Have you ever stopped and thought how many thousands of kilos of food are being wasted and thrown to the garbage every single day? That statistics show that one in every four hamburgers end up in the bin? And on the contrary, how many people dying of hunger?
People gripe about the prices of food in restaurants constantly rising but fail to notice that food waste accounts for a significant part of that cost. I am not talking about a half piece of bacon, or a quarter slice of a bread left - I have seen people leaving platefuls of food enough to feed one human being. I worked in a restaurant when I was a student and I was incharge of throwing food left on tables.
It’s heart breaking and disgusting!
Don’t even start by saying the customer might be on a diet! Smart dieters put food within their diet limits on their trays.
I grew up being told food is a blessing and should not be wasted as there are many others who are not as fortunate as I am, living in extreme poverty and starving. I just don’t get people ordering food and leaving thinking it is ok to waste because they paid for it. As parents, what kind of example are we giving to children?
Let us stop wasting and order wisely, order less and if afterwards should we still feel hungry, we can always order again. Is that too difficult to do?
This writing exercise is fueled by the writing prompt “Things I don’t get” at Sunday Scribblings.
I simply hate it when parents pile their children’s plate to the hilt and majority of it gets thrown.
BTW, my post:
watered down
I hte throwing food away. I keep telling hubby to not put so much on her plate. My thinking is you can always add more to your plate it’s harder to take it off. Now that we are composting I know what little doesn’t gt eaten, or given to the dog lol, will be going into my garden.
I understand what you are saying, and I agree for the most part. However, due to a recent experience I had, I’d like to say something about leaving food in a resturant.
I recently ordered food that I specifically asked to be prepared differently (no spices) than usual. The reason for this was I am allergic to dairy, and this particular establishment had worked with me before, so I thought it was no problem. When the waitress came back, she set the plate in front of me, and started to leave. I looked down, and asked my husband, “does that look like spices to you?” So he asked her, and she said, “Well, the chef assures me there is just a LITTLE on there.” She got very irrate when we explained that a LITTLE spices (which had whey in them) was to a person allergic to dairy like telling her there was only a LITTLE rat poison on it. It was unedible. She took the plate off in a huff, and returned with a new one - the sides were still unedible (they didn’t bother to fix those), and the meat was so tough I could not chew it. We gave up, and left my plate there, filled with food. We recieved dirty looks from people across the asile.
I guess what I’m saying is, sometimes it looks like people are being wasteful, but they have a good reason for leaving food behind. I think resturants need to quit serving supersized plates - we always bag up our leftovers and take them home.
I know your point is the wasteful people in life - and to that, I agree.
And no, I will never step foot in the Texas Roadhouse again.
I too have a thing about wasting food. I am not a big eater and, if I see my plate piled, instantly my hunger reduces and I eat less than usual.
Small portions are inviting and perhaps even healthy.
Gemma
I too get turned off my food when my portions are too big. If more people complain, restaurants will start to listen.
My husband and I are old enough to have had mothers who told us to “think of the starving Africans.” There was a time that this seemed like an old-fashioned sentiment, but now we wee that they were right. Since we both watch our diets for health reasons, we carry small plastic freezer bags or sandwich bags in my capacious purse so that we can corral and left-over food and take it home to be incorporated into future meals. And many of the restaurants we go to will provide take=out containers for left-over food from our plates.
Hi Texasblu,
Thanks for leaving a comment, an insightful one, I may add. It never occured to me that your reason might be one behind people leaving food in restaurants. Thanks for sharing your experience.
And yeah, you should not go back to that restaurant again so you’ll not have to leave your food untouched again.