From Reed College to the National Review, we’re really spanning the political spectrum this week. The conservative magazine has pretty fair article on how the Federal School Lunch Program wastes food and money.
Wasted food costs the government $600 million every year, with fruits and vegetables accounting for 42 percent of that waste.
This G.A.O. report supplies those figures. […]

Some colleges have eliminated trays in an effort to get students to take, and waste, less food. At Portland’s Reed College, students are cutting waste by taking more–of fellow students’ leftovers. The school of about 1,500 undergrads has a tradition where “scroungers” scrape together a meal from what paying students don’t eat.
Before busing their trays, meal plan students drop off […]

In case you haven’t read it, check out this incredibly sensible Michael Pollan op-ed on the farm bill. He argues that the long-standing federal farm policy subsidizes fats and sugars, increasing obesity rates and making processed foods cheaper.
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An employee at Panera Bread blogged about sandwich shop food waste. OK, so maybe I requested she […]

Sticking with the college theme (I guess this has become college week) students at Loyola University Chicago have launched a food waste committee to investigate the issue after a student study found 1,100 pounds of plate waste–what diners take but don’t eat–per day at the school of 15,000.
According to this article, two thirds of Loyolans think campus food waste is […]

In honor of Campus Sustainability Day, let’s talk a bit more about campus food waste. The trayless college cafeteria, an idea started at Maine’s St. Joseph’s College, is creeping across the nation.
A range of schools are cutting down on waste by eliminating trays from all-you-can-eat cafeterias, reducing “take a lot, eat a little” waste. It’s no huge […]

As an example of campus food waste, Rutgers University students and staff waste more than one and a half pounds of food per meal. How do colleges waste so much food? In one quasi-word: All-you-can-eat. Given the food recycling figures from some schools, it seems more like all-you-can-waste.
With escalating room and board fees and upscale college dining, […]