Key Words: Food Waste, Data Insights, and College Dining
The Problem
ABOUT The Problem
In the FIT Community
1.4 billion hectares of land. That's how much space produced but uneaten food occupies in the world; making up 28% of the world's agricultural land area according to the Food Wastage: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions article in the Science Heritage Journal( https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357428566_FOOD_WASTAGE_CAUSES_IMPACTS_AND_SOLUTIONS/ ). This evidently creates confusion, disappointment, and anger, as the issue produces more issues and massively impacts already vulnerable social groups and ecosystems. And when looking at the establishments who create food wastage in buoyant numbers, one "winner" is clearly at the top of the list which is on-campus dining facilities.
On-campus dining facilities are a central and primary source of food waste from thousands and thousands of college students. Of course, these numbers vary from university to university, but public colleges and SUNY schools, like FIT, throw out an estimated 65,000-100,000 pounds of food per year. Are the numbers as colossal as Boston University, who produces 4,000,000 pounds of food wastage a year? ( Storybench 1, https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-a-bar-chart-with-chartbuilder/). No. Does this make the problem less of an issue, especially at FIT? Absolutely not.
To some, food that is uneaten is trash. To others, especially in the NYC area, that edible food could mean not going hungry at the end of a night or not being insecure with food momentarily.
Food wastage means or refers to any food that was lost by poor post-harvest practices or waste by discarding food that could've been fit for consumption. At FIT, although the dining staff doesn't grow, crop, or harvest the ingredients that are in the kitchen, they're in charge after the post-harvest stage and after deliveries are made from their suppliers. And this is where a large percentage of food waste occurs, along with FIT students ignorantly discarding and dumping edible food into trash cans, which is the other perspective of this issue.
Being wasteful and ignorant, is unacceptable, because at the end of the day these attitudes are contributions to food waste and resources being wasted as well. Which is why it is important to be educated on the causes, impacts, and ways to combat food waste, especially at the FIT campus and other SUNY campuses.
Why and How?
Food wastage occurs in steps and stages evolving from the beginning to the harvesting, and to the post-harvesting stages leading to food ending up in landfills around the world. And within these stages, is the supplier's perspective as well as the consumer and end-consumer's perspective. At FIT, the supplier for food is Aramark, who provides for more than 380 school districts nationwide. Food wastage occurs with them with poor practices, technological limitations, when transporting, and when storing and managing foods; their environmental footprint and use of natural resources creates an even more negative impact. Once the food that FIT ordered gets to the dining hall facility, is where the causes of food waste become more complex as it then delves to the student body and their contributions.
CAUSES FROM EACH PERSPECTIVE
The dining hall staff: poor planning of ordering food (buying more than necessary), overestimating how many students will at the facility per day, not storing foods properly leading to spoiled or expired food thus creating food waste, and providing dining trays to students leading to another cause of food waste from a student's perspective.
FIT Students: piling dining trays will excess amounts of food, overestimating how hungry they really are, grabbing without reading what a dish or food is, buying food for the next day and then forgetting about it in the fridge causing it to become spoiled, poor food-management behaviors, and an ignorant and unaware attitude towards food waste even if concerned with the environment and sustainability.
Luckily, to every problem there is a solution to fix it, or at least reduce it through small, medium, and large innovations. For food waste in particular, the solutions are endless and complex, but for a more specific community like FIT, they can be more easily identified and initiated.
SOLUTIONS
By observing and reading what the dining hall facility is doing on campus to be more sustainable, it is evident that they're not doing enough nor are complying enough with the NY State Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law, which most recently came into play with food wastage. According to Kathy Hochul, the governor of NY, "it is required for large businesses and institutions that generate an annual average of two tons or more of wasted food per week to donate edible food to the maximum extent practicable and to recycle remaining food scraps in an organics recycling facility"(Hochul, Kathy 8, https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/2022foodannualreport.pdf). This means that FIT, an institution, should be donating food that is deemed edible to local food banks, food pantries, or composting food scraps to a recycling facility instead of throwing the food out to the dumpsters at the end of the night, like they possibly are doing since there is no evidence that they donate, composite, or recycle food with the exemption of them only recycling their fryer oil. Solutions and efforts are needed on their end, to be carried out through changes in policy which can include:
Dining hall staff: Ensure proper capacity building, education, training, and extension services at a managerial level, information management for supply outlook, proper storage of foods, promote consumer behavior change at students, eliminating food trays (studies show that trayless dining converts to a 24% reduction in food waste) and divert surplus food to possible management practices (food pantries, compositing, donations, or feeding animals.)
FIT Students: Changing behavior, becoming educated on how being wasteful impacts other various segments, not stockpiling, storing their leftovers properly in a fridge and keeping it in mind to not let it become spoiled and smelly, and spreading the message of food waste to the student body to make action happen at a superior level.
Food waste is unsustainable and unacceptable as it leads to global inequality, the unsustainable use of natural resources, and reduces the availability of food. Although, food leftovers offer a teachable moment, a challenge and an opportunity to help address hunger and solutions in the FIT community. Like at SUNY Cortland, where they kept nearly 63,800 pounds of uneaten food out of Cortland County’s landfill (read more in the link below), there can be creativity and a solution at FIT as said. Which can be developing a food system that tracks how many students enter the dining hall cafeteria per day and how many meals are eaten per day to then accurately calculate the food demand, how much supply must be ordered, and to determine the amounts of food that the dining facility should make per day to ultimately reduce food waste. The system can further involve the dining staff and the supply chain, by tracking and using product availability to track expiration dates and see real-time inventory to prevent from throwing away spoiled food, ordering too much supply, and ultimately reducing FIT's food waste.
A solution like this, requires planning, an outline, or a detailed proposal, which is why I, on May 2nd 2023, have taken the initiative to write proposal letter to the food services director, Jessica Orangeo, who has the power to make a change in policy and attitude. And with our voices as students, we can reach President Brown's office who can send out a message, start a change, and reduce food waste at FIT, or at least create awareness on the issue along with Orangeo.