the policy guidelines for food waste reduction should consider the cost of waste reduction processes and offer financial incentives such as tax rebates for initiatives to reduce waste through food diversion. The issue of the legal liability associated with donating food to non-profit organizations for charity is a great disincentive, preventing the giving away of food for charity. To overcome this impediment, donors can be freed of any such legal liability. This practice exists in countries such as Italy and the USA ( Derqui et al. , 2018 ). Furthermore, policymakers should promote an approach to menu design based on the inclusion of more low-carbon-emission food items and fewer high-carbon-emission food items. This is likely to provide food cost savings at the food service level and environmental cost savings at the societal level.

6.4 Limitations and future research areas

We conducted a deep analysis of the extant research on food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions to uncover key themes and gaps. This has made a significant contribution to theory and practice by presenting potential research questions and implementable practical suggestions. However, readers should evaluate the contributions of this study in the context of the following limitations. First, we used Scopus and Web of Science only to search congruent studies and did not juxtapose any other digital library or database. This could have resulted in the exclusion of studies not listed in these two databases. Second, we included articles published only in English and could have missed important regional findings in the local language. Third, like any other SLR study, we faced the challenge of executing extensive search and screening, complexities in synthesis and presentation of findings in a manner that would be palatable to a wide variety of readers. Accordingly, we could have missed information because of inadvertent human error. Fourth, although we followed a systematic approach to identify keywords for searching the congruent literature, the area of food waste is quite vast. We may have excluded keywords. However, we used a robust search and screening protocol to present rigorous analysis to serve as a reliable basis for guiding future research and practice. Future researchers can extend our work by including keywords such as “campus dining”, “food rescue”, “food scarcity on campus”, “food recycling”, “food waste tracking”, “meal plans”, “food supply chains” and “food clubs on campus”. Future work can advance this study by reviewing reports from governments and policies implemented to highlight the gaps between academic research and government initiatives or between evidenced-based and non-evidenced-based methods. In addition, researchers should examine food waste in schools/universities in developed and developing economies, because the extant literature primarily skews towards US-based educational institutions. In this regard, researchers can also focus on cross-cultural/national comparison to provide deeper and more generalizable insights. Food waste studies in educational institutions can also include employees who consume food in the school/university dining facility, as examined in the case of frontline employees working in various hospitality establishments (Luu, 2020). Furthermore, as the drivers and, ultimately, the remedial actions/strategies for handling the issue of food waste may differ between public and private educational institutions, future researchers can build on our findings by separately reviewing the sample of studies on public and private educational institutions. Finally, future studies can explore whether increasing organic food consumption ( Tandon et al. , 2020a , 2020b ; Tandon et al. , 2020c ) has impacted food waste behaviours in educational institutions.

Year-wise publications in food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions

Publications on food waste in the food service establishments in educational institutions, by journal

Food service establishments examined by the studies

Geographic scope of the studies

Thematic foci of studies on food waste in educational institutions

Methods of food waste quantification

Methods of data collection

Systems approach to food waste mitigation: The food waste ecosystem (FWE) framework

Keywords for the literature search

Study inclusion and exclusion criteria

Theoretical framework used in food waste in food service establishments in educational institutions

Drivers of food waste in food service establishments

Operational strategies for food waste reduction

Interventions for food waste reduction

Theme-based gaps and related potential research questions

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Faisal University for the financial support under Nasher Track (Grant No. 186300).

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Reducing Food Waste at K-12 Schools

K-12 schools have a special role in not only reducing, recovering, and recycling food waste on their premises but also in educating the next generation about the importance of food conservation and recovering wholesome excess food for donation to those less fortunate.

Most importantly, increasing consumption and reducing wasted food means children get the nutritional benefits from the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP).

The best way to tackle food waste is to make sure students consume what they take. This involves good planning by school nutrition staff, getting students involved in decision-making, and having teachers educate students on the impacts of wasted food.

• Offer-versus-serve (OVS) – Allows students to decline some components of a reimbursable meal as a way of providing choice and reducing waste. OVS is mandatory in high schools, but optional for elementary and middle schools (81 percent of all elementary and middle schools used OVS at lunch).
• Market your meals – Highlight new foods on your menus and serving lines. Consider holding taste tests and recipe competitions or creating a student advisory committee to provide feedback on food acceptability and recipe names.
• Extend lunch from 20 to 30 minutes – In a poll by NPR and the Harvard School of Public Health (PDF, 1 MB), 20 percent of parents of students from kindergarten through fifth grade surveyed said their child only gets 15 minutes or less to eat. Extending the lunch period can improve dietary intake and reduce food waste.
• Create share tables – Share tables are designated stations where children may return whole and/or unopened food or beverage items they choose not to eat. These items are then made available to other children who may want another serving during or after the meal service. USDA encourages the use of share tables and offers implementation guidance .
• Saving food items – Students who may not have time to finish their meal during the designated lunch period may save certain meal components for later in the day. For food safety reasons, this practice should be limited to food items that do not require cooling or heating.

Resources/Curriculum

• Guide to Conducting Student Food Waste Audits (PDF, 2.7 MB) – This food waste audit guide provides students with step-by-step guidance on collecting data on how much food and which types of food is thrown away by students in their school cafeterias. The guide is intended to help educate students about the amount of food they waste in their school cafeterias and to educate them about ways to encourage healthy eating and reduced waste.
• Reducing Food Waste: What Schools Can Do Today (PDF, 858 KB) – Hang this infographic up in your school or use it as an educational tool in the classroom.
• Team Nutrition: What You Can Do to Help Prevent Wasted Food (PDF, 1.4 MB) – Provides tips for school nutrition professionals, teachers, and students.
• Summary of Food Waste Resources and Tools for Nutrition Programs - The USDA Food and Nutrition Service’s Office of Food Safety has compiled a selection of reports, articles, and tools that school nutrition professionals can utilize to understand the issue of food waste and assist them in implementing strategies to reduce wasted food.

Donations and Liability P rotection

Schools that wish to donate food have protections under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act . The Act grants liability protections for “persons and gleaners” who make good faith donations to nonprofits f or ultimate distribution t o needy individuals at zero cost or at a good Samaritan reduced price. Here, the term “person” includes schools and institutions of higher education if they identify as a n “ individual, corporation, partnership, organization, association, or governmental entity, including a retail grocer, wholesaler, hotel, motel, manufacturer, restaurant, caterer, farmer, and nonprofit food distributor or hospital”.  

New amendments passed on January 5, 2023 , also grant liability protections to “qualified direct donors” who donate directly to needy individuals at zero cost.  Qualified direct donors include: school food authorities , intuitions of higher education, caterers, rest aurant s, and more.  

  For more information, see: USDA’s Frequently Asked Questions about the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (PDF, 188 KB)

T he information presented is not a guidance document and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.

Contact Us: Dr. Jean Buzby USDA Food Loss and Waste Liaison [email protected]

Essay on Food Wastage

Students are often asked to write an essay on Food Wastage in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Food Wastage

What is food wastage.

Food wastage means throwing away food that could have been eaten. Every day, lots of food is wasted in homes, restaurants, and shops. This is a big problem because while some people have too much food, others don’t have enough.

Why Does Food Get Wasted?

Food gets wasted for many reasons. Sometimes we buy too much and can’t eat it all. Other times, we don’t store food correctly, and it goes bad. Restaurants and stores also throw away food that looks imperfect but is still good to eat.

Effects of Food Wastage

Wasting food is bad for the environment. It uses up water and land to grow food that no one eats. When thrown away, food can also create harmful gases as it rots, which is bad for the air we breathe.

What Can We Do?

We can help by planning our meals and shopping lists. It’s important to only buy what we need. We can also learn how to store food properly and share leftovers with others. By doing these things, we can reduce food wastage.

250 Words Essay on Food Wastage

Why does food go to waste.

There are many reasons food gets wasted. At home, we might buy too much and can’t eat it all before it goes bad. Stores might not sell food because it doesn’t look perfect. On farms, fruits and vegetables that aren’t the right size or shape might not even be picked.

The Impact of Wasting Food

When we waste food, we also waste the water, energy, and work that went into making it. This can hurt our planet by creating more trash and pollution. Also, when food rots, it makes a gas that’s bad for the air.

Everyone can help stop food waste. We can plan our meals and only buy what we need. We can also learn how to store food so it stays fresh longer. Sharing food with others is a good idea too. If we have too much, we can give it to people who need it.

In conclusion, food wastage is a big issue that affects all of us. By being careful with how much food we buy and how we use it, we can make a big difference. It’s important for everyone to try and stop wasting food so we can help people, save money, and protect our planet.

500 Words Essay on Food Wastage

Food wastage refers to the food that is not eaten and thrown away. This can happen anywhere: at farms, stores, restaurants, and our homes. When we waste food, we also waste the water, energy, and effort used to grow, transport, and prepare it.

Why Does Food Wastage Happen?

When we throw away food, it affects the planet and people. Rotting food in landfills creates a gas called methane, which is bad for the air. Wasting food also means we need to grow more food than necessary, which can hurt the environment. Plus, when we waste food, we forget that there are many people who do not have enough to eat.

How Can We Reduce Food Waste?

To reduce food waste, we can start by planning our meals. This means we only buy what we need. We can also learn how to store food properly to make it last longer. Understanding food labels helps too, so we don’t throw away food that is still good to eat. If we have leftovers, we can save them for another meal instead of throwing them away.

Sharing and Recycling Food

Everyone plays a part.

Everyone can help stop food waste. At home, kids can help by only taking what they can eat. Schools can teach students about not wasting food. Businesses can donate unsold food that is still safe to eat. Governments can make rules to help reduce food waste and support programs that teach people about the issue.

Food wastage is a big problem that affects our planet and its people. But there is good news: everyone can help reduce it. By being careful about how much food we buy, how we store it, and making sure to eat leftovers, we can make a big difference. Sharing food with those in need and recycling scraps into compost are also great ways to help. If we all work together, we can waste less food and take better care of our world.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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Essay | There’s food at the house: Food waste and its impact on homelessness

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Ciara Thomas

Planet Forward Sr. Correspondent | Tuskegee University

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Have you ever thrown out a food product thinking it was expired, but in all actuality, it still tasted fine? I know I have. It is something that many people have done, without realizing that they are contributing to a world-wide problem: food waste.

Food waste is the unnecessary discarding of food that is still edible for human consumption and is a serious problem in many parts of the world, given that even the most developed countries have large populations of homeless people who are often forced to go without a meal. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 14 percent of food is lost between the stages of harvest and retail, while another 17% is wasted at the retail and consumer levels.

By unknowingly or carelessly tossing out a surplus of food, we continue to aid this problem while also throwing out a resource that somebody who is less fortunate would greatly appreciate. 

Everyone is family

Food waste may not be an entirely new issue, but it has certainly worsened in recent decades as fast food restaurants, and commercial food packaging have exponentially increased across the county. The answer to mitigating food waste may lie in the practices and ways of life that came before the fast food boom. 

My godmother, Philana Suggs, grew up on a farm in Alberta, Alabama in the Black Belt region. She described her young life as community centered being that the elders within her community were just one generation out of slavery. Her neighbors were all considered family and when someone had a surplus of a crop, they would give it to another. In this way, food would not be wasted and to preserve the food’s shelf life, they would either eat it or conserve it properly by deep freezing it.

This connects to the homelessness issue in the world because this city found a way for the food that they personally did not need, to not just be thrown away. This community style approach contributes to combating this global issue.

On her grandfather’s farm they grew vegetables like corn, mustard, collard, and turnip greens. They had animals like pigs, cows, chickens, rabbits, and horses. There were plentiful apples, berries, peaches, pecans, and plums and her uncle would even hunt animals like rabbits and deer as another source of meat. Her family had ponds that supported all types of life like catfish and trout, turtles, frogs, lizards, and ducks. There was also algae present, which she explained as important because it gave nutrients in the ponds.  

She also talked of how one animal would be a source of many different foods. For example, cows would be used for meat, but also for milk that would be used to simply drink or to make ice cream. Chicken would be used as a food source as well, but their eggs would also made other dishes. By doing this, they still utilized the grocery store’s resources, but they were not solely dependent on their products. 

Because of her background of growing up on a farm, food waste and homelessness is something my godmother is extremely passionate about. When asked about how she felt about this issue she said, “Forging ahead, our future is in the hands of the next generation. The knowledge from the past needs to be taught to them so that the mistakes we are currently making regarding wasting of food can be minimized.” With inflation on the rise, more people are living paycheck to paycheck, but this issue does not seem to be a main concern to many Americans. In today’s society, many are focused on our own individual lives instead of ways to support our broader community. In my godmother’s view, if we see someone struggling, we should help, instead of thinking that every man is for himself. 

For example, we should not be producing more food than we can eat, and we should especially not be throwing it away when someone else can put it to good use. If we do have a surplus in food, we should give it to an organization that knows how to properly distribute it to those in need. Restaurants should not require their employees to throw away the food that was not eaten during shift and should instead bring it to the nearest shelter.

Strategies for reducing food waste

I had the pleasure of interviewing Desmond Mortley, Ph.D. and Lucy Asare-Baah, Ph.D. of Tuskegee University. Asare-Baah is a professor at Tuskegee University who teaches in the Agribusiness program. Moretly is also a professor at Tuskegee who is involved in numerous activities, but his recent project is focusing on post-harvest food loss and waste. I sat with them both to grasp the concept of food waste and how one would go about decreasing this issue   

Asare-Baah explained that developing countries seem to focus on home economics more than its developed counterparts. Because of this, more people in developed countries are less eager to cook and may depend on restaurants to house their meals. This is an issue, because we allow these franchises to determine how little or how much food we receive and why when it comes down to an unfinished meal, we have no problem throwing it away. As stated before, restaurants do not know how to properly handle these unwanted dishes and will throw them out instead of giving them to someone who may need it. 

Mortely believes one of the issues that contributes to food waste lies on the labels found on food packaging. “We believe that as soon as a product hits an expiration date, we must immediately throw it away, even if the product does not appear expired,” said Mortely. 

This reminded me of when I was a child and saw that the more-than-halfway-gone milk in the fridge was “expired” and I poured it out in the sink. My mother asked me if I tried it, but I told her, “No,” because it was expired. She then explained that I must examine the product before immediately throwing it out, because it may not have even been bad. The more I talked to Asare-Baah and Mortley, the more I realized that I unknowingly contribute to food waste, and that other people may not realize it as well. 

When asked about suggestions for decreasing this issue in America, Mortley recommended more educational awareness. Everyone should take the time to do their own food research and learn about things like food shelf life. Asare-Baah said that buffets should be looked at more. Some buffets do try to help this issue by charging people who do not finish their plates but these rules often don’t go far enough. “People are too quick to throw away and waste a product because they believe that since they paid for it, it is not hurting anybody,” said Asare-Baah.

Both Mortley and Asare-Baah also advised that we learn how to cook. We need to learn how to be more adaptable in the kitchen. For example, Asare-Baah brought up bananas. “When they appear to be turning brown, instead of throwing them away, we should use them for another dish like banana pudding or banana bread that does not require ripe fruit”, said Asare-Baah.

Lastly, when I asked them both where they felt this issue was going and what the younger generation should know, Mortley stated that he requires his students to go to Tuskegee’s communities and volunteer to distribute food that would go bad on campus, into the community.

Similarly, Asare-Baah gives her students plenty of assignments on food waste, like polling people in the cafeteria on what this issue means to them. She believes that the solution is to involve the youth so that they can learn from the older generations. Engaging young people is important as they are the ones who will face the brunt of climate change’s impacts in the future.

As laid out in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s 2015 report on climate change and food security , climate change is expected to increasingly impact agricultural productivity in the future and, “The people who are projected to suffer the earlier and the worst impacts from climate change are the most vulnerable populations.”

By hearing stories of my godmother’s experiences on the farm and by learning from Tuskegee professors Desmond Mortley and Lucy Asare-Baah’s experiences in helping the decrease of food waste, I can say that I have learned to become more aware of how I handle my food. Instead of throwing away a dish that I did not like, I make sure to eat it all or if I am unsure about a dish, I will start off with a little helping instead of immediately filling up my plate. I think that if everyone becomes aware of how they personally contribute to food waste, then we can decrease this issue as well as ease the hunger of the homeless population. . 

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The Big Picture

Food waste occurs along the entire spectrum of production, from the farm to distribution to retailers to the consumer . Reasons include losses from mold, pests, or inadequate climate control; losses from cooking; and intentional food waste. [1]

This waste is categorized differently based on where it occurs:

• Food “loss” occurs before the food reaches the consumer as a result of issues in the production, storage, processing, and distribution phases.
• Food “waste” refers to food that is fit for consumption but consciously discarded at the retail or consumption phases.

Wasted food has far-reaching effects, both nationally and globally. In the U.S., up to 40% of all food produced goes uneaten [2], and about 95% of discarded food ends up in landfills [3]. It is the largest component of municipal solid waste at 21%. [1] In 2014, more than 38 million tons of food waste was generated, with only 5% diverted from landfills and incinerators for composting. [3] Decomposing food waste produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Worldwide, one-third of food produced is thrown away uneaten, causing an increased burden on the environment. [4] It is estimated that reducing food waste by 15% could feed more than 25 million Americans every year. [5]

Benefits of Less Food Waste

• Cost savings on labor through more efficient handling, preparation, and storage of food that will be used.
• Cost savings when purchasing only as much food as needed, and avoiding additional costs of disposal.
• Reduced methane emissions from landfills and a lower carbon footprint.
• Better management of energy and resources, preventing pollution involved in the growing, manufacturing, transporting, and selling of food.
• Community benefits by providing donated, untouched, and safe food that would otherwise be thrown out. [6]

Proposed Solutions to Food Waste

Globally, reducing wasted food has been cited as a key initiative in achieving a sustainable food future . Sustainable Development Goal 12 addresses responsible consumption and production, which includes two indicators to measure (in order to ultimately reduce) global food loss and food waste. [7]

In the U.S, on June 4, 2013, the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency launched the U.S. Food Waste Challenge, calling on entities across the food chain, including farms, agricultural processors, food manufacturers, grocery stores, restaurants, universities, schools, and local governments. [1] The goals are to:

• Reduce food waste by improving product development, storage, shopping/ordering, marketing, labeling, and cooking methods.
• Recover food waste by connecting potential food donors to hunger relief organizations like food banks and pantries.
• Recycle food waste to feed animals or to create compost, bioenergy, and natural fertilizers.

On September 16, 2015, both agencies also announced for the first time a national food loss and waste goal, calling for a 50% reduction by 2030 to improve overall food security and conserve natural resources.

The National Resources Defense Council issued a summary paper providing guidelines on how to reduce waste throughout the food production chain. [2] The following are some focal points:

• State and local governments can incorporate food waste prevention and education campaigns, and implement municipal composting programs. Governments can provide tax credits to farmers who donate excess produce to local food banks. Proposed bills are currently in place in California, Arizona, Oregon, and Colorado.
• Businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, and institutional food services can evaluate the extent of their food waste and adopt best practices. Examples include supermarkets selling damaged or nearly expired produce at discounted prices, or offering “half-off” promotions instead of “buy-one-get-one-free” promotions. Restaurants can offer smaller portions and donate excess ingredients and prepared uneaten food to charities. Schools may experiment with concepts that allow children to create their own meals to prevent less discarded food, such as with salad bars or build-your-own burritos.
• Farms can evaluate food losses during processing, distribution, and storage and adopt best practices. Farmers markets can sell “ugly” produce, which are discarded, misshapen fruits and vegetables that do not meet the usual standards for appearance. Farms can sell fresh but unmarketable produce (due to appearance) to food banks at a reduced rate.
• Consumers can learn when food is no longer safe and edible, how to cook and store food properly, and how to compost. See Tackling Food Waste at Home .

• Source reduction : Earliest prevention by reducing the overall volume of food produced
• Feed hungry people : Donating excess food to community sites
• Feed animals : Donating food scraps and waste to local farmers who can use them for animal feed
• Industrial uses : Donating used fats, oils, and grease to make biodiesel fuel
• Composting : Food waste that is composted to produce organic matter that is used to fertilize soil
• Landfill/Incineration : A last resort for unused food

Read Next:  Tackling Food Waste at Home »

• Reducing meal waste in schools: A healthy solution
• Sustainability
• The Food Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School
• United States Department of Agriculture. U.S Food Waste Challenge. https://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/faqs.htm Accessed 3/20/2017.
• Gunders, D., Natural Resources Defense Council. Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill. Issue Paper, August 2012. IP: 12-06-B. https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf Accessed 3/20/2017.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. Sustainable Management of Food. https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food Accessed 3/20/2017.
• Salemdeeb Ramy, Font Vivanco D, Al-Tabbaa A, Zu Ermgassen EK. A holistic approach to the environmental evaluation of food waste prevention. Waste Manag . 2017 Jan;59:442-450.
• D. Hall, J. Guo, M. Dore, C.C. Chow, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, “The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its environmental Impact,” PLoS ONE 4(11):e7940, 2009.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. How to Prevent Wasted Food Through Source Reduction https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/how-prevent-wasted-food-through-source-reduction Accessed 3/20/2017.
•  United Nations. Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.  http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/indicators/1231/en/ . Accessed 1/16/2018.
• United States Environmental Protection Agency. Food Recovery Hierarchy.  https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-hierarchy  Accessed 3/20/2017.

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Food Waste in America

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

Words: 591 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Causes of food waste, consequences of food waste, potential solutions, initiatives to address food waste.

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Essay on Food Wastage for Students and Children in 1100 Words

In this article, we have published and Essay on Food Wastage for Students and Children in 1100 Words. It includes details about food wastage in India and Worldwide where it happens, effects, its solution with opinion.

Table of Contents

Introduction (Essay on Food Wastage – 1100 Words)

Wastage of food in india and worldwide.

As per a report by the World Food Organization, each seventh individual rests hungry. We can halt waste if, at that point, many individuals can be taken care.

Wastage of food in Parties & Functions 

We are, mostly, mindful of the wastage of food occurring in our weddings, or celebrations. On these events, a ton of food goes into the trash.

Effect of Food Wastage 

In the present time, food squander presents many difficulties. We can see the impact of food wastage all over the place – 

Right approach to keep food & its proper use 

They squander the absence of food because of the non-upkeep of products of the soil. On the off chance that this transpires, at that point you should prepare yourself for it. 

Ways to avoid food wastage (Solutions)

1. cook as much food as you need , 2. check what’s in your capacity .

Go to your washroom and cooler and see what nourishments you as of now have. It very well may be of two sorts. First there is nothing that will turn sour.

3. You should know when your food will ruin 

4. eat your extras .

There are a few people who have no issue eating extra food, and afterward, there are a few people who are not careless about it. I am not saying that you need to cherish the extras yet if you have made extra, at that point, eat them later. 

5. Use each piece 

6. give what you need , 7. use squander sagaciously .

For instance, in certain nations like Japan, squander is ordered and used unexpectedly. In this way, we cut food squander into small pieces in industrial facilities and either deteriorated into plant food or covered in landfills to create methane gas, the wellspring of fuel. 

8. Quickly evacuate terrible vegetables and leaves: 

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Home | Food | Food Waste

Food Waste Essays

15 essay samples on this topic, essay examples, essay topics, issues of food waste argumentative essay.

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Environment

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Food is the reason behind human existence, and no organism could flourish without this basic need. The world is now encountering the issue related to wastage of food, causing huge negative effects to all the people. There are many research and findings on this topic that can help us understand the issue, and we have gathered all such data. So, if you want to write some food waste essay, you will be surprised to see the best data available in one place. We have not relied on a single dimension of the topic, but we have made our efforts to cover various dimensions, and our samples will help you write the best essay on food waste. We have made reading these essays quite simple, and you can easily find all the essays; and by reading all the content, you can easily write an essay on food waste and its impact, which can be used for study and business purposes.

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