After Chapel comes to an end, you and hundreds of students flock to the Bean for lunch. Being so hungry after a long morning of classes, your eyes tend to be eager, building up an appetite your stomach can’t keep up with.
Whether everything looks so good, making you feel like you just can’t choose, or nothing looks that amazing, so it’s better to be safe than sorry, you pile food on your plate.
After a minute of chatting and eating with friends, your body is slowly satiated and you’re full, but there’s still food on the plate and a lot of it.
Welp, it doesn’t matter; it’s not like you pay by the serving.
And that’s the issue. It feels like there are bigger problems than not finishing that plate of pizza and fries. But food waste is the bigger problem.
Food waste is a big contributor to global warming and food insecurity. All the leftover meals took energy and resources to get here. They were loaded on a truck a week ago, driven here and prepared, only to be dumped into the trash and sit in a landfill.
The Quantity Food Production and Service class at ACU spends lab hours measuring post-consumer waste in the Bean. Emily Bartley, registered dietitian nutritionist for the Bean, said that “in recent lab observations, students measured 90 to 100 pounds of waste within about a 45-minute to one-hour timeframe.”
Bartley said they equate one pound of waste to roughly one meal.
With the estimation of one pound of waste to one meal, the Bean accumulates 90 to 100 uneaten and trashed meals within these short time periods. That is a significant amount of food that will rot in the garbage.
Later, methane will form as the food breaks down and decomposes, releasing a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
When that trapped gas heats the atmosphere, the risk of natural disasters like floods and droughts is higher — something we have already watched happen here in Texas.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an article on how climate change will affect French fries.
While the premise seems humorous, the concept of the article explains the reasoning and impacts of climate change in a way that is relevant and easy to understand. The cool-weathered crop is not successful in warmer climates. Thus, no more French fries.
So food waste is an environmental issue, but it is also a social issue.
World hunger is a massive and widely recognized problem, and according to Business Waste, over a third of all food produced globally goes to waste — this food could have been diverted somewhere to people in need.
The Bean is actively working to counter the excess leftovers. Bartley highlighted the Bean’s ongoing waste reduction efforts — a few of which include using smaller or properly sized utensils, preparing food closer to serving time to reduce leftovers and maintain freshness, and creatively repurposing ingredients.
So there is a lot being done on the producer side of the Bean, but how can consumers help out?
“Students can make a big difference in reducing waste by taking only what they plan to eat,” Bartley said. “A ‘Take What You’ll Eat’ or ‘Clean Plate’ campaign could help raise awareness. Starting with smaller portions and going back for seconds if still hungry is a simple but effective strategy to prevent excess food waste.”
According to The Food Waste Index Report of 2024, food waste requires a collective approach that no one actor can fix, and “collaboration can create a movement that is more than the sum of its parts.”
There is not much that only we can do to combat global warming and food insecurity at this very moment, but we can make dents in food waste. This can be in small efforts throughout the day.
Make those mindless parts of your routine into intentional actions: eat smaller portions and go back for seconds if needed, finish your plate and mention it to friends.
Yes, the big issues that food waste creates are easy to see as ‘out of our control,’ but progress is initiated by small beginnings — that starts with your big plate of food after chapel, when your eyes might be hungrier than your stomach is.
