“I am not sure where I got it, but I have always hated the idea of wasting food”
Me eithr. But I think it comes from being the child of parents who grew up in the depression, then had six kids and we were taught to waste nothing.
That pretty much describes my family too.
I do disagree with the Pope that it is like stealing from the poor.
I was brought up by parents who were children of the Depression and WW2 rationing, and my grandparents had been outright poor when they were children, so I grew up with the “don’t waste food” adage drummed into me.
As an adult I decided it was even worse to treat my body as a garbage can, to make myself consume what I didn’t want and what would only make me fat rather than throwing it away. I don’t push the “don’t waste food” on my children either if they don’t want to finish - rather I encourage them to take a smaller portion to start with and then take more if they are still hungry.