By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Spencer Peles walked over to the three 55-gallon gray garbage containers and dumped the contents of his lunch into one of the cans at Rider University’s Daly’s Dining Hall on Monday afternoon.
Standing next to the containers was classmate Katie Damaroda, who had spent the last 45 minutes taking plates from the Rider students after they finished lunch at the dining hall.
When Ms. Damaroda told Mr. Peles what she was doing — collecting the food and weighing it, in conjunction with the annual Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week at the school — he let out a groan.
”Knowing that I volunteer at a soup kitchen and knowing that I wasted food, I feel horrible,” Mr. Peles said. “I contributed (to wasting food) and it makes me feel really spoiled and horrible.
”I can come in and get food, whatever and whenever I want. It’s a luxury,” said the freshman psychology major, who volunteers at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. “I can’t wait to see how much food we wasted.”
Actually, the Rider University students wasted 59 pounds of food in an hour’s time Monday, said Ms. Damaroda, who helped to organize the event. That’s the equivalent of 20 full meals, or 240 quarter-pound hamburgers, she said. About 130,000 pounds of food is wasted every school year.
Classmates Amanda Matero, Joe Landolfi and Ashley Pichardo stood next to Ms. Damaroda at the garbage containers. They took turns handing out small pieces of paper that listed “factoids” — the number of people who are at risk of going hungry in the United States each year (36 million), and the number of children who are “food insecure” (13 million, or one out of every three children).
Meanwhile, students had a variety of food offerings from which to choose at Daly’s Dining Hall, starting with the obligatory salad bar. On the other side of the salad bar, students could choose from a variety of lunch meats — roast beef, turkey and salami — and breads, plus condiments to go along with them. That good old standby of peanut butter and jelly also was available.
For vegetarians, there was a wok to stir-fry their selections. Students also could choose to eat a hot dog or hamburger and French fries, or a taco or a turkey pot pie Monday afternoon. They could choose a pasta dish, as well.
Most of the students finished their selections, although a couple of students tossed whole sandwiches into the gray garbage containers. Monday’s pasta offering did not hit the spot with many students, who emptied plates of the stuff into the cans.
Ms. Damaroda said this is the second consecutive year that Rider students have conducted the food weigh-in during the week before Thanksgiving break. It was started by Rider’s Math in Action student group, but this year her group — Rider Community Scholars and Bonner Leaders — took it over, she said.
”I think a lot of people are uninformed about the issue at hand,” Ms. Damaroda said. “I think we will see a positive reaction — ‘Oh, wow, this is going to be a lot of food that we are wasting.’”
Ms. Damaroda said the Rider Community Scholars and Bonner Leaders hope to make students more aware of the food they are wasting. They should be concerned, both for environmental reasons and because that food could be going to feed the hungry, she said.
”The week before Thanksgiving, this is an issue that happens year round — 365 days a year,” she said. “The whole point of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is to bring to the surface the issue and try to help people.”
