Food Waste in America
By: Sidra Khan
Every year, an estimated 130 billion pounds of food are thrown away in the United States, which leads to $160 billion in lost value – the same as $500 per capita. In this amount includes 22 million pounds of Kennesaw State University’s campus waste. Kennesaw State University works with the KSU Care Center. The Care services offer support to students who experience homelessness, food insecurity, and foster care system. As a result, the Commons is expanding the campus pantry and expanding the donations.
It is said that food in the United States is cheaper than food in other countries and that is why there is a higher wastage rate than if someone went to France and asked how much food they waste in a day. Roughly fifty percent of produce is thrown away, which is 60 million tons which is about $160 billion annually. This is very scary when you really think about it and as stated before, no one really realizes how much is being wasted.
According to Melissa McMahon, a chef at the Commons at Kennesaw State University, “the chefs at the Commons do an incredible job of minimizing our waste through cooking in small batches, only cooking what’s needed for the volume each day and creatively repurposing food that might have gone to waste.”
McMahon states, “if the staff at the Commons have an extra tray of roasted chicken for example that’s been prepared and properly held, but didn’t hit the line before the end of the day, we repurpose it the following day in a chicken soup or salad.”
Similarly, Mallory Sweet, a student at Kennesaw State University commented, “I cook in portions that I know I can eat so I normally don’t have leftovers. If I ever have leftovers, I end up eating them a different night so I don’t donate them to charity.”
Fruits and vegetables are often culled because farmers think that no one would buy them. Fresh produce is 15% of consumer waste which will cause them to lose $250 billion in the economic activity in the garbage.
In addition, “we compost all of our pre- and post- consumer waste. In August of 2017, an average of 1,600 lbs. of pre- and post-consumer waste were taken to be composted at the end of each day.This includes food waste from the kitchen, the dish return line and whatever is left at the end of the day that can’t be repurposed. We are able to track this through monthly usage reports our composting partner, who weighs each bin before the food waste is taken to be composed. On Friday’s we donate surplus food on the Campus CARE Center.”
Furthermore, Sweet shares, “no I never thought about composting but when it comes to banana peels and that is a food idea. I’ve heard it’s good for gardening.”
There aren’t necessarily composting areas for students to use around the KSU campus, however there is a Kennesaw State University farmer’s market that is managed by the university dining services. The farmer’s market was created to provide KSU with fresh, Georgia grown produce which provides healthy growing practices, encourages healthy lifestyles, and strengthens the local economy.
Sidra Khan, UI/UX Designer with backgound in Journalism and Emerging Media 
