Students study dining hall food waste

Norman worked with Senthil Rajamani, director of dining services, to develop the assignment. She said the goals of the project were to raise awareness of the carbon emissions from food waste and measure the specific amount of waste from the dining hall.

“You don't know what you don't know, and so if everyone is a little more conscious, improvements can be made,” Norman said.

The students were divided into three groups that each measured a different mealtime and recorded that meal’s food waste during a three-day period.

Food waste for breakfast was an average of 14.83 pounds or a total of 44.5 pounds for three days. Over the three days, 95, 91, and 87 individuals checked in for breakfast.

For lunch, there was an average of 43.5 pounds of food waste during three days. The cafeteria served 215, 216, and 215 individuals during the three days included in the study.

Food waste at dinner was an average of 33.16 pounds during the three days for a total of 99.5 pounds of food. The number of students served was not available.

Through the assignment, Norman said students were able to get a closer look at the inner workings of the dining industry and gain a new perspective.

In their final reports, students suggested ways to decrease food waste such as ensuring food is cooked well and to the student’s taste, serving smaller portion sizes, raising awareness of the problem of food waste through digital and print media, and offering incentives to students to waste less food.

The students also proposed reasons for the food waste including student dislike or dissatisfaction with foods, student overestimation of appetite, and large serving sizes.

Rather than being discarded in the dumpster, the 274.5 pounds of food waste measured in the study, along with dining hall food waste, is donated to local farmers as compost.

—Abigail Swanson, College Relations