Food waste is food that is discarded but was intended to be eaten. This can be at any stage, from the growing stage, producing and packaging, to being at the hands of people. 

Over one-third of all food products in the world are wasted. That amounts to millions of tons of food that either get spoiled, thrown out or lost during distribution. Alongside just the food being wasted, labor, packaging, energy and resources are all being wasted in the process. 

On average, more food is wasted in schools than at home. This is mostly because of the regulations in place that requires students in many grades to take certain foods, even if the student knows they won't eat it. The cost of all of this food waste adds up. About $9.7 million dollars are wasted each day on it, totaling to about $1.7 billion each year for schools.

Large amounts of money are spent every day on food that doesn't get eaten in schools. This is money that the government could pour into other programs. Not only this, but wasted food that gets thrown into landfills also greatly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing food waste in schools can greatly benefit the environment and decrease the speed of climate change, a pressing issue in today's world.

Countries in Europe have handled this ongoing problem of food waste, and even food insecurity and has actually shown progress. Compared to the US, Europe's food waste has gone down almost 40%, while the US has gone up. In Germany specifically, educational buildings have created different ways to help reduce food waste. They use reusable utensils and containers and allow students to being home any food that hasn't been eaten that day. Other countries like Sweden and Italy have even lower percentages of food waste that range from 20-30% while the US ranges upwards of 27-53% of food being wasted.