Food Waste

[plumtreeblossom]

I'm strongly in favor of paying for fast food by its weight, like you can do at some salad bars (but hardly anywhere else). Being able to order only the amount you actually want should be a more widely available option, as well as the option to order half-portions or share a plate. If more food places operated on this template, we could each pay only for the amount of food we can reasonably eat, and significantly less food would be wasted in a hungry world.

This morning I was out on a work errand in Downtown Crossing, and I stopped into the food court to get some Indian food for lunch. The takeout box contained more food than I could have eaten in two sittings. By the time I was a quarter-way through I was full, and by half-way through I had chicken tikka masala jetting out my ears. But because I had more errands and the rest of the workday at the office, it wasn't practical to schlep the gloppy box through all of that and then home.

I just sat there poking in the leftover food -- a full meal, really -- and thinking about the waste of this perfectly good food that would fill the belly of a hungry person. And of all the other people all over America who can't finish the oversized meal they had to buy because it's one-ginormous-size-fits-all in this country.

I dine-out more often than I dine-in, and bringing home doggie bags is very seldom practical, especially since I don't have a car and am usually not heading directly home after a meal. When I think, over the course of my life, how much food was left on my thousands of plates because the portion was insanely too large for me, and when I imagine it all together and fresh and edible, it could keep a village feasting for weeks. If I think of all the money I would have saved if I'd been allowed to order half-portions, I could afford to travel to that village and deliver the food myself.

Worse are memories of when I was a young person working in restaurants, and the mortifying food waste that regularly happens there. Like at Friendly's (which is anything but) which does *not* donate day-old or surplus food to homeless shelters, for "liability" reasons. I was heartsick when I was forced to dump two gallons of perfectly good chowder down the sink, particularly when I was critically impoverished and nearly homeless myself. At Wendy's, I was glad when it was my turn to take whole bags of burgers that had been sitting more than 30 minutes to the dumpster. That way I'd know where in the dumpster they were when I got off my shift.

So, I left my still half-full container of Indian food on top of the food court trash bin, for homeless or freegans or whoever to take if they wanted. If I'd been able to order half as much, I'd have more money and less food would end up in the garbage, which this box probably did.

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Amen.

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

When I think about it, I carry a plastic container in my purse, the kind a small order of wonton soup would come in, and a plastic shopping bag. They seal very well, and I rarely finish all of my food when I am out. So I put the extra food in there and refrigerate it as soon as I can, putting it in the shopping bag and then into my purse (which is a backpack purse; I lose handbags, and the shoulder bags unbalance my back). This might not work for you...but it might:)

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

This makes me think of another (more compact) possibility: zip-top baggies. The kind that seal reliably, and maybe do two layers.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I could do that on days when I have my backpack, but usually it's just me wee little purse. I think though that I will start bringing my backpack and food storage to dim sum, where whole meals get left behind. :-(

[desireearmfeldt]

Dim Sum is actually an instance of a restaurant where you get to order approximately as much as you want, in theory.

(In practice, what with group-mind and the fast pace of the food carts, it's hard to actually get the amount right. Though the folks I go with seem to be reasonably good at estimating when it's time to stop getting new food.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That's true, actually. I didn't make that connection when I was posting. :-)

[beowabbit]

I think though that I will start bringing my backpack and food storage to dim sum, where whole meals get left behind.

You haven’t been to dim sum with me very often, have you?

(To be fair, sometimes other people order stuff I don’t like. The beef tripe would get left behind, for instance.)

PS — I thoroughly agree with the sentiment in your original post. (Despite the fact that it would have me paying three times as much for food as you do. :-)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

(Despite the fact that it would have me paying three times as much for food as you do. :-)

Yes, as I was looking at the Indian food, I thought "Jay could probably finish all of this."

*kiss to my hungry sweetie!*

[cowgrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree emphatically. I keep leftovers-containers at work so at least I can prevent a little food from being wasted now and then, here at the office. But the restaurant situation really irks me.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It's shocking, at the restaurants. Though some restaurants are very dillegent and gather up all the surplus food they can't sell for the homeless shelter pick-up, many won't for fear of being sued if a perishable goes bad offsite, or more often (particularly with big chains), because they'd rather throw something away than have somebody getting product for nothing.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

You should try the Brazilian "comida por kilo" places that abound around here. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you some suggestions. (Actually, r_ness is better at retaining pertinant info, so I'll probably point you at him...)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

That would be great! (Although I doubt I could eat a kilo of anything in one sitting :-)

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

You don't have to buy a whole kilo. That's the joy of it. You just take what you want. As soon as I can remember where they are (which is to say, as soon as my auxilliary brain, r_ness, comes home, I'll give you a few suggestions. I know there is one down towards Sullivan on Broadway.

[marmota.livejournal.com]

oh yeah; drbitch and frotz introduced me to that place. It's not stellar chow, and it's a diner kind of setting, but getting stuffed on brazilian for what a pizza would cost is a definite win when looking for quick food.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

The Brazilian "a kilo" model is similar to a full buffet. There are several of these places in Allston.

[beowabbit]

Where is “around here”? My favourite one of those was in Kenmore Square, but is tragically closed now. (There’s one in Quincy Center, near where I live, but they were closed for a private party the time I tried to go.)

[marmota.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. I've been trying to get in the habit of asking in restaurants, particularly at lunchtime, if whatever I'm ordering is available in a half-portion... even if I know already the answer is "no", I figure if they get asked often enough, maybe eventually they'll offer it.

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

Portions here are smaller, of course, which means less waste of the kind you rightly deplore. On the other hand, we have in some ways the opposite problem -- insane amounts of packaging waste. The word tsutsumu, which means "wrapping," has a very positive connotation in Japan, and food that isn't "properly" wrapped is seen as an insult to the customer.

I don't mean to piss on anyone's cherished cultural tradition, but it has to stop. It's not uncommon to see for sale a package of Lifesaver-like candy in which, aside from the vacuum-sealed bag iself, each individual 2cm candy has been shrink-wrapped. And then that whole monstrosity is dumped into a plastic shopping bag! Unless, as I try to, you specifically ask the clerk not to.

On top of all that, Japan burns most of its garbage, including all of that lovely toxin-rich plastic. It will be a miracle if Kat's and my babies aren't born with multiple heads.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I've always been annoyed about the wasteful packaging in Japan. It's stopped me from buying things in the past.

Too True!

[heatherp8.livejournal.com]

Oh I SO agree!
Whenever my spouse and I have the rare chance to eat at a food court, we ALWAYS end up schlepping the leftovers home. Really, it's insane how much they give you! One portion is totally enough for TWO--at least!
and I always feel SO guilty if I leave food on a plate.
I was raised on the "children are starving in China" mentality....
but hey- children are starving HERE

[simonbillenness.livejournal.com]

I used to regularly go to that Indian in the Downtown Crossing food court.

I always asked for just a small container of food. That container is about half the size of their default size. It was cheaper and meant I didn't waste any food.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I'll try that sometime! I didn't know the option was available.