I know someone that worked a middle school cafeteria 5 yrs. ago.
The waste then was criminal.
Once a carton of milk was placed on a tray, it was either drunk or to the garbage.
Most of the fresh fruit was tossed.
I asked once why the perfectly good excess food couldn’t be donated to a food bank, homeless shelter, etc.
Can’t do that. Legal liability issues.
I can imagine how much worse it is today.
in Texas..left over food is sent to special dumpsters and bid on by farmers for livestock food...i.e. revenue for the school daily
There was a time when the food scrap garbage would be picked up by a resourceful farmer to feed some pigs but I guess that time has passed, too.
I remember when I was in elementary school, I would toss my milk into the garbage because I did not like Milk yet they kept placing it in my meal. Also pieces of bread, but fries, hamburger, and maybe some fruit on occasion I would eat.
I distinctly recall when in grade school that all the students, when returning their trays would dump uneaten food into a 5 gallon pail. The janitor/maintenence engineer was a local farmer that lived a stone’s throw from the school... and every day the waste would feed his hogs.
French Bread pizza day, the hogs got nothing.
Wow, I am now remembering Monday mornings going to the cafeteria to prebuy lunch tickets... what a deal. I remember milk money... I think the half pints of whole milk were 7 cents.