Today, I’ll be moderating a panel on the Politics of Campus Dining at the Politics of Food Conference. I know–lots of politics.
I’m not entirely sure how I earned this honor, but I do know I’ll do my darndest to include wasted food in the discussion.
Hosted by the Environmental Leadership Program, the conference is practically in my backyard, in Raleigh, N.C. The session I’m moderating will largely focus on sustainability and local foods. Still, there’s nothing less sustainable than throwing out one third of our food.
Hopefully, I’ll have an update later in the day to let you know if the topic of waste, traylessness or portion size just happened to arise.
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UPDATE: I thought the session went well, even though the topic of waste didn’t come up until the end.
Michael Aquaro, who oversees Bon Appetit‘s service at Duke University, talked a bit about waste in response to a question about whether ‘All You Can Eat’ dining is the root of the waste problem.
Aquaro said they are trying hard to get students to think about proper portion sizes and have even collected food waste to illustrate its volume. Reducing waste on campus is easier said than done, given that Duke has ‘All You Care To Eat’ dining. As Aquaro said:
There’s a lot of food waste from people taking more than they’ll eat. It takes time to recondition a group of people. It doesn’t have to be ‘just lump a lot of food on your plate.’