School and meal characteristics associated with plate waste in K-12 cafeterias in the United States

Eunice S. Adjapong, Kathryn E. Bender, Sophia Schaefer, Brian E Roe
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Abstract

Food wasted in primary and secondary education institutions creates nutritional losses, financial inefficiencies, and environmental degradation. While there is some evidence of how particular interventions within schools may influence the amount of waste created, there is little recent information about typical levels of food waste observed in U.S. schools and how these correlate with school and meal characteristics. We analyze data reported by more than 100 schools from 24 states as part of the World Wildlife Fund’s Food Waste Warriors project and identify how plate and beverage waste from school lunches are associated with school and meal service characteristics. We find schools that permit students to choose their own amount of milk report 76% less milk waste than those reliant upon individual milk cartons while schools that implement at least one non-curricular intervention (e.g., a table where students can share unopened) report significantly less produce waste than other schools. We confirm several patterns observed or hypothesized in the literature, including more waste generated by younger students and during the earliest and shortest lunch periods. We document several novel associations including more plate waste at smaller schools, during winter months and in the Northeast region. We find several nuanced patterns of waste related to the prevalence of free and reduced meal service and whether all meal elements are offered versus served. While this study cannot support rigorous evaluation of intervention effectiveness, it provides insights into school and program characteristics that may pose challenges for schools interested in reducing student plate waste.
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与美国幼儿园至 12 年级食堂餐盘浪费有关的学校和膳食特点
中小学教育机构中浪费的食物会造成营养损失、经济效益低下和环境恶化。虽然有一些证据表明,学校内部的特定干预措施可能会影响浪费量,但关于美国学校食物浪费的典型水平以及这些水平与学校和膳食特点之间的相关性,近期的信息却很少。我们分析了世界野生动物基金会 "食物浪费勇士 "项目中 24 个州 100 多所学校报告的数据,并确定了学校午餐中的餐盘和饮料浪费与学校和膳食服务特点之间的关系。我们发现,允许学生自己选择牛奶量的学校比依赖于单个牛奶盒的学校减少了 76% 的牛奶浪费,而实施了至少一项非课程干预措施(例如,学生可以分享未开封牛奶的桌子)的学校比其他学校明显减少了农产品浪费。我们证实了文献中观察到或假设的几种模式,包括年龄较小的学生产生的更多垃圾,以及在最早和最短的午餐时间内产生的更多垃圾。我们还发现了一些新的关联,包括规模较小的学校、冬季和东北地区的学校产生的餐盘垃圾更多。我们发现,浪费的几种细微模式与免费和减免膳食服务的普遍性以及是否提供所有膳食要素与是否提供所有膳食要素有关。虽然这项研究无法支持对干预效果的严格评估,但它提供了对学校和项目特征的见解,这些特征可能会给有意减少学生餐盘浪费的学校带来挑战。
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