California’s Universal Meals Program: The Rise in Food Waste and Possible Solutions
As students prepared to transition from distance learning to in-person instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many were pleased to find that school lunch in public schools was free for the fall semester. The creation of California's Universal Meals Program, which mandates the provision of meals for all students, made a policy that was initially intended to last one semester a permanent fixture in California’s public school system.
While this transition helped many low-income students, it resulted in an unforeseen consequence: a significant increase in food waste. Food waste in California is already a severe problem, with 6 million tons of food waste being discarded annually, resulting in 8.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 alone (CDFA).
This phenomenon can be attributed to several factors. Surveys from local schools reveal that students dispose of their lunch for various reasons, including a desire for more variety and a dislike of the available fruit and vegetable options. Fundamentally, however, the production of excessive food waste boils down to the fact that students are not paying for their meals. Studies show that students discarded their meals a lot less frequently two years ago when they were paying $4.50 for lunch. This behavior is somewhat related to the “tragedy of the commons,” a concept exploring how individuals with “access to a public resource act in their interest and, in doing so, ultimately deplete the resource” (HBS Online). In the context of California’s Universal Meals Program, students are not only inadvertently wasting taxpayer money used to fund this program but also negatively impacting the local environment without regard for broader impacts on global warming.
Possible Solutions
The first solution that comes to mind is reverting to the prior system of need-based meals. Many argue that taxpayers subsidize meals for students who do not need them, which can increase food waste. However, this program was integral in reducing the stigma that prevented many lower-income students from applying for free meals, with a study estimating a 79.2% increase in student need-based meal participation under the California Universal Meals Program (Zuercher et al., 2022). While this is a viable solution, there are other methods that the Californian government can implement to reduce food waste.
For instance, principles that economists use to address the tragedy of the commons can be applied, such as those proposed by Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics (F & M, n.d.). Ostrom dedicated her career to researching the tragedy of the commons and concluded that forming collective institutions, which are “organizations formed from below whose aim is to work together to pursue personal and societal interests,” is essential to regulation (Institutions for Collective Action, 2023). Schools can encourage students to form these “institutions” by making them aware of their impact. The rise of student-led green clubs in public schools is already a positive sign, and, with a little push, students may band together to prevent food waste.
Edited by Yoyo Pang
References
California Department of Food and Agriculture. (n.d). CDFA - Inspection services - food recovery. https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/foodrecovery/
Tragedy of the Commons: Examples & Solutions | HBS Online. (2019). Business Insights Blog. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/tragedy-of-the-commons-impact-on-sustainability-issues
Zuercher, M. D., Cohen, J. F., Hecht, C., Hecht, K., Ritchie, L. D., & Gosliner, W. (2022). Providing School Meals to All Students Free of Charge during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Challenges and Benefits Reported by School Foodservice Professionals in California. Nutrients, 14(18), 3855. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14183855
Felice, F., & Vatiero, M. (2012, June 27). Elinor Ostrom and the Solution to the Tragedy of the Commons. AEI. https://www.aei.org/articles/elinor-ostrom-and-the-solution-to-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/
Institutions for collective Action - Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. (n.d). from https://www.rsm.nl/faculty-research/centres/institutions-for-collective-action
A worker dumps pre-consumer food waste before being feed to black soldier fly larvae at the Enterra Feed Corporation in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. [Photograph]. (2018). China Daily. https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/14/WS5e45f365a3101282172777a1.html
