Dear editor,
Just a few days ago I was grabbing a late dinner at Out of Bounds when I saw the most terrible sight in the world. While I was standing at the refrigerator door debating whether or not to actually spend the horrendous $1.50 on a fruit cup, an Out of Bounds employee stood next to me, trash bag in hand, throwing away every sandwich and salad, making his way right down to the fruit cups.
I quickly grabbed a cup and then asked him what in the world he was doing. He explained to me that every single day Ball State University throws away pounds and pounds of untouched, uneaten food for the sake of freshness. As my mom would say in regard to any wasted food, fresh or not, "There are children starving in this world." If we spoiled college students cannot stand a day-old sandwich, we need to give it to someone who needs and appreciates it.
With tears in my eyes I continued to stand there watching that Out of Bounds employee do his job. With each sandwich that he tossed into the bag a little child's face flashed before my eyes - a child who will go hungry tonight and probably on into next week. I'm not talking about the pictures that are all too often seen on television or on the sides of coin collection boxes. I saw the faces of little Haitian children that I know, that I've held, that I've fed. Now, I know just as well as the next person that we cannot FedEx our leftovers to the starving children in a Third World country - but we can do something.
Why aren't we donating the food to the 45+ men who live at the Muncie Mission? Why aren't we providing aid to Muncie's less fortunate who are hungry right now and would love to eat those ham sandwiches and fruit cups? Sure, the food has been sitting in our dining hall refrigerators for a few days, but the government has a lower standard than we do.
According to Dining Services, the government has issued a three-day rule, allowing the food to sit in the refrigerators for three days before it has to be discarded. Ball State's Dining Service does not practice the government's three-day rule; instead, it prides itself in setting a higher standard. Here, the food is discarded after it has been on the shelf for 24 hours, sometimes 48 depending on the circumstance. If we do the simple math, between our standards and the government's, we are left with one day to take our leftovers to a charity of some sort.
Dining Services addresses the issue by explaining that they do not run their business; they "work for Ball State." Well, they can not hide their inconsideration behind bureaucracy any longer. The truth is, they are just ignoring the problem. Their hands aren't tied, their hearts are.
Andrea Hill
sophomore
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