Waste Not, Waste Not

Wednesday I went to Alex's school for Field Day. It was a neat event, and the pre-K kids enjoyed themselves greatly. Alex loved having me there, and it really hit home how important it is for me to keep being a stay at home dad. I can't tell you how happy she was to see me, and how the other kids enjoyed it too. Active parenting is a huge effort, but the benefits are worth that and more.

We ate lunch at the school. The grilled cheese sandwiches had been made early that morning, and the crusts were so hard that I had to pull them off on my sandwich. The kids were trying hard to eat theirs too, but after we tried them the other parents and I took them off for the kids. Also in the lunch were SunChips (better than many other chip choices), a bag of baby carrots, and an apple. Ninety percent of all that stuff went into the trash. I saw a dozen apples without even a bite taken out, and at least that many bags of carrots. One of the mothers told me that when the kids get milk in the morning (many of the kids eat breakfast at school), even if it's unopened it goes in the trash.

Now, I understand why that is. Once it reaches the consumer, it can't be taken back. It's a sanitary issue, and I agree with that rule. Fast food places will throw away your entire burger and make you a new one rather than add pickles to it. It's a good idea. But that's a huge amount of waste for a school! I pay for breakfast and lunch for Alex, and I'm happy to do it. She won't eat before she leaves for school anyway, and she rarely throws food away. But seeing all that food going into the trash, and thinking about how many milks get thrown away unopened every day, makes my mind boggle!

I'm sure there is a way we can use all of that food, at least. Get it separated and we could make a compost pile at the school, or an earthworm farm, or at least give it someone to feed their pigs with. Simply throwing it out is very wasteful, and somehow we've got to make it stop.