 "Photo: Carlton Koonce/Echo staff photographer")
On our highways, in our schools and in our malls, food seems to be everywhere we look. The rapid increase in food locations has led to an increase in food waste.
According to the Environment Protection Agency's Web site, "Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year."
Today N.C. Central University's food provider, Sodexo, will host its second "Weigh the Waste" program.
The purpose of Weigh the Waste is to educate NCCU students about the average amount of food waste each person creates daily and the impact of that waste on the environment.
A study by the University of Arizona placed the the amount of food thrown out by restaurants, convenience stores and supermarkets at 27 million tons each year.
The waste will be weighed at the end of two hours and then the amount will be advertised to students to let them know how much is being wasted.
"Weigh the Waste is a day where we weigh all the food waste during a two hour span," said Sodexo marketing manager Tiffany Darden.
Last March, "Weigh the Waste" was held on the busiest day of the week, Chicken Wednesday at NCCU.
According to Darden, NCCU serves roughly 1,555 students in the W.G. Pearson cafeteria (not including take-out) on Wednesdays.
Last year, 691 pounds of food was wasted between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The cafeteria serves roughly 970 students during that period.
"The average person throws 163 pounds of food away each year," said Darden.
"We want to educate students about food waste and the goal for this year is try to cut it down to 100 pounds [wasted] daily," said Darden. Some students think it's a good idea to discover how much food NCCU wastes on a given day.
"I am excited to see it [the waste] get lower, because 691 is a lot," said psychology senior Ginelle Hines.
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