Letter to the Editor: The cost of wasted food at Wichita State

On Thursday, Oct. 23, while I was waiting for my order to be filled, I saw a Pizza Hut employee marking a number of pizza boxes “1:30.” Wondering what it meant, I asked (the employee) about it. He said that at 1:30, all the marked pizza boxes would be discarded.

I asked, “Why not lower the price — to say, half — instead of trashing so much food?”  He agreed, but said he was doing as directed.

Are there any solutions that students can think of?

For your information, I emailed the message to a WSU official, but the response was:

  “Thanks for your note. Generally, they prepare food at a level that they think they need. Sometimes their estimate is not correct. They do have to dispose of older food under health regulations. This is a standard process in the food industry.”

 There has to be a better approach to this situation. I know some theaters reduce tickets to half price half an hour before the start of the show. In most stores, “Manager’s Special,” is used to clear some items — benefitting the store and the customer. In those cases, items are not thrown away

— Submitted by Prem Bajaj, associate professor emeritus