You have probably seen the colorful My Plate posters in the LVA cafeteria; telling you how much of each food you need for a healthy diet. While these programs aim to reduce food waste, the way MyPlate is enforced in schools often causes more food to be thrown away instead.

MyPlate was designed in 2011 to be used as a more modern way to eat better. MyPlate consists of dairy, grains, protein, vegetables, and fruits. Before MyPlate there was the Food Guide Pyramid. The Food Guide Pyramid was swapped for MyPlate because MyPlate is more customizable if someone has dietary restrictions. 

In a public school, you have most likely heard someone say or see a sign that says, “Take what you will eat,” for this reason, it lowers food waste. In addition, you could have seen the share table, a place where you put the food you don’t want so someone else can take it who wants it. 

Another issue is that you can put it into the share table, but who is actually going to take it? 

Most food in the shared table needs to be refrigerated, and when you leave something out of the refrigerator for so long it will go bad. Having an hour-long lunch period, the food is more likely to go bad and uneaten, and therefore have to be thrown out. 

This is definitely a start to what is needed to reduce food waste, but not everyone wants an item from each of the five food groups so the food that they do not want is still wasted and put into the share table.