The Lug-A-Mug campaign designers proudly advertise our beloved University of Toronto as the greenest university in Canada. Unfortunately, numerous cases of wastefulness are still noticeable on campus, one of which is the meals offered by campus residences.
I went to have dinner at New College a few days ago, and seeing the big garbage can labeled “compost” filled almost to the brim, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of despair. While I was standing there lamenting the huge amount of food waste, a girl walked towards the station with five or six plates. The top one was filled with leftover pasta, beef stew, garlic bread, and desserts. Seeing me standing there, she blushed and mumbled as if trying to exonerate herself, “That was too much; I couldn’t finish it all.”
Indeed, large portions are one of the biggest problems underlying food waste. I do appreciate the cafeterias’ intention to feed the students well but in my opinion, “more” is certainly not better in this scenario. Portion size is a prominent problem for the residence cafeterias because all colleges offer buffet-style meal plans. I have to admit that, after paying $12 for a dinner and being dazzled by the great variety of food available at various stations, I wanted to at least try every single dish. This consumer psychology is probably shared by all buffet-goers and is exactly what prompts some restaurants to enact a policy on paying for leftover food just to prevent over-ordering. However, charging students for leftovers or changing the style of catering is certainly not a feasible solution since they will likely increase administrative difficulties or fail to accommodate students’ different needs.
Fortunately, we have chefs serving main dishes, thus making controlling portion sizes possible. What I noticed at New College cafeteria is that currently, unless students ask for a reduced portion size, the chefs always give out a full plate of food. The solution I propose would be to do things the opposite way: how about giving students a reduced amount to begin with and, if they ask, add more?
Another reasonable way would be to put more efforts into raising awareness about food waste. So far, I have failed to see a single poster conveying messages about this issue; most food-related posters tend to focus on reduced prices, deliciousness, nutrition, and localness. To me, this approach seems to suggest that the poster designers are more inclined to regard students as just consumers, not as members of the University of Toronto community who are responsible for maintaining a green campus. Designing posters specifically for raising awareness or having a campus-wide food waste awareness day (or week) will effectively contribute to filling this gap.
With the money saved, we can either reduce the residence fees or generally enhance students’ experience at the university. For example, as Jonathan Scott reported in the November 14 edition of The Varsity, the Office of Student Life has been frustrated by not having enough funding. As a result of this, it has been looking towards increasing already sky-rocketing student ancillary fees to better support campus clubs and organizations. The amount saved from reducing food waste would be ideal towards this end.
Members of the University of Toronto community should realize that food waste is a problem that has to be addressed immediately because besides the obvious issues, substantial amounts of energy and resources used for manufacturing products and collecting and disposing compost are also wasted. Reducing food waste is therefore an area worth investing energy in in order to sustain a more environmentally-friendly and viable campus.
