About one-third of all food produced worldwide is wasted. For businesses, this means an unnecessary U.S. $1 trillion of revenue is lost. As one in six people in America alone face hunger, this preventable food waste is not only atrocious to the economy and the environment, but also morally atrocious.

In more affluent areas of the world, most of the wasted food tends to come from further down the supply chain, in the retail and consumption stages. Grocery retailers unnecessarily overstock their shelves, making it all too easy for consumers to chuck aside a banana or a head of lettuce at the sight of the slightest blemish. Food services that serve large, inflexible portions and extensive menu options contribute to waste as well. While this information concerning food providers for the public is easily accessible to those who are curious, the same information in college dining halls are not as readily available.

On the NYU Dining Services website, NYU displays its efforts to reduce waste and its impact on the environment. It claims that its dining halls not only have the largest food waste composting initiative in Manhattan, but it has also removed bottled water from student meal plans, are committed to sustainable food options, and have implemented trayless dining, all to reduce the amount of wasted food per meal by 44 percent. However, evidence of such results are more difficult to find. Though NYU may source food from local farmers, growers and distributers, information on these various organizations are lackluster. Two partners are listed, but there is no information on their relationship to NYU. And while NYU may be making changes to manage waste, it is doing nothing to prevent this excess in the first place.

At Western Michigan University, with its mix of all-you-can-eat and restaurant style dining halls, a case study done by a student revealed that about 13,350 pounds of food waste is generated on campus daily. Thoroughly breaking down where the waste came from and providing concrete recommendations to reduce it, the study could serve as a model for how NYU might address its own problems with food waste.

Even though there’s a lot of issues when it comes to putting leftover food to good use, NYU should still be considering ways to reduce and prevent food waste. To carry out a plan of action, data is needed. The university should conduct thorough waste audits and increase transparency by releasing this information to the public. These numbers can then be compared to those of other universities to find where NYU stands in terms of the reduction of food waste. Public scrutiny is an essential incentive for NYU to become a leader in sustainability.

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Email Jennifer Kim at [email protected].