Food Waste

It is estimated that, if the entire world ate by the standards of North America and Europe, it would take the resources of 4 earths to feed everyone. This staggering figure might convince us of the unsustainability of the western diet, but the statistic does not just represent the food on our plate, it also represents all the food that goes to waste.

Here in the United States, each school faces its own set of issues when it comes to operating as smoothly and effectively as possible. While some problems are localized and contextual, others are universal.

According to the USDA, between 30-40% of food is wasted every year in the United States, leading to over 100 billion pounds of food waste every year. This number may seem intimidating, but even small changes in how we consume and dispose of food can lead to significant impacts on the reduction of food waste.

Everyone nowadays is so busy! It can be hard to make good choices when it comes to food. Most of the time people either getting something on the go or ordering take-out.

If we were going to make a list of the country's most thoughtful consumers, kids wouldn't be at the top of the list. While kids are often sensitive to environmental concerns, such instincts don't always come them naturally.

Food waste is not something we associate with winemaking. However, as ZME Science points out, roughly a quarter of the grape in the form of skins, seeds, and stalks is thrown out when the fruit of the vine is transformed into wine, 14 million tons of the stuff, as it turns out.

Can you recycle food? The idea may sound unappealing, but it is a growing movement. You can't just toss those pastries leftover from the breakfast meeting into the recycling bin, but there are many ways to prevent food waste by redistributing it to people in need.

One of the ways some communities are dealing with food waste is to compost it and turn it into fertilizer. The idea has caught on in Europe, according to NPR, and has gone a long way toward solving the problem of food waste.

Food waste has long been a world-wide problem. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) about 33% of the food that is produced globally goes to waste, and that number jumps to 40% in the US.

Ask any restaurateur who has watched their dream of opening a restaurant come crumbling down around them what went wrong, and often, you'll hear a common theme: They weren't paying enough attention to food cost, and specifically food waste. For anyone interested in reducing their back-of-house costs, we've got a few tips for curbing that waste for good.