Food Waste on College Campus

The Story of Food Waste in University Dining Halls in Pennsylvania

By Miranda Chien

Photo by Esteban Marenco from Daily Collegian

When I was in college, I worked in the dining hall on campus. Due to food safety regulations, we had to throw out a lot of perfectly fine food at the end of the shift. As it is technically illegal for employees to take the food, we could only save a small amount of food compared to the bins of "compose" we had to throw away.

I often think about how all the food could be used for a better purpose than being thrown away. I begin to wonder...

How much food waste is being produced by universities/colleges in Pennsylvania?

20 million tons of food is wasted annually on college campuses across the United States, according to the National Resource Defense Council.

For a typical kitchen trash bin that holds about 13 gallons, the 20 million tons of food waste is theoretically possible to fit in Penn State's Beaver Stadium (capacity 106,572) if stacked, but it would be a tight fit.

Categorizing Food Waste in Pennsylvania

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Sector

The college campus dining hall and all other institution dining options fall under Food Service. Other sectors are: farm produce, manufacturing, residential, and retail.

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Destinations

99% of the food waste either ends up in landfills or incineration. The remaining 1% are: donations, composting, and animal feed.

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Subsectors

The subsector further categorizes Food Service. College campus dining is one of the subsectors. Others are: full-service restaurants, limited services restaurants, lodging, K-12 education, recreation, business and industry, healthcare, caterers, refreshments, corrections, transportation, military, bars and taverns, and others.

According to ReFed's yearly Food Waste Monitor, Pennsylvania's food waste on college campuses has increased yearly.

ReFed's food waste monitor showed the peak of food waste on college campuses in 2018 and 2019. Expectedly, there was a low in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Post-pandemic, the food waste that was created by college campuses has steadily grown back again.

Food waste consistently exists on college campuses and will likely continuously increase.

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Food Types That Got Wasted

A white plate topped with meat and veggies

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Causes of Food Waste

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The largest portion of food type that is being wasted on college campuses in Pennsylvania is prepared food. As the dining hall usually is buffet style, a lot of plate waste is produced.

Additionally, buffet-style dining halls have to pre-make an extra amount of food to ensure the supply will be enough.

Is there a better way to use the extra food that was made but untouched?

round white ceramic plate filled with waffle

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A Call For Action

✅ Understand existing food safety regulations and identify barriers to food donation.
✅ Draft amendments to allow safe donation of surplus food from college dining halls.
✅ Create awareness campaigns around campus to spread the word to students.
✅ Track the amount of food donated and the impact on waste reduction.
✅ Educate peers about the impact of food waste and the importance of food donation.
✅ Foster collaboration between legislators, colleges, non-profits, and students to create a sustainable food donation system.

Reference:

Collegian, S. P. |. D. (2024, September 20). Ranking Penn State’s dining halls. The Daily Collegian. https://www.psucollegian.com/blogs/ranking-penn-state-s-dining-halls/article_d7708d18-76f0-11ef-a874-337457a40149.html

National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). (2024, August 5). Food waste 101. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/food-waste-101#what-is

ReFED - Food waste monitor. (n.d.). https://insights-engine.refed.org/food-waste-monitor?break_by=destination&indicator=tons-surplus§or=foodservice&state=PA&view=detail&year=2023