McNary Heights’s FoodCorps members, along with the help of the student leadership team and parent volunteers from the Umatilla Parent Club (UPC), conducted their first food audit of the school year on November 1, 2023.
MHES conducted a food waste audit to gather valuable insights on the types and amounts of food that go to waste. This information can be used to identify which foods are popular among students and which ones are not, allowing nutrition staff to create meal plans that help reduce food waste.
The process involved setting up a food-separating station. The station was set up with five labeled buckets for main meals, vegetables, fruits, and milk. Once students finished their meals, they simply dropped off their trays at the station for the food waste team to sort the leftovers into the appropriate buckets. The team then weighed and recorded the amount of food in each container, repeating the process after every lunch for each grade level.
Students are presented with a choice of two main meal options every day. During the audit, the options included tuna sandwiches and chicken nuggets. Additionally, students have the freedom to select from a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, with vegetables and milk being optional.
At the end of the audit, MHES found that 139.6 pounds of food were thrown away! This is a big difference from their first food waste audit last school year, where they threw away 275 pounds of waste. MHES plans to continue to keep this number down by conducting food waste audits to encourage students to finish all their foods. Another possible way MHES plans to reduce waste is by teaching students about serving sizes and ensuring students know there are salad bar seconds.
Below are graphs showing how much waste was collected per food item and grade level.
