Jasmine Kerry

ENG 1201
Prof. Cassel
5 January 2016

Food Waste in America

Each day that I drive myself to class on Sinclairs campus, I have to drive through
downtown Dayton. Though in its prime Dayton was a thriving community and exciting
city, over the years, the neighborhoods have deteriorated and most people view it as the
dangerous part of town. Dayton has been flooded with low-income housing and due to
the homeless shelters and the bus station located downtown, many homeless people
(and their animals) tend to reside on Dayton streets. Seeing these people every day, its
hard not to acknowledge the fact that many of them dont have enough food, or
sometimes any food, for that matter. Naturally, being a human being with a heart, it
bothers me when I go to work in a restaurant every night and I see a significant amount
of food being wasted. It really makes me think about how much food is being thrown
away, not only in restaurants, but in our homes, too, that could be put to much better

use. I started to question why as a society we throw so much food away on a regular
basis and what could be done to at least lessen the amount of food that is wasted.
One major source of food waste in the United States is the restaurant industry.
Between larger portion sizes and health standards that cause food mess ups to be
thrown away, restaurants discard a significant amount of food every day that they
operate. As time progresses, it seems that Americans are sticking with the motto that
bigger is better, but is it really? Sure, people feel like they are getting a better value
when they get more food for the same price, but a large portion of that food is going to
go to waste. Even if the food gets taken home in to go boxes, very rarely does it get
eaten. Often times our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and we only want the bigger
portion sizes to make ourselves believe that we are getting the best deal. Another
aspect of the restaurant industry that contributes to food waste is the food that gets
thrown away because the same food cant be given to two different people. Dont get me
wrong, this rule makes perfectly fine sense for the prevention of spreading germs and
disease, but it causes a lot of food to go to waste. Obviously people sometimes order
food at restaurants that they dont like and it gets sent back to the kitchen in exchange
for something new, but that food goes right into the trash because it already touched the
table and we cant risk passing a disease of any kind onto someone else. This is one
source of food waste that I dont really see an easy solution for because it makes sense

that food someone else has eaten not be passed onto strangers. The third biggest
reason we see for food waste in restaurants is mistakes made in the kitchen or by the
servers. Were all human and mistakes are bound to happen, like when a server hits the
wrong button and rings in the wrong food or when someone in the kitchen reads the
screen wrong and again, the wrong food is made. Its a completely understandable
mistake, but I cant count how many times Ive watched food straight of the kitchen be
thrown away because someone realized it was the wrong thing before they took it to the
table. Its a frustrating thing to watch because that food, which hasnt even been touched
by anyone outside of the restaurant kitchen, could be boxed up and given to someone in
need of it.
Another major source of wasted food in the Unites States is food that gets wasted
in our own homes. As a society, we tend to look for the best value when were grocery
shopping for our homes. Places like Costco and Sams Club thrive in our communities
because theyre able to offer low prices by allowing people to buy things in bulk. Sure,
thats a wonderful thing for businesses and such, but most homes dont really need that
much food and often times it goes bad before anyone gets around to eating it or it gets
forgotten about and thrown away when it gets discovered again, months later, in the
bottom of the freezer or the back of the pantry. Our groceries also get left at home to go
bad in the fridge when weve just had a long day and really dont feel like cooking, so we

go out to eat. Obviously theres nothing wrong with going out to eat, in fact, my job
depends on it, but some people do it all the time and they have a kitchen full of food that
is going to waste purely because they would rather go out than stay home and cook.
Naturally, there is a reason people say not to grocery shop when youre hungry.
Shopping when we are already hungry tends to lead us to buying things that sound
good at the time, but wont sound good two days later when were at home and need
something to eat. This means the food that sounded good while we were shopping is
going to sit in our kitchens until we either get a craving for it again or it goes bad. As a
society, we are a culture of excess. When were going grocery shopping, we dont mind
just continuing to add food to our cabinets and fridges. We tend to believe that more is
better and it doesnt bother us to have a ridiculous amount of food built up in our homes.
We would rather have too much food than not enough food, and that often times causes
us to waste a significant amount of the food we spend our hard earned money on.
As a society today, we tend to believe that if someone cant afford food, its
because theyre lazy and they should go get a job, but that isnt always the case.
According to a study conducted in 2014 by Feeding America and Oxfam, 54% of the
people receiving help from the nonprofit organization, Feeding America, reported having
at least one member of the household working in the last year. An even higher rate
(71%) of households with children are shown to have reported working members in the

past year. Logically, that makes sense, considering families have to work to support
themselves. Research also shows that 24% of households receiving assistance with
food costs have at least one member enrolled in college. This supports the belief that
while college may be a great asset in the long run, getting through it in the short term
can be tougher than most people tend to believe. Students are working hard to better
themselves for the future, but theyre having a hard time figuring out where their next
meals will come from.
After researching food waste in the United States and its causes I believe that
food waste in restaurants could be significantly decreased by making small changes in
the way things are done. One major way that food waste could be decreased is by
decreasing the portion sizes of food served in restaurants. In most places, portion sizes
are significantly larger than the recommended serving sizes. By decreasing the portions
and bringing them closer to the recommended serving size, restaurants could save
money on food when theyre buying from the suppliers and in turn they could lower their
prices, which would make their consumers happier. A study published in 2015 showed
that patrons would still be significantly happy if restaurants donated their excess food or
served smaller portion sizes. Most people would even be okay with restaurants only
serving made to order food, rather than pre-making things. (Neff)

I believe that food waste in our homes could also be significantly decreased by
being conscious of what were doing and changing a few small things. There are people
in our society that go grocery shopping for the entire month in one trip, so naturally,
theyre buying more than they will really need for that month. By simply going to the
grocery store more frequently and buying more like what is needed for a week, or even
two weeks, we could reduce wasted food by being able to eat more of what is
purchased. We could also make an effort to purchase only non-perishable foods in bulk
so that they arent sitting in the back of our freezers going bad. In fact, we could save a
large amount of food waste just by eating the leftovers that are already in our fridge,
rather than going out to eat multiple times each week.
After conducting my research, I believe that with just a few changes in our daily
lives, as a society, we can largely decrease the amount of food we waste. Most reasons
behind food being wasted revolve around people not being conscious of what they are
doing and that could be changed if people would only take time to consider and be
educated about how their actions are affecting the rest of society.

Works Cited
Babic, Mary, Theresa DelVecchio Dys, Monica Hake, Meghan O'Leary, Elaine Waxman, PhD,
and Andrew Yarrow, Phd. "From Paycheck to Pantry: Hunger in Working
America." (n.d.): n. pag. 2015. Web. 7 Jan. 2016.
Hatz, Diane. End Food Waste Now. End Food Waste Now, 2013. Web. 22 October 2015.
Nagel, Kyle. Food Scraps a Growing Recycling Focus. Dayton Daily News. Cox Media Group,
7 October 2012. Web. 22 October 2015.
Neff, Roni A., Marie L. Spiker, and Patricia L. Truant. "Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported
Awareness, Attitudes, And Behaviors." Plos ONE 10.6 (2015): 1-16. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.