Notre Dame is known and loved for their food. But have you ever paid attention to how much food on your plate ends up in the trash?
When I clear my plate, I can’t help but notice the amount of food in the garbage at lunch. I started to pay more attention to how much girls throw away, and was shocked at the amount that goes to waste–including my own. This brought up the question of whether the portion sizes are too large.
NDB’s cuisine is already delicious, there is no doubt about that. Aside from the main course, there are always different soups, a salad bar, and a sandwich bar in case people don’t like the main lunch. Notre Dame does a great job of giving options for multiple different diets and tastes. But lunch could be even better if the serving sizes were a little more proportional, this way we could avoid wasting food. So, how does Epicurean decide how much food to put on our plates?
“Protein, I do four ounces. I do about four ounces of starch, and three ounces of vegetables,” said Epicurean Employee Hemie. He also confirmed that there is food left over in the kitchen.
“Then sometimes with that we’ll try to repurpose it. Either if we can use the meat for something, or maybe serve it the next day. Depending on what it is,” said Epicurean Employee Kimmy when asked about leftover food.
In no way is this Epicurean’s fault. So what can we do to help them? An easy solution is to simply ask for a small amount of food on your plate if you know you won’t finish the amount normally served. This way you will be given a quantity that you can enjoy and finish completely.
A more school-wide solution would be if Epicurean served smaller portions to everyone. Then if girls are still hungry after, they can come back for seconds. Less is more! This also would be beneficial because the girls who are not still hungry won’t be stuck with food they have to throw away.
Although some people may be fine with the portion sizes, that doesn’t account for the people who don’t finish their lunch. There is nothing a student can do if they are full, so the food leftovers are just getting thrown away. But if our whole school was served smaller portions, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. It doesn’t hurt to try saving a little food and make lunch less wasteful.
Food waste is already a serious issue, and it’s a shame that food is going to waste at our school when some people really are starving. With a few minor adjustments at lunch, we could easily make things more resourceful and beneficial.
