An Open Letter to Restaurants
by Jennifer Kalikasingh
Dear Restaurants,
My family and I were driving to Toronto, Canada, when we stopped at a rest stop in Angola on route 90 to eat something and freshen up. After my dad filled up gas, we walked across the overpass on the highway to have something to drink and eat. It was about 10 am, so I ordered a big breakfast with pancakes, hash browns, and orange juice. Along with my delicious breakfast came two small packs of maple syrup and two packs of jam and two packs of butter. My brother had the same set, but with ketchup. My little niece had a happy meal with a toy, but she did not want it because she already had a similar one from a previous purchase.
After we finished eating, it was clean up time. We grabbed our leftovers and was about to dump them in the garbage when my dad drew my attention to the amount of good stuff we were throwing away. I only used one pack of maple syrup and I was about to discard the two packs of jam, two packs of butter, one pack of maple syrup and some napkins. My little niece threw away her toy that came with the meal and my brother threw away two packs of ketchup. My dad said he could not understand why Americans waste so much of food when others are in need of it. But it was not only us that did this, nearly everybody at the rest stop was doing the same.
So as we resumed our trip on the road to Toronto, I kept thinking about the waste that I was guilty of and I think that in one day for all the fast food places around lots of good items are thrown away that other people can use. It made me think about Jeannette Walls in the Glass Castle; she and her siblings used to have nothing to eat for days. Then I think about the starving women and children in Ethiopia that I have seen on TV picking up grains of rice one at time from the sand. I said to myself that there should be a way to save the stuff that I just threw away. I think that restaurants like McDonald’s should have a bin in their restaurant so people could have a place to throw good stuff in. Volunteers can then collect them and distribute them to shelters and other kitchens.
Another idea is for customer being asked to pay a small fee for extra items like ketchup; butter etc. and this would make them think twice before throwing things away. What I am suggesting is being done in Europe and has been proven to waste less food. America should use this as an example so we can all prevent waste.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Kalikasingh
