Food Waste

Food waste can be a huge problem when it comes to school lunches in America. Students may have no regard for the effects that come with wasting their lunch. However there are both benefits and disadvantages to bringing a lunch from home, when it comes to food waste.

Background

•  On average, elementary school students consumed 85.1% of total energy provided in packed lunches (Caruso, Cullen 88)
• “I saw a lot of uneaten food go into lunchroom trash barrels” (laird 18) – The food wasted more likely comes from school provided lunches due to statistics
• Elementary-school students wasted more than a third of grain, fruit and vegetable menu items. Middle-school students left nearly 50 % of fresh fruit, 37 % of canned fruit and nearly a third of vegetables unconsumed (Smith, Cunningham 1259)

1. Leftovers

• By packing a lunch with leftovers from home the day before students are saving food that otherwise might have been wasted. 
• “left-overs of chops or roasts which may be ground and made into sandwiches” (Buchholz 6)
• This also adds to cost efficiency because families will save more money by still eating leftover food, if they accidently overestimate how much they’ll need before.
• If students aren’t hungry enough to eat their whole lunch one day, instead of throwing it away they can bring it back home in their lunch box and eat it another day, or another family member can. This is harder for those who buy lunch because it is less likely they will have a container to bring the food they do not want home. This leads to them just throwing it away because it is easier to do so.

2.  Timesaver

• Although packing a school lunch may take excess time at home in the morning, or the night before, it saves students time during the lunch period. This is because they do not have to wait in the school lunch line, and instead, can start eating at the beginning of the lunch period.
• Poppendieck explained how a child asked to bring lunch because she did not have enough time to eat the school provided lunches. (149)
• Not having enough time to eat lunch can lead to more being thrown away. Less time to eat = More food waste
• Bringing a lunch prevents time being cut away from lunch periods, so slow eaters have more time to eat their food, instead of being forced to dispose of the food they did not finish in time

3. Choice Matters

• “students’ often-observed disposition to throw away, rather than eat, what schools feed them poses a persistent challenge to school lunch administrators, so taste invokes choice matters” (Laird 27)
• Packing a school lunch from home, usually gives students more of a choice of what to being. Bringing food they like means they are more likely to eat it and it won’t go to waste as much as choosing from limited school options.