12 Ways to Reduce Wasted Food in School Cafeterias

And a few ideas to cut plastic pollution too

Worldwide, about a third of the food we produce goes uneaten. Institutions, including schools, can play a role both in the cafeteria and in the classroom to reduce wasted food. After learning about the importance of keeping food out of the waste stream, kids will then persuade their parents to throw out less of it.

Since money is always an issue, I’ve grouped these waste-reducing ideas into three categories:

1. Tactics that cost nothing

2. Tactics that save money

3. Tactics that incur upfront expenses

Tactics that cost nothing

1. Have students conduct a waste audit

To get an idea of what winds up in the cafeteria’s waste bins, have students track that waste and create graphs with their findings. Once the kids and staff realize what goes to waste most, they can make a plan to reduce it.

Let’s say the audit reveals that uneaten, edible food comprises the majority of the waste. The next three ideas address that issue.

2. Give kids enough time to eat

If students don’t have enough time to eat their lunch, they may not finish their lunch. This study suggests students need at least 25 minutes. The study also found that kids tend to eat more fruit and vegetables when they have more time.

3. Change the menu

Ask the students why they don’t like the menu items that wind up in the trash most. If they hate bland, boiled broccoli—and can you blame them?—consider a quick sauté with seasoning instead. If a lot of juice and milk go to waste, push the water more (push it regardless—see #9). Unless the school swaps out some items on the menu for more expensive ones, this change shouldn’t increase costs.

4. Give away edible food

Food rescue organizations pick up edible food from institutions and distribute it to those who need it. Go here for a list of these organizations in the US. If the school serves packaged food, have students place uneaten food on a share table for other students to take.

5. Measure progress

After determining the sources of waste and implementing solutions, kids can also track their progress by comparing audits. When they see that they have made strides in reducing waste, they will not only feel proud of their accomplishment, they will more likely keep at it.

6. Pick a subject, any subject

Work wasted food into the curriculum.

Home economics

• Gardening. When kids grow vegetables, kids eat vegetables. They will appreciate the hard work that goes into growing food and waste less of it.

• Cooking. If kids learn to cook, they can help reduce waste at home. Because if they know what to do with that handful of ingredients in the back of the refrigerator, they can cook them rather than watch mom or dad toss them. Use leftover or surplus ingredients from the cafeteria.

• Money management. Every year, the average American family spends $1,900 on food that goes to waste.

Math—so many variables!

• Measure wasted food.

• Create and interpret graphs.

• Calculate the cost of wasted food.

• Calculate the amount of fuel required to ship that uneaten food from the farm to the grocery store and then to the landfill or municipal composting facility.

• Calculate how much water and other resources goes into growing the wasted food.

Science

• Climate crisis. Food rotting in landfill releases methane gas, a green-house-gas more potent than carbon dioxide.

• Plant biology. Learn about the lifecycle from seed to plant to compost.

• Biology of livestock. Discuss resources required to grow the food that feeds the animals we eat.

• The ecosystem of a compost pile. Bugs, worms and bacteria break down food scraps into black gold.

Language arts

• Writing. Kids could write research papers on wasted food, the food–environment connection, healthy diets and so on.

• Reading. Here’s a short list of children’s books about the environment. I too rank The Lorax by Dr. Seuss at the top. If I taught high school English, my students would read The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake, two of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novels set in the US after unnamed environmental disasters.

Economics and business

• The concepts of profit and loss. The farmer pays for the seeds, the labor, the equipment, the fossil fuels to operate heavy equipment and on and on, yet many grocery stores buy only perfect looking produce from farms. The food left to rot in the fields eats away at the bottom line.

• Startups and business models. Companies like Imperfect Produce and Hungry Harvest divert ugly fruit and vegetables from landfill and deliver them to customers in CSA boxes.

• Negative externalities. Businesses that impose costs onto a third party as a byproduct of their operations have created a negative externality. For example, a restaurant chain serving super-size portions that most customers can’t finish burdens taxpayers with costs: hauling away the food, building methane-emitting landfills and paying waste management employees to keep this entire artificial, complex system running. Costs of heating the planet include extreme weather disasters, loss of productivity, lower crop yields and higher food prices.

Religion and ethics

• Social justice. Food waste is a social justice issue. While nearly 40 percent of food goes to waste in the US, an astonishing near-quarter of all adults face food insecurity in this country.

• Fasting. Most religions prescribe fasting rituals. I’m not sure how to tie this one in. You’ll make it work.

• The feeding of the 5000. Jesus wasted nothing.

Art

• Posters. Create these for the cafeteria: “Take All You Want But Eat All You Take” or “What Can Go in the Compost Bin” or “Make Water Your Drink of Choice.”

• Homemade paper from food packaging. Make new paper out of paper and paperboard recovered from the cafeteria’s recycling bins. Use this in the posters! My kids and I loved making paper when they were little. Here’s how to do it.

• Sculptures from food packaging. Perhaps kids could sculpt half-eaten plates of food or create a visual of the food supply chain from farm to table—and then to trash. Or they could build a pyramid based on the EPA’s wasted food hierarchy below.

The EPA’s food recovery hierarchy

7. Compost

Does the school cafeteria compost? If not, help start one. Go here for a comprehensive guide on starting a successful compost program at school. A compost bin also doubles as an outdoor science lab.

But remember, composting does not prevent food from going to waste. It does, however, reduce the methane emissions that organic material would otherwise generate in a compacted landfill cut off of oxygen.

Tactics that save money

8. Avoid an overly extensive menu

If your school offers limited options, skip this tactic and move onto #9. But if the cafeteria offers a large number of dishes and sides, most likely, more of that food will go to waste. A streamlined—yet appetizing—menu will reduce waste and save time.

9. Make water the drink of choice

As a bonus, tap water (and filtered tap water) requires no microplastic-shedding packaging and costs essentially nothing. Juice, like soda, contains piles of sugar; it’s fruit stripped of its vital fiber. Wasted milk squanders many more resources than wasted plants (not that we want to waste those either).

Tactics that incur up-front expenses

10. Buy smaller dishes

Smaller plates can hold only so much food. If some kids are still hungry, they can return for seconds. Eventually the reduced food costs will cover the price of the smaller plates.

11. Install water fountains and refill stations

I can’t imagine schools don’t have these but perhaps I am completely naive. I do know that many cities sorely lack water fountains in public areas. This step will help strategy #9 succeed.

12. Bring in speakers and plan events

Your city’s waste department likely offers educational programs. My daughter MK now works in waste management and part of her job entails giving presentations in schools. Kids—and teachers and parents—also enjoy tours of farms and waste management facilities. These types of activities will inspire everyone to reduce waste.

Bonus tips that cut plastic

Cover plastic pollution in the curriculum

Consider the same subjects outlined earlier.

• Home economics: how to pack a plastic-free lunch

• Math: more measuring and calculations

• Science: plastic’s effects on the oceans, the chemistry of plastic, how plastic exacerbates climate change

• Art: collages made from wasted plastic

Hoard jars

When my daughter MK worked in restaurants as a student, she told me the amount of waste she saw would have sent me over the edge. Sometimes she was able to rescue food destined for the bin. Regularly, she salvaged amazing jars.

One summer, MK brought home at least 40 of the 8-cup jars pictured below. They cost about $6 at a store. (I ended up finding new homes for many of them.) Tossing jars like these in the recycling bin (or trash) is sheer madness! Perhaps your school cafeteria throws out jars that parents can use for, well, everything.

Invest in reusables

From the kitchen to the dining hall, look for prime areas to reduce waste. Serve food on real plates, with real cutlery and real cups. In the US, your school may qualify for a subsidy from Plastic Free Restaurants to swap out some of its single-use plastics for reusables.

Please share this post with a teacher you love!

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