We all love food. But when you can't finish your meal, how do you feel? You might think that wasting a little bit of food isn't a big deal. But when a whole school starts to save food in their cafeteria, it will make a big difference.
In the cafeteria at Hengyang No.1 Middle School in Hunan province, new banners are put up. "Who knows that each bowl of rice is the fruit of hard toil? (谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦)". "Refuse to waste food."
This is part of a nationwide campaign called "Clear Your Plate" to cut down on food waste in China. "There used to be 100 kg of food waste every day. But now, there is only 25 kg of food waste every day, as students are encouraged to take just the amount of food they need," said the cafeteria's manager.
In fact, food waste has long been a big problem around the world. According to a study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese people wasted 35 million tons of food each year. That is enough to feed the entire country of South Korea for a whole year. The UN says there are 820 million people around the world who live in hunger. By cutting down on food waste, we could help put food on the empty plates of many hungry people.
