Abstract:

Aims & scope:
Food waste becomes a global issue as the result of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption [1]. School canteens in particular are a very relevant source of food waste, as concluded by a large number of studies: diverse quantifications have demonstrated that there is a range of between 46 and 200 g food wasted daily per student [2–5].
Benefits of reducing food waste at schools are threefold: environmental, ethical and economic [6,7] as well as nutritional because it probably means that when eating at school students are not gaining the nutritional benefits they should [8]. Furthermore, schools have been acknowledged as a crucial opportunity to offer education on sustainability and nutrition, having the power to influence present and future consumption patterns.
With this in mind, we designed a research aiming at measuring the degree of school head teachers` awareness on the issue of food waste and to evaluate their potential interest in applying specific reduction interventions. An additional goal of the research was to measure whether school principals consider the canteen to be part of their educational project.

Method:
We employed quantitative research methods, distributing a self-administered questionnaire sent by email to primary and secondary schools in Spain and got 420 valid responses.

Results and discussion:
The majority of school head teachers agreed on the pedagogical purpose of school lunches and the idea of introducing interventions with the goal of reducing food waste was widely accepted. Although only 15% of the respondents to the statement “A lot of food is wasted at school” ranked top two boxes (agree and completely agree), interestingly, a much higher 52% agreed on the need for measuring waste and were interested in performing waste audits.
Food waste reduction initiatives most frequently currently applied in the schools in our sample are noise reduction in the canteen - in order to provide a more comfortable ambience-, flexibilization of portions, caregivers` training and also enhancing composting. Consistently, the noise reduction in the canteen initiative got the highest rate in interest and applicability, closely followed by increasing awareness on the issue among students. Relevant managerial implications are drawn as both catering companies and schools will benefit from a shortlist of recommended interventions.

References:
[1] Mena C, Adenso-Diaz B, Yurt O. The causes of food waste in the supplier–retailer interface: Evidences from the UK and Spain, 2011.
[2] Engström R, Carlsson-Kanyama A. Food losses in food service institutions Examples from Sweden. Food Policy, 2004.
[3] Ferreira M, Martins ML, Rocha A. Food waste as an index of foodservice quality. British Food Journal, 2013.
[4] Smith SL, Cunningham-Sabo L. Food choice, plate waste and nutrient intake of elementary and middle school students participating in the US National School Lunch Program. Public Health Nutrition., 2013.
[5] Byker CJ, Farris AR, Marcenelle M, Davis GC, Serrano EL. Food Waste in a School Nutrition Program After Implementation of New Lunch Program Guidelines. J Nutr Educ Behavior, 2014.
[6] Stuart T. Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, 2009.
[7] Papargyropoulou E, Lozano R, K. Steinberger J, Wright N, Ujang Z Bin. The food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food waste. J Cleaner Prod. 2014.
[8] Wrap. Food waste in schools. Banbury, Oxon; 2011.

Keywords:

Food Waste, Sustainable Development, School Canteens.