Several strategies may lower plate waste in School Feeding Programs

Food Review, Summer-Fall, 2002 by Joanne F. Guthrie, Jean C. Buzby

According to the SNDA-I study, girls who participate in the NSLP tend to waste more food and nutrients than boys. For example, girls wasted 16.6 percent of calories and boys wasted 9 percent. Younger children who participated in the NSLP tend to waste a higher proportion of their food and nutrients than older children. For example, children under 11 years old wasted 14.8 percent of their food, while children age 11-14 wasted 11.9 percent and children over 14 wasted 6.5 percent.

Plate waste in the NSLP varies by food type, with vegetables and salads tending to be the most wasted items according to a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) survey of NSLP cafeteria managers (fig. 1). Although the SNDA-I found few differences among the percentages wasted of most nutrients, the B-vitamin folate, which is found primarily in fresh vegetables and fruit, was most wasted (15 percent), consistent with the types of food most likely to be wasted.

The 12-percent plate waste estimate is derived from a study conducted in 1991-92 and may not reflect current conditions in schools. One of the most important changes in the school foodservice environment in the past decade was the 1995 implementation of USDA's School Meal Initiative (SMI), which modernized nutrition standards for meals served under the NSLP and SBP and placed increased emphasis on nutrition education as a part of the programs. Other foodservice changes that may have influenced meal acceptance, independent of USDA involvement, include an increase in sales of foods and beverages that are not part of the school nutrition programs (see box on outside foods) and increased use of pre-prepared and brand-name foods in school cafeterias. Available plate waste studies predate these major changes and therefore do not reflect their effects.

Several Strategies Can Help Reduce Plate Waste

In light of both individual and day-to-day variations in appetite and energy needs and in tastes and preferences, it is unlikely that plate waste could be completely eliminated in any foodservice setting. School meal programs face special challenges to minimizing plate waste, such as scheduling constraints that interfere with student meal consumption or result in serving meals when children are less hungry, the difficulty in adapting meals to widely varying student energy needs and food preferences, and the availability of substitute foods from competing sources, such as school stores and vending machines. Nevertheless, lowering plate waste promotes efficient program management and can increase realization of the nutritional benefits of school meals, particularly when excessive waste is primarily derived from foods, such as fruits and vegetables, that are underconsumed in comparison with Federal dietary guidance.

If reducing plate waste were associated with encouraging children to eat more calories than they needed and the result was to promote obesity, nutritional benefits would of course be decreased. In such cases, although plate waste represents economic inefficiency, encouraging a child to "clean your plate" may add costs in the form of obesity-related health risks. A more effective approach to plate waste reduction might be to increase meal flexibility. USDA school meal regulations allow several options for increasing meal flexibility, such as using the offer versus serve provision for meal service, allowing children to serve themselves, and more closely tailoring portion sizes to appetites and needs. Other possible strategies for reducing plate waste include rescheduling lunch hours, improving the quality and acceptability of food, and providing nutrition education to school children.