How schools can teach kids to value food
This is a guest article written by Food Tank Advisory Board Member聽Jonathan Bloom. Bloom is the author of "American Wasteland" and creator of聽the blog 鈥淲asted Food.鈥澛燜ind him on Twitter at聽.听
There鈥檚 much ado about food waste these days. The Obama Administration set an aggressive聽聽by 2030, five states and a few cities have banned it from landfills, Congress聽聽on the matter, the Ad Council created a suite of 鈥淪ave the Food鈥澛�, and the National Science Foundation just聽聽to tackle the issue.
Yet this activism ignores two key players in the long-term fight against food waste: children and their schools. And if it doesn鈥檛 reach kids, today鈥檚 鈥渕uch ado鈥� about food waste might lead to nothing鈥攏othing lasting, at least.
It鈥檚 easy to see why school food waste goes unnoticed鈥擜merica squanders just聽聽via school lunch annually, a tiny slice of the estimated聽聽in food wasted in America each year.
As with food lost on farms, school waste has not been comprehensively studied. Instead, government agencies and food waste campaigners have focused on the largest quantifiable targets: waste at factories, restaurants, supermarkets, and, mostly, households. The economic stakes for figuring out school food waste are more indirect, as school lunch funders鈥攖he USDA鈥攄on鈥檛 ever see the disparate waste. 聽
Additionally, placing the word 鈥渟chool鈥� before food waste converts a popular topic to kryptonite. That鈥檚 because school food waste is easily politicized in the wake of Michelle Obama鈥檚 Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act. Studies showing increased waste聽聽of the policy and its healthier, potentially less popular foods (and possibly the Obama administration itself). And聽聽represents a defense of both. Still, there was plenty of food wasted in schools before 2009, and the same is true today. 聽聽聽
Today and tomorrow are what we can change. Every day, we鈥檙e teaching kids that food is trash. We ensure that they throw it away by providing subpar grub in a rushed lunch period at times of the day when they won鈥檛 be hungry. Lunch at my son鈥檚 school starts at 9:55am! And the excess almost always fills up landfills rather than creating healthy soil, as fewer than one percent of schools have composting programs.
Meanwhile, tackling food waste in schools tends to prompt a wholesale examination鈥攁nd usually an improvement鈥攐f the food served there. When kids are taught to eat more fruits and vegetables, that leads to healthier eating and less food discarded. Of course, that鈥檚 all dependent on the food being of a certain caliber. Often, it鈥檚聽
Why is there so much school food waste?
Much of the food served in American schools is mediocre at best. Too many school lunches feature poor-quality produce that鈥檚 frequently tasteless and/or the wrong size. Meat products often feel more like outtakes from Upton Sinclair鈥檚 The Jungle than something we鈥檇 want to eat. And then there are the ubiquitous milk cartons, which pile up, often unopened, in the trash.
Don鈥檛 believe me? Drop in for a lunch at your neighborhood elementary school. As most school systems have prioritized convenience and cost, they鈥檝e outsourced food prep to for-profit food service providers whose first priority is financial, not nutritional. Meanwhile, food spending is minimal. The USDA鈥檚 National School Lunch Program (NSLP), which funds meals for more than 30 million kids, only reimburses about US$3 per meal. Just a portion of that funding goes toward food, as it also must defray overhead costs of labor and energy.
Why School Food Waste Stinks
Our failure to focus on school food waste ignores the potential for change in young people. It鈥檚 not easy to measure the impact or value of increased awareness amongst young people. That doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 not effective or that we shouldn鈥檛 try. To draw a parallel, how much of America鈥檚 gains in recycling or anti-smoking initiatives came through teaching kids to do it in school?
Viewed another way, adults are dinosaurs who rarely change and approach food mostly聽. Kids, by contrast, are malleable. That鈥檚 why employing both words and deeds鈥攁wareness and action鈥攐n food waste will yield key results over time. When聽聽attempt to reach a decent number of current home food purchasers, it鈥檚 a missed opportunity to have a larger impact on the more impressionable shoppers of tomorrow. 聽 聽聽
How Schools Could Waste Less
Schools can teach kids to waste less food through a few simple changes. First, creating longer lunch periods. For students buying lunch, there鈥檚 often not enough time to actually finish what鈥檚 on their tray after queuing to get their meal and finding a seat. And鈥攖his isn鈥檛 rocket science鈥攎ore time to eat means more time to consume the intended nutrition. While it will provide some scheduling challenges, where there鈥檚 a will, there鈥檚 a way. And an extra five minutes could mean the difference between students being hungry or well-fed.
Changing the lunchroom layout can also play a role in minimizing waste. Cornell鈥檚聽聽found that simply shifting the placement of items in the cafeteria and displaying creative names for vegetables鈥攍ike 鈥淴-ray Vision Carrots鈥� and 鈥淪uper Strength Spinach鈥濃�攍ed to dramatically more produce eaten. They also found that a 鈥渉ealthy choices only鈥� convenience line led to 35-percent more students choosing healthier items. And minor changes can have major impact.听聽found that slicing apples led to more than 60-percent higher consumption than serving them whole.
Meanwhile, as student agency increases, so does consumption. For example, salad bars have worked wonders for veggie eating鈥攁nd that鈥檚 no surprise, when compared to items like steam-table green beans. The USDA allows schools to provide choice鈥攔eferred to as 鈥淥ffer versus Serve鈥濃�攚herein students can pick three of five items offered (as long as one item taken is a fruit or vegetable). But at present, only about half of American schools allow that option.
Even with those changes, some unwanted food will always end up on students鈥� trays. And schools can make sure more of it gets eaten by simply designating a 鈥渟hare table鈥� for unwanted food items that other students can then take. Washington Elementary in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is one of many schools with a share table, as described in a聽聽by Melissa Terry, a food policy researcher at the University of Arkansas. The USDA has voiced its聽聽in general, as long as it鈥檚 not prohibited by local health codes.
Of course, not all students buy school lunch. But one policy that affects all younger students is the order of lunch and recess.听聽found that moving recess before lunch yielded roughly 50-percent more fruit and vegetable consumption. Kids are able to work up an appetite on the playground and don鈥檛 rush through lunch to get outside. As with lunch period length, scheduling these changes presents a logistical challenge, but a manageable one if schools view increased consumption as a bridge to better nutrition and, hence, learning.
Despite these waste-reducing strategies, there will still be uneaten food. Fortunately, donation of packaged foods and whole fruits from schools is a burgeoning trend. Since 2012,聽聽food directors to redistribute unopened milk, bags of carrots, whole fruit, and other items to community members鈥攐ften within the school鈥攊n need. Nonprofits like聽听补苍诲听聽have developed models for doing just that.
For the inevitable excess that can鈥檛 be donated, more schools should compost. In addition to avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, composting could save school districts money on their trash bill. Composting can happen on- or off-site. And isolating food scraps is easy; I鈥檝e seen kindergarteners master the art of separating food waste, recyclables, and trash鈥攗sually faster than the teachers! And, as seen in the聽, setting up a composting program is both doable and educational, as it can teach resource conservation, chemistry, civics, and more.
Schools are places of learning, so why not treat the cafeteria as another classroom? Helping kids avoid wasting food teaches not only nutrition, but ethics, environmentalism, economics, and personal responsibility. It鈥檚 well past time we reverse the status quo on food waste. If children really聽, it鈥檚 going to be a wasteful one if we don鈥檛 change our ways.
This story originally appeared on .
