OpenIdeo: Reducing Food Waste by Transforming our Relationship with Food.

Food waste is an actual problem that is affecting millions of people around the globe. The need to change the way we consume our food is urgent, it is a challenge for us as a society to address the rising issues that come up with food waste.

In order to change our relationship with food, we need to start small to go big. Every member of society needs to hold themselves accountable and be responsible for their actions.

Socially, 800 million people are undernourished globally, and in the U.S. one in seven people are food insecure. Environmentally, food loss and waste is a massive resource drain, using 21% of U.S. fresh water and generating about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, if it were measured as a country, food waste would rank third in the world for harmful emissions. Economically, food loss and waste globally costs up to $940 billion per year.

"Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry". Pope Francis

Wingate University as an organization needs to change the way they handle with food waste. As an student, I can see everyday food waste not only from the school but the students. People need to be more conscious about their social responsability when consuming goods.

In order to tackle such a growing problem, the University should come up with ideas like:

-Limiting the swipes at the Dining Hall or removing completely the unlimited swipes system. The idea behind it is to add value to every meal so students give value to every plate they get. In this way they would not go crazy and get a bunch of food and not eating the majority of it.

-Create a digital campaign around every display device on campus to give awareness about the disastrous consequences of food waste to the environment and the inequalities in the world.

-Provide guidance towards a balanced diet that contains all nutrients needed and leaving no food waste behind. Many people may have not been tought how to eat properly at home. This guidance may help them to achieve such a goal.

-The dining services managers should start stocking the shelves of the dining facilities from companies like Imperfect Produce, which sell imperfect-shaped vegetables and fruits at a lower price that are not sold by the large companies.

Food waste issue needs to stop. It is our responsability as members of developed countries to rethink about our relationship with food and how we consume it.