District partners with UCSD to study food waste

San Ysidro School District in San Diego is partnering with University of California at San Diego’s medical school to conduct a study on plate waste in an effort to reduce the amount of food thrown away, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Results of the study—which is being funded with grant money awarded to the district last year by the U.S. Department of Agriculture—will inform future changes at the district, and could also be used to revise federal nutrition standards requiring students to take certain foods whether or not they want them.

“We’re putting too much on their plate, or they’re putting too much on their plate,” Pamela Lambert, the district’s director of nutrition services, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “But when you look at a kindergartner with a little belly, where does the food go? Right in the trash. Because they can’t eat all that food.”

Read the full story via sandiegouniontribune.com.