Enrichment · Passion Projects

Weigh it, change one thing,
weigh it again.

Food waste is hard to cut until you measure it. For each weigh-in, record the place, the days covered and the people served, then weigh each bag or bin with the food type and the reason it was thrown out. The log turns it into ounces per person per day, so a share table, smaller servings or recess before lunch can be tested week against week.

Log a weigh-inWhat you get
$5one-time · every device you sign in on
Buy · $5

Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Or get it in the Passion projects kit, $39 for 43 items.

Weigh-ins

The worked example is made up: a student project weighing one lunch period’s waste for three weeks, before and after two changes. Saved on this device only.

Loading the weigh-in form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Passion Projects$5

What you finish with
A record per weigh-in: date, place, days covered, people served, each bin with food type, pounds and reason, where it went and what changed. Works out total pounds and ounces per person per day; shows the trend and pounds by reason; flags plate waste, spoiled food, food thrown out over date labels, trash that could be compost and a missing people count.
Who it is for
Students running a cafeteria or environmental club project, teachers supervising one, and families measuring waste at home.
Format
Browser log with a saved record per weigh-in. Prints one weigh-in, all of them in a table or a blank sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv) for graphs; exports and imports a file.
Access
$5 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with the Caveat Academy pass and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Passion projects kit ($39) and the Enrichment Suite pass ($119), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Passion Projects space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Weigh a baseline week before changing anything.
  2. Log each bin with food type and reason.
  3. Make one change.
  4. Weigh again the same way.
  5. Compare ounces per person per day.

Log a weigh-in

Food waste

Where food waste goes, best to worstPrevent itBuy, cook and serve lessSmaller first servingsShare tables for wholefruitFeed peopleDonate safe, unservedfoodFederal law protectsgood-faith donorsFeed soil, lastCompost scrapsLandfill only for whatis leftWhere food waste goes, best to worstPrevent itBuy, cook and serve lessSmaller first servingsShare tables for whole fruitFeed peopleDonate safe, unserved foodFederal law protects good-faith donorsFeed soil, lastCompost scrapsLandfill only for what is left
Based on the EPA’s Wasted Food Scale. Measuring is the first step: you cannot tell whether a change worked without a before and an after.

How big the problem is

The USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply is wasted. In schools, studies of lunch waste repeatedly find fruit, vegetables and milk at the top of the list, which is why the example weighs them separately.

Date labels

Except for infant formula, federal law does not require date labels, and terms like best by and sell by describe quality, not safety. Food past its date can still be good to eat if it has been stored well; look, smell and use judgment, and when in doubt, throw it out.

Sources

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture (usda.gov): food waste FAQs; 30 to 40 percent of the food supply.
  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov): Wasted Food Scale; guide to conducting student food waste audits.
  3. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (fsis.usda.gov): food product dating.
  4. Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (1996), as amended by the Food Donation Improvement Act (2022).

The worked example is made up. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.