Is Food Waste a Choice?

Trash cans packed with trays full of uneaten food, students wondering if they can place just one more tray on top of the teetering pile—these are familiar sights in the Stuyvesant cafeteria, where food often goes to waste. Every year, in New York City, 3.9 million tons of food scraps end up in the landfill, unable to be properly composted. Stuyvesant students can help decrease this number by being conscious of how much food is on our trays and what items go into which bins.

Food waste is a problem many have heard about growing up but is not talked about enough. “My parents would always tell me not to waste food and would say that kids are starving,” freshman Zara Rao said. Parents and guardians often warn their children about the dangers of food waste at home, but this issue is just as prevalent in school.

All K-12 schools in New York City participate in the Department of Sanitation Curbside Composting program, a program intended to reduce food waste. Despite this, compostable food still ends up in the trash because students fail to place their uneaten food in the designated bins. AP Biology teacher Marissa Maggio explained Stuyvesant students’ disregard for the bin colors has other effects. “My bigger concern, more than food waste, is the fact that we’re not properly composting. A lot of what we send out can’t be composted because there’s plastic in there and other things that aren’t supposed to go in the composting,” she said. Often, students toss their compostable lunch trays into the compost bins along with plastic food packaging, making the entire contents of the bin impossible to compost.

Because of New York City’s Curbside Composting program, residents have been mandated to separate their compost since April 1, 2025. “I do compost at home. My family uses the city’s composting program,” freshman Nishka Pierson said. Pierson is aware of what materials to sort into which bins due to her experience composting at home, but was left confused when she tried to throw out her school lunch. “I tried to sort my lunch [into] the appropriate bins, but when I looked at them, I saw that all of the food and recycling had been mixed up, so I was unaware of the point. I definitely see students disregard the bin types. I think they know where everything goes, but when they’re in a hurry, they don’t pay enough attention or seem to care,” Pierson shared. 

When students take school lunch, they are obligated to pick up three food components. This is because the Offer versus Serve (OVS) program, enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture, mandates that students are offered five meal components at school and that they take three. These components are fruits, vegetables, grains, meats or meat alternatives, and milk. These meal components are key for nutrition and a healthy diet, so it is important that students eat them. Unfortunately, many students don’t want to eat at least three of these components, and this food ends up being wasted. “The lunch ladies force us to get some things we don’t necessarily want to eat. Most people don’t eat it, so we end up throwing it out,” freshman Avril Wei said. The OVS program leads to waste, because while it is possible to require students to take a certain item of food, it is not possible to require them to eat it.

Allowing more deviation from the strict three food component protocol would not only decrease the amount of food ending up in the trash but would also lower the amount of food the school must purchase. “Allow [students] to have more choice in picking what they want to eat. So [students] only take what [they] need,” freshman Indira Pollak said.

The cafeteria staff recognize students’ dissatisfaction with OVS and try to provide alternate options. Cook manager Khadija Eddahbi offers varieties of fruit to give students more food choices: “They don’t want [to take fruit]. They say it’s going to be wasted. We try to [give options], so that way, if they don’t like oranges, they can have a pear.” 

In an attempt to solve this issue of food waste due to OVS, Stuyvesant staff have set up a “share table” where students can leave packaged foods and fruits that they are not eating for others to take. This table has proven successful, allowing abandoned fruit to be eaten throughout the day. Leftover packaged foods are safe to donate because they are unopened and untouched. “If they are packaged, they can probably be reused or given out to another place,” senior Iysis San Andres explained, emphasizing the importance of giving food to those in need outside of the Stuyvesant community. 

However, many in the Stuyvesant community are unaware that the table even exists. “I was surprised by how many students didn’t care about the sharing table in our cafeteria despite seeing it ten feet away from the garbage bin. I even interviewed a student [for a project] who didn’t know what it was,” junior Shana Tam said.

In 2024, the NYC Department of Education created a program that gave schools the option to donate uneaten packaged foods to local food pantries. Stuyvesant currently does not participate in this program.“We did participate [in this program], a couple years ago. There were two students, but they were seniors. They used to take the fruits from the share table. Then they took them once a week on Friday to the pantries. After those two kids, nobody did it,” Eddahbi recalled. Although the share table still exists, leftover food is no longer donated to local pantries. Additionally, other required foods under OVS such as meat, grains, or vegetables are not safe to donate to the share table.

The problem of food waste at Stuyvesant is solvable. Firstly, students can make a difference by carefully sorting different types of waste by following guidelines on signs above the trash, recycling, and compost areas in the cafeteria. Not doing so makes it impossible to recycle or compost properly; when non-compostable material ends up in the compost bins, it may prevent the food waste from being composted and returning nutrients to the Earth. “If students understood the damage caused by putting food in the wrong bin, they would be more likely to care about proper waste disposal,” Pierson said. Stuyvesant students also need to be aware of how much food we are taking that will end up being thrown away. Given the OVS program, students are bound to take some food they will not eat. However, this should not stop anyone from doing their best to save food and think consciously about what is on their trays. Supporting our environment begins with accountability in our everyday practices, and if we all work together, we can make a difference.