Our school has assigned a teacher in our school’s dining hall to make sure that nobody wastes food. He is often seen as very assertive about his command. Unless we offer a justifiable explanation for not finishing our meals, he sends us back to our table to clear our plates..

At first, I found this very unfair because he would force us to eat. But later a question came to my mind. Who forces us to take a specific amount of food? The answer justified what he was doing to be right. In fact, two things make us take in more food than we can manage to eat. First, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. Second, we are thoughtless and irrational. If we had expressed our desire to partake a specific amount of food before the kitchen staff, they would certainly have cooperated and given us food accordingly. So, we are the fully responsible people for the wastage of food, aren't we? The wastage of food can be linked with our greedy and apathetic attitudes.

I have seen some people who consider themselves cool at leaving their plate unfinished at public gatherings. Instead, they should consider themselves losers and uncivilized. On the other hand, there are people at parties who pile as many food items on their plate and end up wasting it. It may be because of the greed for food.

So, in order to minimize the food wasting culture, we should start from the individual level by changing our attitudes first. There should also be a culture of shaming the person who shamelessly wastes food. Let us not consider him/her to be cool, shall we? 

Nitisha Basnet

Grade VII

Sanskar Pathshala, Dang