Professor of Economics Nancy White teamed up with Bostwick Marketplace, Bucknell Student Government, and the Environmental Club to host the Zero Food Waste Challenge on Nov. 18. White teaches the first-year foundation seminar Mindful Consumption. Her students stayed in the Bostwick Cafeteria from 5-7 p.m. to observe students eating their dinners and analyze what they ate, along with what excess was thrown out.

“The purpose was to make sure that people would become more mindful eaters by making sure that portion sizes were directly correlated with how hungry they were,” said Lindsay Erickson ’18, a student in the Mindful Consumption class.

The participants observed that people were eating more than they wanted to instead of cutting down on how much food they take from the all-you-can-eat style cafeteria. Students from the foundation seminar say that it was a successful event overall. It got University students to realize that it is more beneficial for the environment to take less than they think they will eat and get more if they are still hungry afterwards, instead of throwing out half the meal on their plate if they are not as hungry as they thought.