At Liberty High School, breakfast and lunch are made, but only so many of them get served. Inside the walls of Liberty, there are at least 600 students, and many of them rely on school lunches. However, if one were to look around the school garbage cans during lunch, it would be obvious that lots of food gets thrown away.
Every morning and lunch, food is served in the cafeteria by Liberty lunch workers. Most of the food is provided through Caremark, and their process of disposing of food is explained best by Angel May, one of the kitchen workers. May stated, “ We actually have a really good process. I have been here for nine years, and I’ve perfected it. It tells us how many of each item we have to make, and we tell it how much is left over, and that all goes into a computer program called Prima.”
Prima informs the staff how much of each item they need to make. They help reduce waste and provide enough meals for every student at a specific school.
While it may seem significant, Liberty does not contribute to food waste as highly as other schools. May stated, “We have some of the lowest food waste in the district and make sure to use the production sheets every day.”
The companies that provide school food also contribute the school with just enough food to feed the students and not go over. May goes on to state, “ I mean yesterday we only had seven left over meals, which is good when you make around 500 every day.”
There are 180 days in a school year, and if each day seven meals are thrown away, then that 0.014% becomes 2.52% in a year. That is approximately 1,260 meals, and that is more than enough to feed many people in need.
In response, May stated, “ I wish there were a way to donate it. They need those meals, and I hate to see them thrown away.”
The concern of many who see the food being uneaten is largely because some would need it in other parts of the world. Logically, it would make sense to attempt and recycle or give away the food to those who need it.
However, health concerns prevent the ability to donate the uneaten food, meaning some meals inevitably end up going to waste.
The food loss is not only affecting us but also those outside of our school. And with the scarcity of food in current times, these meals would be useful for all parties involved.
