I remember tattling on my younger brother to our parents when I was around eight. He had insisted that our baby-sitter remove a brown bit from the banana he had been eating, so she cut off half of the banana and threw the perfectly edible part of the fruit into the garbage. Younger me believed that this act was worthy of some sort of discipline or at least acknowledgement of my little brother’s wrongdoing. Today at Choate, I believe that many people need to acknowledge the fact that they are wastrels, and, even more than that, actually care that the food on their plates doesn’t end up being thrown away.
Choate students can be terribly hypocritical. We dedicate an entire day to Community Service, where students watch a movie intended to educate its viewers about both domestic and international hunger, and for several hours package food to send to those in need in American and Haiti—an experience that is often forgotten in a matter of days. We then head to the Dining Hall, load a plate with food, eat half on what’s piled there, and toss the rest down the conveyor belt. Some might even complain about eating too much food and looking “fat.” Choate students waste so much food that I cannot fathom how many hungry people simply their leftovers could feed.
I watch untouched food leave my line of vision as it rides the conveyor belt into the kitchen, and I can’t help but think about how over-privileged Choate students can be and how little we appreciate what we have.
I waste food sometimes; I won’t lie. But it is a rare occasion, and I always feel bad about it, because food that has been produced to nourish me is just going in the trash. Some students waste food like it’s no big deal: plates full of untouched food perpetually crowd the conveyer belt—even a bowl of fresh raspberries seems to not appeal to certain “high-class” students among our ranks.
Some students even waste food that they spend their parents’ or their own hard-earned money to buy. Garbage cans in the Lanphier Center are littered with half finished lattes, espressos, and milkshakes, along with near-full containers of fruit. When some students order take-out, they choose to discard the leftovers rather than wrap them up for later.
Like the movie of Service Day told us, the world has enough resources for no one to suffer from food insecurity. Hunger is a universal problem; we can’t pretend that there aren’t people starving in other countries, in other states, or right down the street. Though small actions made by individuals may not be able to directly reduce hunger around the world, those who are fortunate enough to be food-secure should at least be more appreciative of what they have. I grew up with food on my plate and a roof over my head, but so many people did not; in my opinion, it’s downright disrespectful to take the opportunities, so arbitrarily given to us, for granted.
The C-Proctors try to encourage clean plates, but clean plate raffles are not strong enough incentives for kids to finish all the food on their plates. Members of a community need to look within themselves to reduce waste. I genuinely feel like a bad person when I waste even a small piece of food, and I am often unable to comprehend how other people don’t feel the same.
Thinking about the food we’re putting on our plates before we actually put it there can really help us reduce our waste. If you don’t think you’re hungry enough to eat a whole waffle, don’t make a full one; if you think the Brussels sprouts look amazing, still only take a couple so you can taste it and then see if you like them. Be conscious of the food you put on your plate.
