Better Than You Know

By Leslie Gilsdorf

Source: Getty Images

The steam curled around my face as I peered into the greenish, translucent liquid in my black mug. It smelled of nature and tasted even more like it. Bitter.   Sweet. Lively. The flavor took an adjustment,  it was an acquired taste. I did not love the flavor, but I kept taking sips from my black mug–something kept bringing me back, to take another sip, and another, and another, just to see if it was something deserving of my enthusiasm or only worth pouring into the nearest drain. I had heard about this new drink from a few places, it had surfaced on the pop-up advertisements of my Instagram, and an occasional friend would make a remark about how amazing this peculiar green substance was. I took another sip, trying to make it last long enough to again decide if I enjoyed its flavor, and soon enough my curiosity drained my cup.  It sent me on an adventure to find out what this unfamiliar tea, Yerba Mate, really was. Was it worth the social media rave, what was it, and where did it come from? In my research, I not only discovered the intricate history of yerba mate, but also how it is produced and who is the leading producer and why, and finally the plethora of health benefits that drinking Yerba Mate has on the body that simply makes Yerba Mate the perfect beverage for every CSU student and faculty. 

First, let me tell you how Yerba Mate originally started…

Source: Getty Images

A long time ago, before social media, before the internet, before the United States, and back to a time more aboriginal than the 1300s, to a tribe in Guatemala where Yerba Mate was the drink that upheld the culture of the Guarani tribes. Yerba Mate’s beginnings are rooted in the traditional Guarani tales of companionship, and friendship that surrounded the rich tea from its infancy. The most popular legend begins on a torrid day when a very weary traveler came to the home of an elderly man and his daughter in the middle of the Guarani jungle. The traveler was warmly welcomed by the old poor man, and despite barely having enough to feed and nourish himself, the old man invited the traveler into his home to stay with him and to share a scanty meal.  It was small, but the old man gave whatever he could to the traveler so he could be on his way revived and refreshed. The next morning before the traveler left, he gave the old man a gift as a repayment for the old man’s friendship and hospitality. It was a tree, the Yerba Mate tree. Unbeknownst to the old man, the weary traveler was the god Tupi, the creator god, and in other versions of the story, he was thought to be the god of the moon. The legends of its healing power and stability carried the wonder of Yerba mate and spread it far and wide through South American countries and the people began to drink it routinely. But then came the Spanish Jesuits, who after coming to South America and taking governorship over the areas the Guarani people lived in, the Spanish governor Hernando Arias de Saavedra in 1616, took particular notice to the native Guarani peoples mass consumption of Yerba Mate and declared it a vice. He did not understand the wonder of Yerba Mate and feared that it had some power he did not know of, and he outlawed its consumption.  But before long, despite Hernando Arias de Saavedra’s rule, the Spanish and the natives were all rapidly consuming Yerba Mate. Before long it had spread back to Europe. Yerba Mate began to enter high-class society and trade routes were established for it to be enjoyed in more and more places. It became increasingly popular throughout Europe and even began its spread to Asia. And since that point, its popularity has grown. It has especially grown in the last ten years in the United States, which is how it caught my attention,  and most likely yours too. 

And as for the production of Yerba Mate…

Well, from early in the timeline of Yerba Mate, Argentina has been the largest producer of it and has named it their national drink. Most of the Yerba Mate is produced commercially instead of being picked by rummaging through the forest clipping the bright green leaves and stems. Through both commercial production and smaller farms, Argentina produces some 245,000 tons per year, feeding the large South American appetite for this beverage (Circle of Drink).  The average Argentinian consumes about six kilograms of Yerba Mate per year, per capita, which is less than the average consumption of Yerba Mate in Uruguay which is nearly ten kilograms of Yerba Mate per year, per capita. The production process of Yerba Mate commences with the young plant, the seedling, who is nourished and grows into a leafy green shrub with white flowers. When the plant has matured (about 5-7 years after the plant originally sprouted), the tender leaves and stems are harvested, bagged and weighed and transported to a processing facility. Once, bags of leaves and stems are in the facility, a process of blanching begins. The leaves and stems are placed directly over either wood or petroleum burning fires as hot as 500 degrees celsius for ten seconds or as long as three minutes. This process breaks the epidermis and stomata in the plant and stops the leaves from oxidizing and deactivate leaf enzymes. The next step is drying, where the leaves are put into chambers where smoke, which contributes to the changes in its chemical makeup and physical appearance,  and heat of a hundred degrees celsius are used to dry the leaves until they only have about 4% humidity left in them. This part of the process takes eight to twenty-four hours to complete. The last step before the mate is packaged and sent on its way to the customer is aging, yes mate is aged similarly to how wine or other liquors are aged. The dried leaves are put into cedar or cement aging chambers for as long as twelve months in order to develop the rich (and somewhat bitter) flavor of mate. And the last step is for them to be milled to the desired size and packaged for the next consumer, Instagram influencer, or curious individual to pick it up off of the shelf.

But why should you drink it?

And for the person who does pick it off the shelf, perhaps a CSU student a faculty member… is the nearly ancient drink they have heard of down the line of Instagram feeds and friends actually good for them? Well, so far the studies are saying that it is, and even saying that it has more benefits than traditional green tea. In a study done to evaluate a pool of men and women struggling with obesity and untreated dyslipidemia, they found that after eight weeks of intervention, that being a daily consumption of yerba mate, green tea, or apple tea (control group)  of 100mL, those who consume yerba mate resulted in an increase of antioxidant capacity in patients and an increase of HDL cholesterol. It has also been shown to contain the perfect amount of caffeine, but unlike other caffeinated beverages (specifically coffee or energy drinks) yerba mate has been shown to be a central nervous system stimulant, providing clarity of mind and steady energy levels throughout the day and not jitters or headaches (Mejia). The benefits of yerba mate tea go on. I am quite convinced that the Guarani people instinctively knew something about the tea that we did not know. The Guarani tribe attributed much of their survival and well begin on this drink so much that it was believed another  Brazilian army survived on solely mate for three weeks. I am by no means suggesting that anyone tries to just survive on yerba mate, however, for the average college student stressed with school, frustrated, tired and needing a source of energy to keep them engaged and to finish their tasks and assignments without the jitteriness that comes along with our beloved, but possibly not so good for us, coffee, yerba mate just might be the solution. It is served in our dining halls on the CSU campus, which is, in my opinion, one of the better choices that CSU has made in regards to food on campus. It is good for the students, it can help them study and focus, and I can attest to the lightness and clarity that I generally feel after drinking yerba mate, even if I find its taste somewhat questionable. But what is more important is that yerba mate was originally based on friendship and hospitality, and what if the students at CSU knew the story behind Yerba Mate, what if it brought them to sit and dine in friendship and hospitality more often, to enjoy each other’s company more often. It is, after all, the drink of friendship.

About the Author: Leslie Gilsdorf

I grew up drinking tea, but coffee, coffee was what I started drinking at the age of two. I used to steal my mother’s mug of coffee off the glass table in our living room, and proudly swallow most of the mugs continents. I am convinced that is the reason I am two inches shorter than any of my four other sisters. And so it was from a very young age that I developed a passion, if you call being an avid drinker of tea and coffee a passion, for the exploration and enjoyment of hot beverages. And now I am here, on the CSU campus in my first year of college, and it was here that I discovered Yerba Mate. Aside from my love for hot drinks, I am an artist, a creative, multi-passionate individual, and a big-picture thinker. My path, as far as a major and a career, well, I am so far undecided in that. 

Sources

Balsan, Guilherme, et al. “Effect of Yerba Mate and Green Tea on Paraoxonase and Leptin Levels in Patients Affected by Overweight or Obesity and Dyslipidemia: a Randomized Clinical Trial.” Nutrition Journal, BioMed Central, 19 Jan. 2019, https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-018-0426-y. 

Circle of Drink. “The History of Yerba Mate (1500-2015).” YouTube, commentary by David Askaripour, Jun. 23, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7mwVnVZdSA

Garsd, Jasmine. “Tea Tuesdays: Gift Of The Moon, Bane Of The Spanish – The Story Of Yerba Mate.” NPR, NPR, 17 Mar. 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/03/17/393355841/tea-tuesdays-south-america-runs-on-yerba-mate. 

“Harvesting and Processing.” Harvesting and Processing Yerba Mate, https://matefactor.com/learn/harvesting-and-processing/. 

Mejia, E.G. De. “Yerba Mate Tea (Ilex Paraguariensis): A Comprehensive Review on Chemistry, Health Implications, and Technological Considerations.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (10.1111), 17 Oct. 2007, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1750-3841.2007.00535.x. 

“The Secrets of Mate – ‘The Drink of Friendship’.” Pampeano, https://www.pampeano.co.uk/journal/secrets-mate-drink-friendship. 

Picture Sources

1. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi6ncbN0pLmAhVQo54KHfCcAUgQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.istockphoto.com%2Fphotos%2Fyerba-mate&psig=AOvVaw2oechcDP_MQm4qVdTMtkV1&ust=1575227699938373
2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjqk56E05LmAhWCtZ4KHVsgB_UQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fridingthedream.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F04%2Fland-of-yerba-mate-little-history.html&psig=AOvVaw1_FDsBuIKx02u71xIcX5UC&ust=1575227809742264
3. https://www.google.com/search?q=yerba+mate+antioxidants&rlz=1CASOCA_enUS855&sxsrf=ACYBGNQH_BQCk3VlOb1j3_gFEh8GUBXD7g:1575432287455&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKyvHOjpvmAhWJuZ4KHSD9CU0Q_AUoAnoECBEQBA&biw=1410&bih=837#imgrc=KVmyYEHFXkeFuM:

Eliminating Food Waste in Larimer County

By Taryn Smith

We have been told for years that composting is an innovative solution to our environmental crisis. It is a natural process that doesn’t release as much methane as regular land fill. Composting food instead of throwing it in with regular landfill helps improve soil structure, maintain moisture levels, and keep your soil’s pH balance in check. Composting has proven time and time again to be less detrimental to our world than landfill and recycling. But what if there was a better solution that can be made with the food that may be composted? What if there was a way we could use that food to encourage food security in our very own community?

Food Insecurity In Larimer County

            Right here in Larimer County, Colorado, food insecurity is more common than one would think. According to the Larimer County Food Bank, 40,200 residents in this area are food insecure and 33% of school-aged children in our county receive free or reduced meals. The projected amounts of meals that are required to feed every resident in Larimer County are increasing every year, and yet, this issue is rarely talked about. One would think that the need for this conversation would be recognized by political figures, but instead, the Food Bank itself is the primary organization that is speaking out for this food crisis. School-aged children don’t know where their next meal is coming from; 8.4% of seniors in Fort Collins and Loveland are food insecure; 30.8% of single mothers live in poverty.

            This is not an issue that should be ignored. As a community, we need to be able to support these families that may be struggling to get the appropriate amount of food. When looking around the supermarket, there are so many options on what to purchase and a majority of our population has the privilege to choose out of the variety. However, there are people and families that are forced into a situation where they have to live off the dollar menus at fast food restaurants or have to make the decision to buy good healthy food, or their own medications. While organizations have been created to support these families including Hunger Free Colorado and We Don’t Waste, no initiatives have been brought to the public eye in order to help this issue.

Source: Hunger Free Colorado

What can CSU do to Help?

            At Colorado State University, residential dining halls and the Lory Student Center pride themselves in sustainability. You can’t walk 500 feet without running into recycling or compost bins and many of the cups and napkins handed out are made from recycled materials. The issue present in these areas on campus lies in the compost. At the end of the night, the residential dining halls throw all of the food that is not eaten into a compost bin and it is sent to “The Windrows” or landfill. Many people believe that if there is food in a compost bin, it means all of it goes right back into the soil, but it isn’t the truth. Much of the compost goes to the exact same place landfill does, it is just seen as “better” because it lets off less greenhouse gas. These dining halls usually have so much food left over at the end of a meal period that it could result in a couple meals for people who may not have access to it. So why are we saying that composting is the solution when food is still being thrown away?

            I believe that institutions like Colorado State University should be more aware and receptive towards the hunger crisis we have going on in our state and county. Taking the leftover food and throwing it into a bin is not good enough; we can save that food and donate it to Food Banks or other organizations that will provide more access to the food insecurity in Larimer County.

My Experience with Food Insecurity

            I have had the honor of volunteering at the Matthews House, an after school program for at-risk youth, and it has shocked me how hungry the kids are when they get there. Although the budget provides us to offer them snacks every day, they are not the healthiest options. We can offer them graham crackers, or goldfish, and occasionally cheese sticks and bananas. The kids I have been working with explain that they have barely eaten all day, they are on the free and reduced lunches at school but aren’t able to have breakfast in the morning and they talk about the small chance they will have dinner. Seeing the effects myself, I can’t understand how this isn’t a more prominent issue in the public. There are even some kids there that say how hungry they are, but then refuse to eat the food we offer them because they feel guilty for taking it. Food should not trigger guilt in children, especially with the necessities they need from it in order to develop efficiently.

            An after-school program may not be prioritized by organizations, but it proves the point that more action needs to be done. If Colorado State University would save some of the food they have leftover at each meal period and only compost the bits of food that have been touched and cannot be made into a meal, and donated those meals to schools or food banks, we would be supporting the community more than just throwing all the food left over into landfill. A university like CSU who prides themselves on community-focused ideals as well environmentally conscious could easily do this to contribute to the campaign to end hunger in Larimer County.

Donating Meal Swipes

            Another option that Colorado State University could pursue that will appeal to the struggling community would involve students’ meal swipes. There is already a student-initiated organization on campus called Rams Against Hunger that is advertising donating a meal swipe or snacks from the express locations and I think that is an excellent precursor to the amount of service we can give to the food insecurity in Larimer County. I think the next step could potentially be automatically donating meal swipes that are left unused at the end of each period. I know personally, sometimes I don’t end up using all of the swipes I have loaded onto my RamCard and I end up losing them since they don’t roll over. I believe many people would be on board with having their meal swipes automatically donated to the student-led organizations on campus to allow them to donate more food and snacks to schools or other institutions that need the food access. Regardless of the way the food is donated, I believe that CSU can be more efficient in the way it handles the food in dining halls and the student center.

In Conclusion

            While composting has many benefits, it still requires throwing lots of food into landfill when it could go towards addressing the issue of food security in communities. As far as Colorado State University goes, I strongly believe that residential dining halls and the Lory Student Center should save the food that has been left untouched instead of composting all of it, and as a university, we should donate that saved food to organizations that strive to end the hunger crisis in Larimer County. A smaller step that could be taken if needed would be to build off the student-initiated organizations that involves donating meal swipes to putting all of those leftover meal swipes to use and automatically use those to help avoid food insecurity in our county.

About the Author

            I am a first year Human Development and Family Studies major at Colorado State University. I have been very passionate about human services, leading me to pick a topic addressing the needs of the people when addressed with food inequality. As someone who focuses on helping others, I have realized the effect food has on an individual as well as what others can do for them in relation to food distribution.

References:

Colorado’s Current Hunger Stats. (2017, February 11). Retrieved from

https://www.wedontwaste.org/colorados-current-hunger-stats/.

Composting. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.fm.colostate.edu/recycling.

Guiden, M. (2017, July 27). Campus composting efforts expanding. Retrieved from

https://source.colostate.edu/campus-composting-efforts-expanding/.

Hunger in Larimer County – Food Bank for Larimer County. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://foodbanklarimer.org/hunger-in-larimer-county/.

Rams Against Hunger: Lory Student Center. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://lsc.colostate.edu/slice/slice-engagement/rams-against-hunger/.

The Facts: Hunger in Colorado. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.hungerfreecolorado.org/hungerfacts/.

Slowing Down: Exploring the Reason Why We Should All Learn to Eat Slower.

By Ashlyn Hillyard

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Ever since I can remember, going out for family dinners were always made into somewhat of an awkward situation. This is due to the fact that while both my dad and brother are exceptionally fast eaters, on the contrary, my mother and I are relatively slow eaters. Whenever we decide to go out to a sit down restaurant, my dad and brother consistently manage to inhale their meals in a time frame of less than five minutes. This is extremely frustrating as at the same time my mother and I are trying to enjoy our meals – which we have barely made a dent in – the waiter has already collected their plates and is eagerly standing at our table side with the check. I can recount this one time when we went to a buffet-style pizza restaurant and by the time I finished my first slice of pizza, my dad and brother had already devoured three whole plates of food each! While this appears to be just a minute issue relating to preference and habit, eating fast is actually associated with numerous health issues. This is especially an issue in America where as a society we are rushed, distracted, and too-busy. Most people here, especially college students, eat fast, not just fast, really fast. We rarely take the time to savor our food, or sometimes even chew it properly. We are always in a rush to move onto our next task, and as a result, we place food on the back burner; this is resulting in a wide range of adverse effects on our health. 

How can eating fast be harmful?

Statistically, fast eaters are three times more likely to be overweight. Appetite and satiety are regulated by the stomach, small intestine and a complex array of hormones and brain chemicals, but research shows that it takes around fifteen to twenty minutes before the brain actually realizes that the stomach has received enough food and the brain sends out a “satiety” signal. This is an issue as the average American consumes a meal in a time frame of eleven minutes with some breakfasts and lunches lasting less than two minutes. This results in overconsumption and excess caloric intake which overtime can contribute to increased waist lines and even obesity. Research presented at the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, showed that when overweight women slowed down their normal eating pace, they unconsciously consumed fewer calories. In another study from China, they found that people reduce their calorie intake by more than ten percent if they chew their food forty times compared to fifteen times. 

While not all speed eaters are necessarily overweight, fast eating is also linked to a whole slew of other health problems including: insulin resistance, type two diabetes, metabolic syndrome, poor digestion, and even lower food satisfaction. In regards to poor digestion, speed eating tends to equate to lazy chewing. A lot of us, including myself at one point in time, are guilty of simply swallowing our food as fast as possible without adequately chewing, and we often quickly follow it with a beverage to wash it all down. These are the key ingredients for acid reflux and indigestion. Chewing more helps to digest your food as your saliva has enzymes that both lubricate and start digesting what you eat and allows your taste buds to “notice” the meal. 

Fast eating also tends to reduce your mental satiety while over doing your physical satiety resulting in bloating and dissatisfaction. Eating should be an enjoyable process, not something that is merely rushed through. Eating slower enhances the pleasure of eating and increases the pleasure principle.  If you simply double the amount of time it takes you to consume a meal, you will be able to experience more of the flavors, textures, and smells of the food you eat; your food will become more interesting.

How can you easily slow your eating pace down?

It is true that eating slowly and taking smaller bites can be very difficult to do, especially as busy college students, but at times when you are very busy, scheduling “nourishment breaks” into your day can actually relieve stress and increase satisfaction. With practice and a few easy tips, you can learn how to be more conscious and slow down. First, avoid extreme hunger by consuming regular meals and snacks throughout the day with a healthy balance of micronutrients. This will help control your hunger cues. When we are famished we tend to consume our food too quickly and too much of it. Secondly, avoid eating on the go. I know this can be difficult especially when we are constantly on the move heading to classes, but inhaling your food on the way to class can mess with your satiety signals. Dedicating even just fifteen minutes designated specifically to eating keeps your mind present and allows satiety signals to be accurately interpreted by your body. Thirdly, avoid distractions, especially your cell phone. Twenty minutes away from social media is not going to kill you. Try to be present with your food; notice the flavors, textures, and most importantly, enjoy what you are eating. Food should be a pleasurable experience. Fourthly, be more social. By taking more time to consume a meal, it allows you to interact with your friends for longer which in turn improves relationships and makes you feel more connected.

How can slower eating create a more sustainable CSU?

Not only can reducing the speed of your consumption create a healthier version of yourself, but also a “healthier” more sustainable version of Colorado State. Eating slowly does not just make you feel full quicker, but also inherently reduces the amount of food you consume and waste. Currently, the world population consumes around 10% more food than it needs, while almost 9% of it is thrown away or left to spoil. We all know that eating too much is bad for our health, but is it bad for our planet as well? The answer is a resounding “yes!” Research published in Frontiers in Nutrition, suggests that direct food waste (food thrown away or lost from field to fork) is nothing compared to food wasted through eating excess calories. The World Health Organization revealed that the overall impact of Metabolic Food Waste (an index created to measure the ecological impact of obesity) in the world is 140.7 gigatons of food waste, with Europe and North America having the highest ecological impact for water, land and carbon footprints. This is astronomically higher than current annual direct food waste, which is estimated at 1.3 billion tons. However, we have the power to help reduce this number by simply eating slower. For example, when you are eating at the dining halls, instead of grabbing three plates of food and then scarfing it all down as quickly as you can, try starting with one plate and eating it slowly. I can guarantee you will feel fuller, more satisfied, and avoid overconsumption. I am in no way saying that you should significantly reduce your calorie consumption as this can lead to the development of eating disorders such as anorexia, etc., I am merely saying that for those of us who tend to overconsume, eating slower can help alleviate this problem and reduce food waste. 

So take a note from the Europeans who love to linger for hours over their meals! After all, it can not hurt. And with any luck, you will learn to eat less while you simultaneously take more pleasure in the taste of your delicious and (hopefully) nutritious meals, and build healthier relationships along the way. 

🙂 

About the Author

Hi, my name is Ashlyn Hillyard and I am currently a freshman at Colorado State University studying computer science with an emphasis on pre-Vet. I run cross country and track for CSU and absolutely love it! I am also a mom of two hamsters who takes a particular interest in maintaining a sustainable and healthy lifestyle. 

Works Cited:

Breyer, Melissa. “Overeating Is Really Terrible for the Planet.” TreeHugger, Treehugger, 23 Aug. 2019, https://www.treehugger.com/health/overeating-terrible-planet.html.

Stibich, Mark. “Can Eating Too Fast Negatively Affect Your Health?” Verywell Fit, Verywell Fit, 11 Sept. 2019, https://www.verywellfit.com/benefits-of-eating-slowly-2223827.

Trudy Williams Nutrition & Dietetics Pty Ltd. “Why Speed Eating Is Bad for Your Health and Tips to Slow Your Pace down.” Why Speed Eating Is Bad for Your Health: Tips to Slow Your Fast Pace down., https://www.foodtalk.com.au/contents/en-us/d66_how-to-slow-down-fast-speed-eating.html.

Winderl, Amy Marturana. “Why It’s A Problem That You Eat Too Fast.” SELF, SELF, 13 Sept. 2016, https://www.self.com/story/why-eating-too-fast-is-bad.

Zelman, Kathleen M. “Slow Down, You Eat Too Fast.” WebMD, WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/slow-down-you-eat-too-fast.

Images:

Depositphotos, Inc. “Thin and Fat Woman Eating Food.” Depositphotos, Depositphotos, https://depositphotos.com/57807857/stock-illustration-thin-and-fat-woman-eating.html?utm_source=Adme&utm_medium=freesub&utm_campaign=RU-brand.

Martell, Nevin. “If You’re Going to Give Your Kids an IPad at Dinners Out, Don’t Bring Them to Restaurants at All.” Washingtonian, 28 Sept. 2017, https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/09/28/if-youre-going-to-give-your-kids-an-ipad-at-dinners-out-dont-bring-them-to-restaurants-at-all/.

Every Last Grain of Rice

By: Maddie Daniels

I can hear my grandmother’s thick accent saying, “growing up, people ate every last grain of rice on their plates”. I can feel my grandfather’s nod of agreement.

Source: Getty Images

Why Do My Grandparents Hate Waste?

My grandmother grew up in The Netherlands in the midst of World War II, when food was very limited for her family. Her father was killed in the war when she was nine years old, and the government did not provide any sort of compensation for her family. She was grateful for every bit of food she was given, and it would be viewed as the epitome of entitlement if she were to waste even the tiniest morsel of food.

The same was true for my grandfather. In his culture, wasting food was not only seen as ungrateful, but it was also a great sign of disrespect to the chef. Later in his childhood, wasting food was not an option. He was placed in a containment camp with his mother and siblings, while his father was placed in an internment camp. This change made access to food a much bigger challenge, further instilling the value of never wasting.

My grandparents passed these values onto my Dad, who taught them to my brother and me. I have very clear memories of my Dad telling us how we need to clear our plates. In my family, my parents encourage my brother and me to limit our overall waste as well. This can be done in a variety of ways: turning off lights, limiting water usage, and eating all of our food. Although I am lucky enough to say that my family does not struggle to have enough food, that does not mean that we take it for granted. So I talked about how my grandparents hate wasting, why my Dad hates wasting, and why I hate it, but why should you prevent waste?

Why Is There Food Waste?

Looking at food waste, food loss occurs at many levels: production, transportation, retail, and with the consumers themselves. I’ve come to realize that a majority of people only care to reduce their waste when it is a time of need. In the case of my grandparents, they had no other option but to consume all of the food they were given. Plenty of other people only cut down on water and electricity in an effort to lower their utilities bill for the month. In a lot of cases, people will only choose sustainability when it directly and immediately benefits themselves. In the United States, most people are fortunate enough to be free from worry about food availability. I find that this privilege often times leads to an excessive amount of waste, food waste in particular.

Source: Union of Concerned Scientists

How Much Food is Really Wasted?

In the United States, it is estimated that about 40% of food goes to waste every year  We’re wasting almost half of the food that we have, and it’s costing us. Losing food is the equivalent of losing money, more specifically, losing 165 billion dollars each year. Just on the consumer level, 21% of food is wasted, which adds up to an astonishing 90 billion pounds of food lost annually.  In a world where so many people are malnourished, how can we be wasting so much food?

Source: Next Generation Food

Why Does Food Waste Matter?

One of the major worldwide problems we face is the lack of food distribution. There is food injustice when it comes to who has access to food and how much food they have access to (Coveney 2008). We live in a world where there is enough food to feed 10 billion people, yet around 16% of the population is malnourished. These statistics point to serious issues with food distribution- the problem is clearly not due to a lack of food in the world, rather it is because the abundance of food does not reach everyone who needs it.

Source: Next Generation Food

Food distribution is a huge issue on a global scale, but it is also a problem within individual countries. In the United States, one in six people do not have secure access to food. Due to a lack of food distribution, just a 15% reduction in food waste would provide enough food to feed over 25 million Americans. So much food goes uneaten, yet so many people go hungry. Something needs to be done to improve food distribution.

Another prominent issue with food distribution in more developed countries is the hunger-obesity paradox. The hunger-obesity paradox refers to the vast number of people who suffer from hunger, but also suffer from obesity. Obesity is a major problem in the United States, with around 90 million adults being affected, meaning that about 40% of adults are affected. It’s disheartening to know that almost half of the adult population in the United States has been affected by obesity at some point in their lives, yet many of those people go hungry.

What Can You Do to Reduce Food Waste?

The best thing to do is to avoid creating waste, but that can seem to be nearly impossible sometimes. But is it really impossible? I’ll explain a few ways that everyone can take to help prevent food waste. People can make an effort to only purchase what you will cook and only cook what you will eat. Try to make as much of your own food as you can, since there is a lot of food waste in restaurants. If possible, store food effectively, so that it does not go bad as quickly. When there is food waste, look to hunger-relief organizations that accept donations, or compost the food. Overall, reducing food loss is a two-part effort: trying to limit waste in the first place, and if food loss is unavoidable, then it is important to dispose of the waste in the best way possible.

What Can Colorado State University Do to Reduce Waste?

Just walking around the dining hall, you can see plates full of discarded and uneaten food that are pushed to the side. Walking through the food disposal area, plates are piled high with perfectly good food, waiting to be dumped into the compost bins. I think the main reason for this is because of the buffet style dining halls. In any all-you-can-eat situation, it is natural to take more than you need. Most people do not usually have access to buffet style dining, so having ‘eyes bigger than their stomach’ doesn’t make as much of an impact in the general population as it does at CSU. At CSU there is buffet style dining every day, three times each day. The amount of waste is incredible.

So, what can we do about it? The easiest change to make is only taking the food you plan on eating and encouraging others to do the same. A more long-term change would be replacing the buffet style dining at CSU with a more sustainable dining system. It is possible to implement more sustainable systems such that the students have access to all the food they need, the school makes the money they need, and food loss decreases. CSU could adapt a system that many other universities have, in which food is paid for by weight. I interviewed both of my parents about this, since the university they attended had the same system. They said that since students are paying for each ounce of food they choose, they will value the food more, and are more likely to eat it.

Solving some of issues with buffet style dining relate to the first part of the method for reducing food loss: preventing loss in the first place. But there are also issues at CSU with the second part of the method: disposing of the waste in the best way possible. The dining halls compost food waste,  but the restaurants at the Lory Student Center do not. Composting food from thousands of students rather than putting it in the garbage has the potential to make a significant environmental impact.

Overall, I’m hoping that you and other CSU students will make some changes and encourage others to make changes to reduce food waste.

About the Author

I’m a freshman at Colorado State University, majoring in Biomedical Sciences. I plan to go to medical school to further my academic career. Throughout my semester in You Are What You Eat- Food in Our Everyday Life, I’ve learned much more about food, and more specifically issues relating to food. After learning more about these issues, such as food waste, I feel compelled to help teach other people about them and to help teach about how to prevent these issues.

Works Cited

Buzby, J. C., Wells, H. F., & Hyman, J. (2014). The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States. United States Department of Agriculture, 121. Retrieved from https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/43833/43680_eib121.pdf?v=0

Coveney, J. (2008). Food, Morals and Meaning. London: Routledge.

Food Waste FAQs. (n.d.). United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.usda.gov/foodwaste/faqs

Guiden, M. (2017, April). Campus composting efforts expanding. Retrieved from https://source.colostate.edu/campus-composting-efforts-expanding/

Gunder, D. (2012). Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill . NRDC Issue Paper. Retrieved from https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf

Holt-Giménez, E., Shattuck, A., Altieri, M., Herren, H., & Gliessman, S. (2012). We Already Grow Enough Food for 10 Billion People … and Still Cant End Hunger. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 36(6), 595–598. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10440046.2012.695331

Impact of New WHO Growth Standards on the Prevalence of Acute Malnutrition and Operations of Feeding Programs. (2009). CDC. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5821a4.htm

Image Sources:

• https://www.thespruceeats.com/how-to-cook-rice-on-the-stove-2118771
• https://blog.ucsusa.org/marcia-delonge/its-never-too-late-to-start-slimming-down-your-food-waste
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_Food

Fed by Hand

by Jordyn Blaha

Imagine. The early morning “Cock-a-doodle-doo” of the rooster marks the beginning of another day of hard work and dedication. The sweet milk pulled from the teats of a dairy cow. The endless hours of paperwork and science calculations waiting to be sorted through on the desk. The sun glaring down on the shiny equipment and sweaty hats of the workers in the field. Life on a farm is not an easy way of living. Look at the hands of a farmer. They are worn down, callused, tinged a darker color from the soil. Many farms in the United States of America rely on precision agriculture and other forms of technology. However, not everything in agriculture can be done by a machine. There are many forms of field work, especially the harvesting/picking of certain crops needs to be done by hand: the old-fashioned way. As beautifully portrayed in the documentary Food Chains, the USA relies heavily on migrant workers to accomplish this aspect of the harvest.

Lambert, Robert. “Lipman CEO KEnt Shoemaker Challenges Eva Longoria’s ‘Food Chains’ Documentary.” Andnowyouknow.com, 2014, m.andnowuknow.com/headlines/lipman-ceo-kent-shoemaker-challenges-eva-longoriasfood-chains-documentary/robert-lambert/43834.

Understanding the Struggle

There is a common misconception that industrial farming and ranching is completely destructive to the environment and the livestock are mistreated and live awful lives. Many animal rights organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) seek out one in a million examples of animal abuse in agriculture and sometimes inflict it themselves for the purpose of false advertising. Agricultural producers do not have a good relationship with PETA, as I have experienced in my own agricultural education. Ask any person working in agriculture and they will tell you that farmers and ranchers care for their land and their animals as much as they care for their family. Happy, comfortable, healthy animals is arguably the best way to go from any business standpoint. Even if production of meat on a large scale is only for the profit, it is essential that the animals are kept in safe and healthy conditions.

A lot of time and care is put into the production of all agricultural products. Caring for crops and/or livestock is hard work. Farms only earn a little over $40,000 annually on average according to Successful Farming. This is without subtracting the cost of keeping the farm running. Smaller farms often end up being bought out by larger companies from no longer being able to support themselves. It is important, as consumers to understand where our food comes from and support sustainable agriculture. Knowledgeable consumers are often more willing to pay a little extra for local food. Growing support for smaller scale family farms is known as the Slow Food Movement. As described in the article, “You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement” by B. Pietrykowski, the movement promotes the development of consumer-producer relations. The best way of forming these important relationships is through education.

Family Dynamics

Convenience has had a large impact on the diet of Americans. Fast food restaurants and pre-made, packaged meals are more convenient to prepare for the family when they live busy lifestyles. Cooking skills and house-wife roles have declined in our society. Our society has shifted to a more industrial world, making it necessary for movements such as Slow Food to bring importance back to the appreciation of preparing good food. In today’s world, children have a stronger influence on diet in a household. Parents are willing to give in more easily than in the past generations to eating what their children pick out. Therefore, agricultural education movements should heavily focus on children. In Boulder County, Colorado, the fairgrounds team up with local agricultural producers and the St. Vrain Valley FFA Chapter to put on an event called From Our Lands to Your Hands, to educate elementary school children about agriculture. More information about the expo can be found in the article, “Maintaining Agriculture in a Growing Urban Environment” by the Longmont and Boulder Valley Conservation District. If children are more knowledgeable about local agriculture, they may be more susceptible to a Slow Food Diet. They might even influence their parents to start purchasing local products rather than the heavily processed goods on the shelf at the grocery store.

Food Waste

Perhaps educated consumers have a stronger appreciation for their food. To change the behavior of an entire community takes the combined effort of every individual. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the personal values of security and survival are the foundation for actions in the community, in turn, influencing the actions of others around them in an effort towards belonging and acceptance. Targeting the food values of children would in turn, make a difference in the race towards a Slow Food society across the community, country and eventually the world. Appreciation, or the understanding of food value, is one way to combat the issue of food waste. The amount of food already wasted this year in the United states is over 115,434,731,251 lbs. This is an overwhelmingly large amount. You can make a difference in your own home by spending carefully, and only buy what you know you will be able to eat in a timely manner. Saving the leftovers of a meal and finishing them later is another way to reduce the amount of food being thrown away. The efforts of many individuals and families with strong appreciation for food, CAN make a difference.

Colorado State University

Here in Fort Collins, there are many ways to support the Slow Food movement. The local Farmer’s market happens every Saturday just down the street from campus. Students can easily ride the bus down and purchase some local produce. The vendors at the market are friendly, making the trip worthwhile to encourage the consumer-producer relationship. Shopping at a local farmers market or grocery store like Whole Foods that promotes the Slow Food Movement, is not convenient. The extra miles and money add up and it will never be the easy option. Therefore, it takes a strong motivation to maintain a Slow Food Diet, especially as a college student. Aspen Grill at CSU actively works to serve local food products as well as tasty, in season, dishes. Students and the public can make reservations to dine here and enjoy a wonderful meal. The prices are not unreasonable, making it affordable for college students. Professor Temple Grandin at CSU is famous around the world for her work on livestock technology and equipment that is more ‘user-friendly’. Colorado State University was originally the Colorado Agricultural and Mining School (Colorado A&M), so agricultural history is deeply rooted here on campus. Hence why our mascot’s name is CAM the Ram. There are many educational opportunities and ways to become more involved with agriculture. Agricultural Education programs here are great for students looking to educate consumers and youth more about the hands that their food came from.

About the Author

My name is Jordyn Blaha and I am a first-year honors student here at Colorado State University. I am majoring in Fish and Wildlife Conservation Biology through CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources. I aim to become a Wildlife Conservation officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife or work in a field that allows me to conserve the wilderness we are a part of. In high school I was a member of the local St. Vrain Valley FFA Chapter. Through FFA, I was able to participate in agricultural education by volunteering at From Our Lands to Your Hands. I also took many agriscience classes to become more knowledgeable about agriculture myself. I have become an advocate for ag. With a new appreciation for my food and the people who produced it, I believe that it is important for society to be knowledgeable about where are food comes from. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate agriculture into my career somehow, possibly in the form of a minor in Range Ecology.

Bibliography:

Bakir, Aysen, et al. “Family Communication Patterns: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Communication

Style and Children’s Perceived Influence in Family Decision Making.” Journal of

International Consumer Marketing, vol. 19, no. 2, Sept. 2006, pp. 75–95. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1300/J046v19n02_05.

Dreibus, Tony. “Farmers Got Older, Income Fell, Ag Census Data Shows.” Successful Farming, Successful Farming, 26 Apr. 2019, www.agriculture.com/news/business/farmers-got-older-income-fell-ag-census-data-shows.

“Food Waste – US.” EndHunger, endhunger.org/food-waste/?gclid=CjwKCAiA8K7uBRBBEiwACOm4d09ZDP8VDwIJ72Pz5mm191De5lIGBwSqOGhDCBvMXILd0Rzh446O0xoCPx8QAvD_BwE.

“Maintaining Agriculture in a Growing Urban Environment.” Our Lands to Your Hands Expo, 2016, http://www.longmontcd.org/Our-Lands-to-Your-Hands-Expo.

McLeod, Saul. “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” Simple Psychology, 2018, http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow-hierachy-of-needs-min.jpg.

Pietrykowski, B. (2004). You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food

Movement . Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Rawal, Sanjay, director. Food Chains: The Revolution in America’s Fields. Food Inc, 2014.

Food Insecurities and How Our Waste Could Affect Them

By Gabe Murdock

While taking my dishes to the dish return in Rams Horn for the past couple of months, I have noticed a recurring sight: plates and bowls filled with half eaten burgers, cookies, and wasted fruit. At first, I thought to myself that the dining hall’s ability to compost would counteract this massive waste of food, but after learning more about the wastefulness of the dining halls, I was baffled that so much food not only left by students, but also outdated food, was just being fed to these composters. Given all the food insecurities that occur within the college system, I was confused why so much food was going to compost rather than hungry students. Some students have to choose between whether they want to eat dinner or pay for their textbooks. Students should not be faced with this difficult choice. There must be more that CSU as a university can accomplish to combat food insecurities with food waste.

Source: The Daily Texan

What are Food Insecurities:

Food insecurities are not just specific to college campuses. Hundreds of people around the world suffer from a form of food insecurity. A food insecurity is a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life. In the United States, 1 in 9 people struggle with some form of food insecurity. A study done by Urban Institute assessing food insecurities on campus found that in 2015, food insecurities among students enrolled in a four-year institution was 11.2%. That number has since risen to an estimated 20%. Food insecurities affect our own campus here at CSU. A survey done in 2013 revealed that 10% of CSU students are affected by some sort of food insecurity. Fortunately, the problem at CSU is not as big as it is at other universities around country. CSU has introduced initiatives in recent years that have helped the problem significantly.

The Impacts of Food Insecurities on Schooling:

One of the statistics that made me realize how important having a healthy and nutritional diet is on education was the relationship between food insecurities and GPA. Students with a food insecurity are less likely to attend class and perform well and more likely to withdraw from courses. Another key statistic states “those with a 3.1 GPA or higher were 60% less likely to suffer from food insecurities.” The inability for students to gain the education that quite possibly could be their way out of food insecurity traps them into a constant cycle that they cannot escape from. Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor at Temple University, told NPR that students of lower income, “can barely escape their conditions of poverty long enough to complete degrees.” Students are faced with the decision of either eating or paying for tuition and the consequences they face are lower grades, due to this lack of nutrition.

Source: Students Against Hunger

What CSU does to Combat Food Insecurities:

The rising rates of college tuition is one of the largest contributors to students having food insecurities. Financial Aid alone cannot solve all of these food insecurities that many students are faced with. Colleges have instituted several initiatives to help combat this issue. At CSU, Rams Against Hunger’s mission is to serve as emergency food relief for Colorado State University undergraduate students experiencing food insecurities. The ability for students to have a resource where they can go and seek assistance regarding an issue as serious as hunger is such an essential tool for them to succeed. It also provides a gateway to allow other students to donate unused guest swipes that help feed those who lack the meal swipes they need to provide for themselves on a day to day basis. Encouraging students who have the ability to help those that are less fortunate creates a system of giving at CSU.

Some other resources that CSU provides for students is through events like a mobile food pantries. The amazing part about this type of event is that it does not just go to helping students, but any faculty or staff who suffer from a food insecurity. Being part of a community that encourages and assists those who are less fortunate not only makes me glad to be a CSU student, but it encourages me to be a part of this community of givers. Another incredible program that CSU has recently implemented to not only help reduce food insecurities but also food waste, is Ram Food Recovery. The program was implemented to help students that are having trouble getting enough food to pick up leftover food not used from catering events. This solution solves both the problem of food waste and food insecurities. Talking with some friends that work in one of the dining halls here at CSU, I learned some disheartening information. At the end of each breakfast, lunch, and dinner shift, all of the uneaten food is simply tossed into the composter. Although this is extremely more sustainable than throwing it into a landfill, that food could be provided to these students in a similar program to that of Ram Food Recovery. This would be another great opportunity for those who cannot provide for themselves to gain valuable nutrients to help them perform better in the classrooms as well as knowing where they will be able to find their next meal.

What other Programs Help Food Insecurities:
In a New York Times article, Calvin Ramsay a student from N.Y.U. described his experience of obtaining student loan debt as the main reason for his lack of funds to eat. He stated, “Why do I need to go into debt to eat.” The heart wrenching truth is that several students have had this same experience. They realize to be able to get a well-paying job college is needed, and some are even willing to starve for that. To help find meals, Calvin used the digital platform Share meals. Share meals allows students to share extra meal swipes and post extra food for club events who those who suffer from food insecurities.

Ways we can Limit Food Insecurities:

Colorado State already does a great job of helping those with food insecurities, but as everything else in life, it can always be improved on a nationwide scale. Some of the changes that could occur on a federal level are increasing the maximum amount of federal aid given to students that not only goes towards tuition but also to help pay for food. On a campus level, make it easier for students to donate their unused swipes. I have only seen one instance where I had to opportunity to donate swipes, and I wish it was an easier process. I have around 20 guest swipes that will eventually go to waste and I would much rather donate to those who truly need to assistance.

The stereotype for college students is that they will never decline a free meal. I myself thought this was funny until I saw the true horror behind the facts. The truth is more students than we think suffer from a form of food insecurity, and it is not a joke. People are putting their own lives at risk for a diploma that may not even allow them to pay off all of the debt they are accumulating. Colleges do their best to help combat this increasing problem, but as costs of tuition continue to rise, and the idea that a college degree is needed for success, more students will continue to struggle with food insecurities. Next time you sit down for a meal with your friends at a dining hall, take as much as you NEED not as much as you WANT, and realize that people that are going through the same grueling classes as you, may not know where they are getting their next meal from. You, too, can make a difference by helping these organizations out around your school.

About the Author:

I am a first-year student at Colorado State University majoring in business administration with a concentration in accounting. I grew up in Pueblo West, Colorado and have been surrounded by home cooked meals my entire life. I have always had a passion for good food and hope to live to see a future where food insecurities and waste are a thing of the past.

Bibliography

Andrews, Skylor J. “36% Of American College Students Struggle with Food Insecurity.” Medium, Age of Awareness, 5 Feb. 2019, www.medium.com/age-of-awareness/36-of-american-college-students-struggle-with-food-insecurity-c9120cd236c1.

 Blagg, Kristin. “Assessing Food Insecurity on Campus.” Urban Institute, www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/92331/assessing_food_insecurity_on_campus_3.pdf.

Espinoza, Jorge. “Mobile Food Pantry Returns to CSU to Combat Food Insecurity.” The Rocky Mountain Collegian, 2 Sept. 2018, www.collegian.com/2018/08/mobile-food-pantry-returns-to-csu-to-combat-food-insecurity/.

“Food Insecurity on College Campuses.” Harvard Graduate School of Education,             www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/11/food-insecurity-college-campuses.

Lang, Charlotte, et al. “New Rams Against Hunger Program to Reduce Food Waste, Food    Insecurity.” The       Rocky Mountain Collegian, 20 Feb. 2019,               https://collegian.com/2019/02/new-rams-against- hunger- program-to-reduce-food-waste-  food-insecurity/.

Laterman, Kaya. “Tuition or Dinner? Nearly Half of College Students Surveyed in a New Report             Are Going Hungry.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 May 2019,    www.nytimes.com/2019/05/02/nyregion/hunger-college-food-insecurity.html.

Lee, Shannon. “ Food Insecurity in College: Finding Support on Campus.”             AffordableCollegesOnline.org, AffordableCollegesOnline.org, 1 Nov. 2019,             www.affordablecollegesonline.org/college-resource-center/college-food-insecurity-            support/.

 “Rams Against Hunger: Lory Student Center.” Lory Student Center, https://lsc.colostate.edu/slice/slice-              engagement/rams-against-hunger/#1570735463280-ceaffed0-ae8f.

“Students and Administration Fight Food Insecurity.” The Daily Texan, www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/04/16/students-and-administration-fight-food-insecurity. 

 “Understanding Hunger and Food Insecurity.” Feeding America, www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity?gclid=CjwKCAiAqqTuBRBAEiwA7B66haERY-5IxWdsboADsxO5eUI-aX4_FlxVcFOa8FB-j9sNLQbj1H35xRoCpfgQAvD_BwE&s_keyword=food%2Binsecurity&s_src=Y19YG1F1Z&s_subsrc=c.

“Food Management” For College Students

By Georgia Perkins

Before coming to college, the idea of “food management” had never crossed my mind, and I’m not talking about a degree in Food Service Management. Sure, time management was at the forefront of my brain, but food management? Is that even a thing? 

Growing up, my family ate dinner almost every night together at the dinner table. Over the last few years, I did the grocery shopping, and my brother cooked. I would only buy what we needed for the next few meals and sometimes snacks if we were getting low. My family didn’t usually fill their plates with too much food, so we would all finish what we took. We did, however, have leftovers most of the time, but my dad would take them as his lunch at work the next day. If we ever had fruit that was getting a little too ripe, my mom would remind someone to go ahead and eat it.

When I got to college four months ago, my food habits changed drastically from eating in the dining halls to limited grocery shopping. I have found that it is hard to keep fresh fruit in the dorm room. I don’t go to the store that often so when I do, I try to stock up. Unfortunately, there have been a few times where I have bought too much fruit. Before I can eat it, the fruit goes bad, and I have to throw it out. Other foods like pretzels and nuts don’t go bad as quickly, thankfully, but products like yogurt and milk do.

The dining hall food at Colorado State University, I will admit, is pretty decent. One of the perks of having a meal plan is having unlimited food once you have swiped in to eat. This is great for those who eat a lot and need seconds; Once you have swiped in you should not go hungry. Unfortunately though, this tempts people to grab too much food for them that they can’t finish. It can even cause people to change their minds about eating one thing they already grabbed, and since the food is readily available to them, they go get something else to eat. When I walk out of the dining halls, I frequently see lots of food going to waste. Anything from entire hamburgers to bowls of rice to cake with a single bite gone may be spinning around on the dish return. It is easy for college students to make so much waste throughout their day, especially when the food is out in front of them like that. Besides just the students throwing away food that they didn’t eat, the dining halls also throw away the food that doesn’t get taken. 

Source: Daily Bruin

What is the community of Fort Collins doing to combat food waste?

I talked to a friend about food waste in Fort Collins and discovered that there is an organization called Vindeket. The goal of Vindeket is to use the food that grocery stores can’t sell anymore. Emily Coffey, a photographer based in Fort Collins, has been going since the spring of this year. She knows the guy who heads the organization, and it all began when he started dumpster diving to find food to eat. He was shocked by the amount of food he found in the dumpsters outside of grocery stores like King Soopers, Sprouts, and Trader Joe’s. This gave him the idea to start Vindeket with all the leftover food he was finding. 

Emily explained that people of any demographic can utilize Vindeket and fulfill most of, if not all of their nutritional needs. She believes it makes a huge impact on herself, others, and the food industry in Fort Collins. By taking responsibility for the food systems producing this food that gets wasted, Emily believes others can benefit from it. The food is still good for about a week or so, but the grocery stores throw it out because it’s out of date.

So, why is food waste something we should be worried about?

Food waste affects every single person on the planet even if the food is located here in Fort Collins. John Coveney brings up the issue in his book Food that there is actually enough food to feed everyone in the world. Therefore, the repercussions of our actions can in fact affect more than just the people within our city, our state, and even our country. 

There are students on campus who could use the food that gets thrown away. The food isn’t doing any good sitting in the trash can. Rams Against Hunger asks students to donate swipes for other students who can’t afford a meal plan. This is a wonderful initiative to feed those who are going hungry, but the food that goes to waste could be even more effective to feed people.

Source: Community Funded

Now we must ask ourselves, how can Colorado State, its students, and its faculty take action like Vindeket and reduce food waste?

There are two causes of the waste: the dining halls throwing away unused food and consumers not eating everything on their plates.

The food that never touches a plate and gets thrown away by the dining halls could be used in so many ways. For example, the university could send that food to soup kitchens to feed the homeless in Fort Collins. According to Fort Collins Rescue Mission there are 353 homeless people in Fort Collins who struggle to have access to food. Another option could be to open up the dining halls with the leftover food to students who can’t afford a meal plan and won’t get to eat otherwise. The food could even be given to Vindeket to help resource the unused food. Honestly, anything other than just throwing away the food would be better. Composting is an option to ensure the food gets used in someway, but that would only work for fruits and vegetables since meat can’t be composted. This also doesn’t help the problem of hunger at CSU and in Fort Collins, so the best option would be to distribute the food so that it gets eaten.

As far as students taking too much food, we could talk about how the students need to make a change, but it would be too hard to control people’s actions. For example, no one has control over someone trying a food then not liking it. Instead, I can suggest a way the setup of the dining halls could change. Sometimes the portions that are allocated are too much that the student can’t eat it all, but also the portions can be too small that it isn’t enough. If the portion is too small, the consumer might grab two, but then two is too much. One way to combat this is by allowing the student to make their own plates, so they can decide how much they need instead of an employee. I’m not sure how effective this would be, but it could be a start. 

Source: EPA

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have bought fruit from the grocery store that went bad. I learned my lesson, so something I am doing to reduce waste is being conscious about what I can eat in a certain amount of time before fruit goes bad. I also have learned to be more conscious about what I pick up in the dining halls, trying not to take too much.

What can YOU do now to combat food waste?

My hope is that you take something away about how food waste can be useful to feed others, and you have some ideas on how you as an individual can reduce food waste. I challenge you to be more conscious about what you put on your plate, and together we can create change on the Colorado State campus!

About the Author

I am a first year student at Colorado State University studying chemical and biological engineering. My career goal is to work in the research and development of pharmaceuticals. I am fascinated by the culture of and meaning behind different foods. I would love to see CSU’s campus reduce its food waste, especially if it means reducing hunger in the area.

References:

Coffey, Emily. Personal interview. 3 November 2019.

“Food As Justice.” Food, by John Coveney, Taylor and Francis, 2008, pp. 87–99.

“Food Recovery Hierarchy.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2019, http://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/reducing-impact-wasted-food-feeding-soil-and-composting.

“Homelessness in Fort Collins.” Fort Collins Rescue Mission, 2019, fortcollinsrescuemission.org/what-we-do/homelessness-in-our-city/.

Nguyen, Aileen. “Food Waste and College Campuses.” Daily Bruin, 12 Oct. 2019, dailybruin.com/2019/10/12/the-quad-how-too-much-on-your-plate-at-ucla-results-in-food-waste-not-just-a-busy-schedule/.

“Rams Against Hunger” Lory Student Center, 2019, lsc.colostate.edu/slice/slice-engagement/rams-against-hunger/.

“Rams Against Hunger-Giving Tuesday.” Community Funded, 2019, campaigns.communityfunded.com/projects/csucharge/rams-against-hunger-giving-tuesday/.

“VINDEKET FOODS.” VINDEKET FOODS, 2019, http://www.vindeketfoods.org/.

Waste: the Real Consequence of Overproduction

By Liza Lunina

Growing up, it was expected of me that I eat every bit of food on my plate. I always thought of it as an act of respect and courtesy; I was lucky enough for my parents to cook my meals and present them before me so I could just properly function day-to-day, and more than that, the food was delicious. This was even more pressed at my grandparents houses, where it was seen at blatantly rude to not try at least every type of food and finish everything on your plate. Therefore, it seemed natural to me to only put on my plate what I knew I would eat, and get more food if I was still hungry. The excess food at the end of the meal would be put into reusable containers for family members to take to work the following couple of days, and leftovers would be eaten at subsequent dinners if necessary. 

I was shocked to discover when stepping on campus that those instinctual cues I grew up using were not ones that other young adults had; I realized this with some of my friends before coming to Colorado State University but the experiences I had in the dining halls with my peers has been frustrating, to say the least. The act of placing my dirty silverware and plates into the dish rack concerns me everytime- piles of half eaten or uneaten food on multiple plates and bowls, I even find myself uncontrollably making comments to my friends about how wasteful it is to throw away all of their excess food. I have been guilty of it as well, but am now very conscious of just taking an extra trip to get more food if I desire. While I can sit here and blame the lazy and inconsiderate actions of my peers, this issue stems from the first world privilege of massive portion sizes and overproduction for those who can afford it. 

Global Waste

The amount of food wasted annually is increasing every year: by 2030, an expected 2.1 billion tons of food is lost or gone to waste. From a monetary perspective, this equates $1.5 trillion, an amount that would make any aspiring businessmen jump from their seats. To further my reasoning behind being unable to simply blame consumerism, a huge portion of this waste is actually during production and handling/storage. If there are issues early on in the production chain, waste is inevitable as the food reaches the consumer. Furthermore, the wasted food ends up in landfills, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. 

The waste being produced is, unsurprisingly, primarily fruits and vegetables. These typically will travel great distances to reach consumers. Grocery stores will even throw out produce that is not deemed aesthetically pleasing for consumers to purchase, like fruits with irregularities or vegetables with extra stems. This is not an issue so much in local farming where consumers purchase food for the quality and not the appearance, but access to these resources for a majority of the population is not nearly as convenient or cheap. This is a precursor to obesity problems as well, if it’s mostly healthy food being wasted, it is obviously not kept as a high priority for consumption.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

It seems easy to think that the food that is wasted should just be saved and given to the impoverished, especially on a college campus like CSU where 1 in 10 students are victims of food insecurity. However, excess food just goes to composting, not in the hands of those who need it in the community. These issues stem from business corporations who act similarly; I spoke with peers with experience in the food industry, like Starbucks and Einstein Bros Bagels, where any excess food they have at the end of the day is thrown away. Businesses must profit off of their products, so if they start giving uneaten food away at the end of the day, no one will come to purchase products during the day. While it makes sense for these businesses to protect themselves, it is still perplexing that more initiatives aren’t being taken with partnering volunteer programs to deliver the food to those who need it. For example, taking this food and bringing a certain amount to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen in the community, which establishes a relationship between the two parties that is not dependent on monetary value. 

The Obesity Paradox

To briefly address a seemingly unintuitive aspect of food waste, obesity is directly tied overproduction that leads to waste. Obesity in US adults reached 39.8% in 2015-2016, a costly endeavour for the health care system. Portion sizes in restaurants reflect this epidemic, with portions being up to over 3 times larger than recommended amounts. The plates themselves are ridiculously large and gives the illusion that all of the food served can be consumed in one sitting. When ordering a meal at a restaurant the outcome is either consuming absurd amounts of calories in one meal or throwing away uneaten food; these can be avoided if the portions themselves were smaller and more manageable by the average person. If necessary, different sizes of meals at sit-down restaurants could encompass more people’s diets. This also gives food sovereignty to consumers as individuals, giving them power to make food choices for themselves, which ideally would lessen obesity rates because people generally wish to be fitter, stronger, and healthier.

Source: Dietitians Online 

Buffets are one of the biggest culprits of food waste in the current system. A reported 40% of waste is from businesses like hotels that provide food for event-goers. College campuses, including CSU, use this method in dining halls for people to get their money’s worth of food for every meal, which causes students to adopt habits of overconsumption. I see this in the dining halls too often as people overload their plates because the cost of attending school is so high, rather than using the natural motivation of hunger to stand up and get more food. I’d even go as far as to argue that most young adults my age are far removed from natural urges to eat when hungry, and instead eat for reasons like boredom or guilt. Kurt Dixon describes this simply in the statement that people eat with their eyes and must eat everything on their plates, but often, they are the ones who give themselves too much food.

A Campus Approach

CSU must combat these issues by directly addressing how much food is actually produced in dining halls. All of the food must be kept full and ready throughout the day for students, meaning courses are constantly refilled. All of the excess gets composted or thrown away, an injustice to the environment and to those who go hungry because they cannot afford these luxuries. An answer I propose is to switch to a “pay-for-what-you-take” method, where the amount of food you put on your plate is what you get charged for, even if you do not eat it all. Those who consume more would still be paying for a bigger plan, just like now where the any-21 meal plan (21 meals/week) is more expensive than any-10 (10 meals/week). Initially, this may raise the cost of attendance for students which may be alarming, but as the system solidifies, people will be much more conscious of their intake and could even end up spending less if their meals do not equate to the current method. The healthier foods, like salad and fruit, can be kept buffet style but everything else could be served to students and that way, the cost of the food is directly related to the amount taken, so the mindset of “I pay this much for every meal so I must take as much as possible even if I do not want it” can be avoided. A change like this may seem unfair for new students, but by informing the on the impact they have on the environment by following these rules, they would be more willing to adapt. Students would also be given just one 10-inch plate and one 8-inch bowl, so they have to take multiple trips if necessary, rather than using upwards of 3 or 4 different plates in one meal. As a student myself, I can imagine the discontent of others if they have to be confined to those two items, but it would establish healthier eating habits like avoiding overeating. Additionally, food production should stop at a certain hour of the day, like 8 PM for dinners, so that massive portions do not go to waste and production can be lessened to a rate that more closely matches how much students are consuming, which would be monitored and perfected over time by dining hall staff. If extra is made, it must go to a program that will package the food for the impoverished, utilizing sustainable methods like reusable containers and fair distribution through a program similar to food stamps. Rams Against Hunger is an active organization here taking that initiative, but their work goes unnoticed and should be promoted to the university through social media and university announcements, where more people can get involved.

About the Author

I am currently a freshman majoring in Nutrition and Food Science at Colorado State University. The honors seminar You Are What You Eat- Food in Our Everyday Lives helped me develop my interests in food and all of the aspects food encompasses, which influenced my decision for my major. Growing up in a family heavily immersed in our Ukrainian food culture, I have found it enlightening to create my own individual perception of food since I have come to campus, and look forward to immersing myself in the science of food. 

Literature Cited

CDC. “Adult Obesity Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 Aug. 2018, www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html.

Colorado State University. “Rams Against Hunger.” University Advancement, 2019, giving.colostate.edu/partner-view/rams-against-hunger-one-in-ten/.

Dixon, Kurt. “THE AVERAGE PLATE SIZE.” Body Refined, Body Refined, 18 Sept. 2018, bodyrefinedinc.com/the-average-plate-size/.

Hegnsholt, Esben, et al. “Tackling the 1.6-Billion-Ton Food Loss and Waste Crisis.” Https://Www.bcg.com, 20 Aug. 2018, www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/tackling-1.6-billion-ton-food-loss-and-waste-crisis.aspx.

Troitino, Christina. “The Tragedy Of The Buffet Commons: Reducing Food Waste At Hotels.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 Sept. 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/christinatroitino/2017/09/14/the-tragedy-of-the-buffet-commons-reducing-food-waste-at-hotels/#4424437f17dc.

USFSA. “Food Sovereignty.” USFSA, usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/what-is-food-sovereignty/.

The Truth About Healthy Eating

By: Dana Lervick

Would you call yourself a healthy eater? Initially as a college student I would. I try to eat to fuel my body with what it needs, often supplying it with lots of whole foods such as fruits, vegetables and adequate amounts of protein. By definition healthy eating is a diet that helps to maintain or improve one’s overall health. Today, healthy eating goes far beyond just the foods you are putting into your body and also involves how those foods were obtained and the effects they had on the environment. When including the environmental aspect into the definition, many people, especially in college, will fail to be truly “healthy eaters.” This is due to the fact that many people do not understand the negative effects food can have on the environment. When you visualize healthy eating I am sure things like fruits and vegetables popped into your mind, but did farmers markets, or pesticide free products pop up as well? Not only does the food itself affect your health, but the food you choose to purchase may have tremendous effects on our environment. So now would you consider yourself a healthy eater? For me, my answer is no. Although I may be consuming healthy foods, the places which I get them from are not always the most sustainable.

Physical Health

On the physical level, eating healthy is sustained by consuming proper nutrition; the science that studies the relationship of food to optimal health and performance. Your body on its own cannot produce everything it needs to function. In order to maintain proper health, there are six essential nutrients that a person must obtain through their diet. These nutrients are crucial in supporting a person’s overall good health as well as many vital functions such as their reproduction, growth and ability to prevent diseases. These essential nutrients are divided into two categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are the nutrients that supply energy to your body and are required in large amounts, making up the majority of our diet. These include proteins, carbohydrates, fats and water. Micronutrients on the other hand, your body only requires in small doses and they utilize your body’s energy. These include vitamins and minerals. No matter what dietary lifestyle a person may choose, these essential nutrients must be present in their appropriate amounts to maintain the body’s homeostatic levels. 

Typically a healthy, balanced diet includes lean proteins, vegetables, fruits, complex carbs and water. This mixture and variety of food allows people to get all the essential nutrients they need. It is important to eat a diverse variety of food in order to expand your horizons and optimize your nutritional intake. However, even those in the same age groups, are different and the diet should reflect that. For example, I am a highly active female college student but should not have the same diet and caloric intake as one of the CSU linebackers, or a student with a relatively low activity level. You should eat to fuel what your body needs and that depends on what you ask of it on a daily basis. 

Source: Healthy Diet (GETTY IMAGES)

Environmental Health

Eating healthy on an environmental level is something that many people commonly disregard. Although you may go to a popular grocery store and buy a plethora of fruits and vegetables actively making healthy choices for your physical health, you may not be making the healthiest choice for the environment. Healthy eating must include sustainable food production systems as well. In agriculture, the concept of sustainability is applied to the production of the food, being it plants, or animals products that use farming techniques or practices that help to conserve natural resources and have minimal impact on the environment. By choosing to purchase foods that are both healthy for our bodies and our environment, we can create a sustainable lifestyle that will be able to continue for future generations to do the same. There are many ways in which you can work to purchase food in a more environmentally friendly way.

Examples in how you can do so include growing food yourself in a personal garden, shopping locally at farmers markets and eating what is in season to promote local agriculture, rather than importing products in from other places. Other things you can look for include products with labels such as organic, pesticide free and non GMO which all indicate way of agriculture that are striving to be more natural and less impactful on the environment. Also a growing interest in sustainability is the moderation of meat products, both red and white. Stereotypically animal agriculture businesses have been not only corrupt but very environmentally harmful as livestock is shown to emit the largest portion of greenhouse gasses, use up tremendous amounts of water and also requires large amounts of land. 

Source: Public Perspectives on Food Risks 2018 (Getty Images)

By choosing to take any of these steps toward maintaining a more healthy environment diet you can truly make a difference in our world. The fact is when you purchase food you are directly voting with both your wallet and your fork. You are supporting what products you want to prosper and rejecting to buy the products you want to decline. So the choice is up to you.

Source: (PA Environmental Digest Blog 2018)

Implementing sustainable diets at Colorado State University

Here at Colorado State University, there are many ways we can implement healthy eating into our lives. For first year students, we all have access to the university’s residential dining hall systems with the required meal plans. When eating in the dining halls here at CSU, students don’t get to choose where the products came from, however they still have the ability to choose what food they consume to support their physical health. Physical health in college is stereotypically something many people struggle with. However by actively monitoring your body’s essential nutrient intake it becomes easier to create more of a balance in your diet and promote a healthier lifestyle. 

Outside of campus is where students get to have more of a say about the products they purchase and consume. This ability generally increases each year in college as students begin to live off campus and become more independent. This allows students to be in control of not only what they eat in terms of supporting their physical health but also what they buy and how it affects our environments health. When grocery shopping, students can perform sustainable eating tips such as buying local and in season products, which is an ability we are incapable of doing in the dining hall. By choosing to do so they again voice their opinions and vote on what products they want to prosper in our society. So just like political voting, before you purchase a product you should research it and know what you are supporting. Doing this will help yourself eat in a physical as well as environmentally sustainable way, truly defining you as a healthy eater.

About the Author

I am a first year student at Colorado State University studying Health and Exercise Science with the goal of eventually becoming a Physical Therapist. Health has always been an interest of mine as I am very interested in the aspects of exercise and nutrition. I hope that people will increasingly become more aware of how to eat healthy to both fuel their physical needs as well as support the environment. 

References

Wolfram, T. (n.d.). Sustainable Eating. Retrieved from 

https://www.eatright.org/health/lifestyle/culture-and-traditions/sustainable-eating.

Fletcher, J. (2019, August 22). 6 essential nutrients: Sources and why you need them. Retrieved 

from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326132.php#water.

info@sustainablefoodtrust.org, S. F. T.-. (n.d.). Sustainable food and healthy diets. Retrieved 

from https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/key-issues/sustainable-healthy-diets/.

Eating Less Meat, More Plants Helps the Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved from 

https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/sustainable-agriculture/eco-farming/eat-more-plants/.

“What Are Macronutrients? >> Everything You Should Know.” Adidas Runtastic Blog, 4 Nov. 

2019, www.runtastic.com/blog/en/what-are-macronutrients/.

Portion Proportions

By: Cody Hyman

My mom always told me when we went out to eat to never get “Full with your eyes”. I used to shrug this off and order the biggest size of a meal off the menu I could get to see how much I could eat. I never finished the food, but I always tried to get as big of a size of something I could get my hands on just because I could. It was a privilege I got that I only did at the few times we went out to eat. I thought this was only for restaurants, but little did I know one-time splurge would grow into a regular habit. If you are a freshman at CSU, you are likely a regular customer at the dining halls. You likely walked in realizing you no longer had to wait for food or clean up you dishes after and realized as much food as you desire is at your disposal. This new freedom likely turned you into a black hole within the first month where you stacked you plates high with all the new dining hall food combinations. You likely went from station to station grabbing a little everything. Your table probably was a big cultural mixing pot from Mexican tacos to Italian pizza to some sort of exotic food from the passport station. You try to finish all the food but have a whole plate of half eaten food that could probably feed two other people, yet you still have no idea how much food you ate because of the absurd amount of food you tried. This trend ends for some freshman after a few weeks and they get bored and realizing how terrible it is for you to grab as much food as your hands can hold, but for a lot of freshman this becomes their newest unhealthy habit. You begin to learn you can grab as much food as you want and it doesn’t matter because all you have to do is put in a conveyor belt and its gone and you no longer have to think about how much food you grabbed or ate. All you can eat food is a terrible opportunity for those in college and to begin building bad dieting habits in their first stage of being on their own. While there are many ways to fix this that may or may not work, I believe the right way to going about helping students make healthier eating choices is portion control through limiting the items a student can grab when eating in the dining halls. 

Why limit portions? 

Overeating is a large problem is the United states. When you overeat, you go down a road of putting too many nutrients into your body. No matter what you are eating you can’t eat too much of it. As they say, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. When people overeat for long periods time it led to obesity which leads to a whole bunch of health problems. Obesity causes health problems such as diabetes which can shorten life expectancy. Overeating is a habit built by adults before they can make their own choices on what they are buying and cooking for themselves. So, in order to get rid of this problem you must go to the root of the issue and the first place where people get to make their own eating choices without parental influence is college. 

Source: Business Insiders 

College is the first place where you can make your own decisions in your life. In college everything you do is your own decision and you don’t have to do anything; this especially applies to food. At colleges like CSU the dining hall system is free for students to go eat whenever they can. Food is laid out for the students to pick whatever they want and however much they want. This buffet style eating allows students to see as many options as they want and grab as much as their hands allow them to grab. This system is a slippery slope that leads to overeating. Here they can go back for seconds, thirds, fourth, or until they feel like they can’t eat anymore. This is a bad habit that is one of the many places where students can build a routine of overeating which cause obesity later I life for them. On the website Cooking Light Sara Tane gives advice to students about portion size saying, “Keeping to healthy, realistic portions is one of the most important goals you can set for yourself. Take a breath between each bite. If you’re leaving the dining hall keeled over with crippling stomach pains, it might be time to scale back on the portion size” (Tane 1). A lot of first year students haven’t been educated on restricted their diet when no one is there to tell them what to do. This causes a lot of student to eat all they can in these self-serve dining halls. 

Not only does the buffet students allow to eat as much food as they want but it is very unsustainable. The freedom to grab as much food as you want creates a lot of leftover food. This means a lot of unused food goes straight to the trash just because they make so much to allow students to have the ability to eat as much as they please. This wasteful system is not sustainable and certainly not healthy for students. So, if this is a major problem, shouldn’t colleges be doing something about it? Schools like Colorado State University preach that they care about health and sustainability, yet their entire dining system allows waste and unhealthy eating habits. The best way to fix this issue is through controlling portions and how much food students see to begin with. 

Limiting portions through serving size 

Source: UC Santa Barbra Dining  

There is a great way to change this potential problem for students going to the dining halls that will teach them healthier habits for the rest of their lives and that’s portion control. The way to control portions on a large scale like this is the change the entire way students acquire their food in the dining hall. Students now have the freedom to just walk up to any food station and ask for as much food as they desire, and it is just grabbed for them. The first way to control this is to change how the food is displayed to students. Rather than have large plates full of food just sitting out for students to see, have premade plates that aren’t stacked up with food. This would be almost like an a la carte item that a student can pick if they so choose to. This will make the serving size of food the students acquire to be smaller, so they aren’t getting plates stacked high with an insane amount of food.  

Effects of the size of a plate 

The plate size matters a lot for how much a student will be willing to take. In the Journal Appetite, the article Validating the Plate mapping method by David Sharp says, “The drawings of the overall meal size and largest course were strongly correlated with actual meal and food size for identical sized plates, but participants, especially males, had difficulty drawing appropriately sized food items on plates that were larger than the actual plates even when the food could be observed during the drawing task” (Sharp 5). People make argue that each person eats different amounts of food and that they may have been raised accustom to eating larger portions. While this is valid and everyone eats different amounts of food, that doesn’t mean they can’t just adjust to smaller portions or rather grab the proper amount for themselves rather than being served too much to begin with.  

Limiting the options of food 

The next thing to control the large portions of food the students are getting is to limit items students eat. When students go to get their food, they are limited in the number of items they can get from every station. Rather than having them have unlimited choice, give them some options on what food they can eat but only allow them to pick one or two of the options rather than the whole menu. Then instead of having students swipe into the dining hall, have them swipe for the meal. This will reduce the amount of uneaten food and help regulate the meal size for students. This regulation will teach students the proper size of meals through their entire stay at the dorms. This way when they transition to off campus living, they know how correctly plan meal sizes and not have the terrible habit of overeating. 

About the Author 

My name is Cody Hyman a first-year student from Castle Pines Colorado studying Mechanical engineering at Colorado State University. I am going to get my degree in mechanical engineering and then go to graduate school to get my MBA. 

Bibliography 

• College, S. K. (2017, December 7). The Portion Control Dilemma: How to Stay Fit at College. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/freshmen-15-portion-control_b_994277. Click here 
• Jakubczak, J. (2017, January 18). Have Your Pizza and Eat it Too! College Student’s Nutrition is a Balancing Act. Retrieved from https://terpfamily.umd.edu/welcome-parents/articles/have-your-pizza-and-eat-it-too-college-student’s-nutrition-balancing-act. Click here 
• Martin, E. (2015, November 2). The 20 colleges with the best dining halls. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-best-dining-halls-2015-10. Click here 
• McCrory, M. A., Fuss, P. J., Hays, N. P., Vinken, A. G., Greenberg, A. S., & Roberts, S. B. (1999, November). Overeating in America: association between restaurant food consumption and body fatness in healthy adult men and women ages 19 to 80. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10574515. 
• Meal Plans. (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2019, from https://dining.ucsc.edu/meal-plans/index.html. Click here 
• Sharp, D. E. (2016). Validating the plate mapping method: Comparing drawn foods and actual foods of university students in a cafeteria. Appetite, 100, 197–202. https://doi-org.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/10.1016/j.appet.2016.02.023 Click here 

• Tane, S., & Tane, S. (2016, September 20). Everything You Need to Know About Eating Healthy in the College Dining Hall. Retrieved from https://www.cookinglight.com/eating-smart/how-to-eat-healthy-college-dining-hall. Click here 
• Wansink, B., & Hanks, A. S. (2013). Slim by Design: Serving Healthy Foods First in Buffet Lines Improves Overall Meal Selection. PLoS ONE, 8(10), 1–5. https://doi-org.ezproxy2.library.colostate.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0077055 Click here