The author completed a 2-week personal food waste activity to gain insight into their own food waste habits and amounts. They found it challenging to consistently track everything they threw away but estimated wasting around $10 worth of food every 2-3 weeks, mostly fruits, vegetables, and leftovers that went bad before being eaten. The activity highlighted opportunities for the author to be more mindful about portion sizes and using food before it spoils to reduce their food waste and save money as a college student.

1. Sierra Dunbar
Personal Food Waste Activity
11/7/16
FSHN 455

2. This activity was defiantly an eye-opening experience. It also gave me sympathy for
those who have to keep diet records, because it is hard to remember to write down everything
you eat (or in this case- don’t eat) for 2 weeks straight. Most times I would do it at the end of the
day but sometimes I would remember to write it down immediately after and sometimes I would
forget entirely. For me, I kept a long in my phone and would transfer it to an excel spreadsheet
every few days. I found this tedious especially after entering it for a 3rd
and 4th
time into the log.
I definitely don’t throw away as much as I thought I would, but the seemingly small
amount that I do toss certainly added up to a lot! As a poor college student, I really should have
been watching this better starting a very long time ago. Along with being a poor college student,
I realized that on the weekends I definitely didn’t throw as many things away due to the fact that
I usually sleep the day away and therefore usually skip an entire meal. Some other things I
noticed is that right before I go to the grocery store I always go through my fridge and throw out
things that are bad or old. This usually includes a lot of half eaten veggies and fruits and
leftovers that I never ate. To save money I need to start getting creative and making meals out of
food before it goes bad. Either way, I end up throwing up to $10 of rotten food out every 2-3
weeks.
Estimating amounts for most things were easy, except for cooking waste. For example, I
made lasagna and tried to note each scrap that I had including 3 leftover pieces of lasagna
noodles, ½ of a zucchini and the outer layer and skin of an onion. Some things easier to
estimated include my breakfast burritos where I purposefully leave 1/3 uneaten and my morning
coffee which is very common in my morning ritual. I found it saddening how much delicious
coffee that I am tossing each week. I mostly used cups as a measurement tool because it is the

3. easiest reference for me and what I am most comfortable using/ referencing tom but I tried to use
TBSP/TBS when it was too small.
Where does my food go? Well, I don’t compost, so it must all go to the landfill. That is a
lot of food to waste. I think that in a lot of my classes we talk about food security and one of the
things that I’ve noticed is that so much of the food that gets tossed could have been eaten, used
or at least composted. If it was only me wasting food then it is not a very big environmental
impact but when most people throw way that much food then the impact is exponential. I can’t
even imagine the amount that restaurants in Fort Collins alone throw away. I think that most
people think that it is hard to be zero/limited waste but there are so many restaurants and
households that are able to do it with minimal daily effort once the format is implemented. FoCo
café is very close to zero waste. They use strategies that include using the paper towels that were
used for drying hands to then wipe down plates. They also gather food for compost, have a
“chicken bucket” for chicken farmers to pick up and feed to their chickens. They make only
enough food for the amount of customers that they expect and all of their furniture is donated.
Collecting food for chickens and making the minimum amount of food are things that many
restaurants could do. Even just making portion sizes slightly smaller would be beneficial as well.
-

4. Personal Food Waste Activity _________________________ name
Tossed food (use back of page or additional sheets if necessary).
Date Location/Occasion Food Description Quantity
11.1 Morgans Grind Chorizo breakfast burrito from
Consuelos
1/3 of the
burrito
Morgans Grind Caramel Latte w/ whip 5 oz
Home Fresh Raspberries ¼ package
Home Chicken Noodle Soup- Campbell’s
can
1/8 cup
11.2 Home Homemade French Toast on wheat
bread- 1 egg, 1 tbsp milk, cinnamon &
vanilla
3 half pieces &
a tbsp of syrup
Home Orange juice 2 tbsp
Campus House salad from spoons 1 cup
Home Hot Dog buns- King Soopers brand 1 bag of 4
Home Romaine lettuce ½ head
Home 2% Milk ¼ gallon
11.3 Home Coffee grounds- used 4 tbsp
Class Home brewed coffee w/ 2% milk 1/3 cup
Morgan’s Grind Dr. Pepper 8 oz
Morgan’s Grind Peanut butter cookie- Aspen Baking 1/3 of cookie
Home Mac & Cheese (req. 3 tbsp Milk)-
Kraft
½ cooked box
11.4 Home 2% Milk in cereal- king soopers ¼ cup
Home Life Cereal ½ cup
Home Fresh Raspberries 5 count
11.5 Home Coffee ice cream- Tilamook ½ cup
11.6 Home Green Pepper ½ Pepper
Home Small Salad greens mixed bag Entire bag
Home Chicken Breast ½ breast
Home Grapefruit juice- Ocean Spray ¼ gallon
Home Shredded Mozzarella cheese- Kings
brand
1/8 bag
Home MOD pizza with veggies and sausage 1 slice
Home Italian dressing ½ bottle
Home Eggs- medium 3 count
11.7 Home Cucumber 1” on both ends
and peel
Home Penne Noodles- cooked ½ cup

5. 11.8 Morgans Grind Spanish Omelet Breakfast Burrito
from Consuelos
1/3 of the
burrito
Home Ground coffee- used 4 tbsp
Home Coffee W/ 2% milk 1 cup
Home 2% milk ¼ cup
11.9 Home Pasta Salad with shredded chicken,
tomatoes and cucumber.
¼ cup
Home Diet Dr. Pepper can ¼ can… 3 oz
11.10 Home Red Potato w/ S&P and ½ tsp
Worcestershire
½ small potato
Home Scrambled Egg ½ total
Home Coffee ¼ cup
Home Coffee grounds 3 tbsp
Home Turkey bacon- Oscan Mayer 1/2 strip
Home Mushroom 1 mushroom
Home Pasta Salad (Same as above) 1 cup
11.11 Home 2% Milk- king soopers ¼ cup
Home Life Cereal ½ cup
Home Coffee 1/8 cup
Home Coffee grounds 3 tbsp
Home Zucchini small ½ entire thing
Home Mushroom stems 3 count
Home Whole Wheat lasagna noodles 3 strips
Home Onion medium 1 onion skin +
1st
layer
Home Garlic .5 clove
11.12 None
11.13 Gibbs Bagel Breakfast bagel with egg, sausage,
tomatoes, and cream cheese
¼ of entire
thing
Home Coffee w/ 1 tbsp 2% milk ¼ cup
Home Coffee grounds 3 tbsp
11.14 Fuzzies Taco Shop Chicken nachos ½ the entree
Fuzzies Taco Shop Lemon slice 1 slice

6. Combined Food groups Approximate amount Approximate cost
Fruits 1/3 cup Raspberries
1 lemon slice
$1.10
Veggies Romaine lettuce-1/2 head
Green peppers-.5
Mushrooms- ~3
Cucumber-3”
Potato-1/2
Onion-10%
Garlic- .5 clove
Tomato- 2 grape
Zucchini- ½ small
Salad greens- 1 bag
$5.70
Grains Hot dog buns- 1 bag of 4
PB cookie- 1/3 cookie
Life cereal- 1 cup
Penne Noodles- ½ cup
Lasagna Noodles- 3 noodles
$2.75
Meats/Protein Chicken Breast- 1/2
Eggs- 3.5
Turkey Bacon- 1 strip
$1.80
Drinks Coffee- ~2 cups
Caramel Latte- 5 oz
OJ- 2 tbsp
Grapefruit Juice- ¼ gallon
Dr. Pepper/Diet- 11 oz
$5.10
Combined Meals Chorizo burrito- 1/3
Spanish omelet burrito-1/3
Chicken Noodle Soup- 1/8 cup
French Toast- 1.5 slices
House Salad- 1 cup
Mod Pizza- ¼ pizza
Pasta Salad- 1.25 cups
Mac & Cheese- ½ box
Breakfast Bagel- ¼
Fuzzies Nachos- ½
$14.05
Dairy Milk 1.75 cups
Cheese- 1/8 bag
Ice Cream- ½ cup
$2.25
Other Italian Dressing- ½ bottle
Coffee Grounds- 1 cup
$6.00
Total Cost ____$38.75______________
Percent of YOUR food budget _____~23%_____________

7. Include the approach and any assumptions you made in estimating amounts and costs. I realize
this is going to be a rough estimate at best but there are a variety of ways you could arrive at that
estimate. You need to explain your process.
The way that I estimated the food costs was by going through each food and taking the
total price of that food and then taking the portion of what I threw away and used that price. Here
are a few examples of my thought process…
-Fruit: 3/4 cup of raspberries- They were $3 when I bought the box last and 1/3 cup is about
1/3of the box which would be $1’s worth. A lemon is usually $.50 and one slice is about 1/5 to
1/8 of a lemon, therefore $.1 is about average.
-Fuzzes Nachos are about $7 and if I only ate half, that is $3.50 wasted.
-Other: A bottle of dressing costs $2-$6 on average and if I only used half that is $2 about, and a
bag of coffee that I buy is about $8 and 1 cup of grinds is about half the bag, aka. $4 so that gives
me $6 wasted.
- For most vegetables I estimated the price to be about $1-$2 per item except for mushrooms
because I know that they are more expensive.