Study: 2,850 Pounds of Food Trashed Daily at Dining Halls

At UC Berkeley's dining halls, the old adage of "waste not, want not" seems to have been forgotten.

The sight of half-finished sodas and untouched dinner plates have left some wondering whether students are taking more than their fair share of food.

Approximately 2,850 pounds of food and 357 gallons of soda are thrown away every day, according to a study released by the "Eat the World, Save the Earth" program, which weighed the amount of food wasted in one day at each of the university's four major dining facilities.

At Foothill, the most wasteful of the four dining halls, students threw away 1.29 pounds of food per person, according to the study.

Crossroads and the Clark Kerr dining hall averaged approximately half a pound per person.

The creators of the study hope that showing students how much food they throw away will encourage them to eat what they take-or at the very least, take more moderate helpings at meals.

"We're trying to get away from the ‘stuff yourself' mentality," said Kim LaPean, marketing coordinator for the Residential and Student Services Program and one of the lead organizers of "Eat the World, Save the Earth." "We just want students to be aware of the food they're wasting."

By conserving food, students can help reduce housing and dining fees, since the cost is based on how much food students take, not how much is actually consumed, Cal Dining officials said.

Many students blame their wastefulness on the poor quality of dishes offered at the dining commons. Students say because they don't know which dishes will taste good, they crowd their trays with excessive amounts of food in order to avoid repeat trips to food stations.

Freshman Janet Hong said that she overloads on her initial helpings because going back for seconds is simply too much of a hassle.

"I'm just too lazy to get up again to get more food. If we're getting up, we're leaving," Hong said.

Cal Dining is currently considering several measures for next fall that would curb wastefulness, including smaller trays, such as the size of those used in Crossroads, and improving the quality and variety of dishes overall.

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