Mount Holyoke students must change our food culture to prevent waste

Graphic by Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 via Canvas

BY SACHIKO ARAI ’29

STAFF WRITER

Don’t leave your food, it’s mottainai.

As an international student from Japan, I grew up constantly hearing the word “mottainai” repeated to me at home, at school and in workplaces. 

While it is impossible to properly translate the profound meaning this word

carries, it ultimately expresses the regret of wasting something: Feelings, time and, of course, resources such as food. 

From a young age, my parents would admonish me if I left even a little rice on my plate. Therefore, I experience culture shock daily in the Dining Commons. Every time I see plates with heaps of food, perfectly untouched, being shoved onto the dishrack, I feel both shock and disappointment. 

The food waste in Blanch is problematic for multiple reasons. Of course, the most obvious harm it causes is the severe environmental waste. However, it also insinuates that many students do not acknowledge and respect the endeavor that the dining hall workers and other community members pour into creating their dishes every day. As a student who works at the dining hall and sees the dedication the workers put into each dish, the latter is an equally important issue. 

Luckily, this issue has not gone unnoticed. Many members of the Mount Holyoke community have been continuously standing at the frontlines of solving the food waste issue. One of those people is Shawn Kelsey. Kelsey is the associate director of culinary operations at Mount Holyoke, in charge of overseeing all the operations in the dining area. 

“Food waste on campus is a major problem,” Kelsey stated, when I had the opportunity to interview him. 

According to Kelsey, there are two types of food waste: Pre-consumer food waste and post-consumer food waste. Pre-consumer food waste refers to waste such as kitchen scraps, which are often unavoidable parts of the cooking process. The problem, he notes, is that the majority of food waste falls into the latter category, post-consumer food waste. Food waste that people throw away, despite the fact that their trash is “edible, usable, and completely fine food.” 

“Some people are just unaware of what it adds up to, what it means and that our daily choices make an enormous impact,” Kelsey said, “It’s pretty astounding when you realize that you can feed over three hundred people a day with the food that we’re wasting.” He pointed out how post-consumer food waste does not simply imply a waste of the food itself, but also the waste of the energy and natural resources that were used to create it.

However, Kelsey also mentioned that the food waste issue has been gradually improving. He credits this accomplishment largely to an educational program that was initiated in 2024, in collaboration with Mount Holyoke students in the Food Recovery Network. The program is a food waste module that informs students about the food waste issue on campus, covering every necessary aspect regarding the issue. This module is presented mandatorily during all first-year seminars. 

“The numbers [that indicate improvement] are there,” Kelsey said. He shared his hope that by continuing the project, awareness of food waste would continue to spread, “moving the needle in the culture here on campus of understanding and awareness of what our food waste issue is.” 

Kelsey’s visions are indeed coming true. While the program has been in use for only two years, it has transformed the way students view and consume food at Blanch. One of those students is Vitalina Nam ’29, who took the food waste module during her first-year seminar. Even before taking the module, she was aware of the major consequences food waste had. Yet, she confessed that despite holding such knowledge, she and many other first-year students tended to waste food. “I’m not proud of it, but still I think it happened to a lot of first-year students,” Nam stated, mentioning how many Mount Holyoke students, especially first years, tended to throw food away after first arriving on campus while discovering their favorite dishes. 

After taking the food waste module, Nam’s attitudes changed. Not only did it deepen her understanding of food waste, but learning about it from a person who actually works at the dining hall made her feel more responsible for the issue. 

“After meeting a person who sees food waste, who sees my food waste every day, I felt even more responsible than before,” Nam mentioned. Now, she always makes sure to circle around all the food stations before selecting her dish, putting time and thought into the food she chooses to eat. 

As more students are deciding to participate in the reduction of food waste, more innovative ways to approach the issue have emerged as well. One of those people who is part of this movement is Violet Tedesco ’28, the social media coordinator of the Food Recovery Network. Tedesco, who has always been passionate about food justice and access, decided to join FRN in her very first year at Mount Holyoke. She described how members of FRN are always brimming with countless innovative ways to tackle the issue. They are planning to implement accessible composting on campus, create a campus food bank, and start a system to donate leftover food from Grab ’n Go areas, which she asks us to “stay tuned” for. She spoke on behalf of all the FRN members, saying that through such activities, they hope to encourage others to strive “for progress rather than perfection” when facing this issue. 

In the end, both Violet and Kelsey mentioned that while solving food waste appears to be an insurmountable goal, it’s really the small steps that matter. In other words, it’s crucial for each and every one of us to hold the mottainai mindset when eating at Blanch every day. 

“We just ask that people are mindful when they’re putting food on their plates,” Kelsey stated. “I know there’s a lot of really delicious food, and maybe you want to try many things,” he added with a little laugh. “Remember that those menu items come up again. So choose what you know you’re going to eat, and then you have an opportunity to try that other food the next time it comes up on the menu.” 

Whitney White ’28 contributed fact checking.

Beyond slogans: We are not speaking the same language

Graphic by Betty Smart ’26

BY BETTY SMART ’26

GRAPHICS EDITOR

What’s in a name these days? Increasingly, it depends on who you ask. With our country again at war — after months of domestic unrest over immigration, arguments about trans rights and a further economic tailspin — we are long overdue for a hard reset on understanding, particularly around slogans.

All over campus, social media, even clothes and bags, are statements like “ICE Out,” “Free Palestine,” “Black Lives Matter” and “Protect Trans Kids,” just to name a few. While I understand perfectly what these slogans represent, I’ve begun to question what’s really at the core of conservative backlash to the causes, and if the burden might be on us to clear the air.

Before I start, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am not trying to say liberal causes need to be more “palatable” to conservatives, nor am I  naively pleading, “Can’t we all just get along?” I draw a hard line at compromising with people who have nothing but pure hatred at the core of their beliefs; these people are not the ones I am asking you to try to understand. The people I’m talking about are the conservatives, center-right or moderate and undecided people who could be open to discussing and changing their views on certain topics, but haven’t had exposure to them beyond right-wing urban legends. 

So many words and concepts have developed radically different meanings depending on who’s using them. It’s insane to see how liberal causes are twisted in headlines on conservative outlets like Fox News, Breitbart, Town Hall or Red State. To borrow a concept from a Monty Python sketch, it’s like someone has replaced all the polite sayings in our translation books with dirty jokes. 

Slogans are a convenient way to sum up a cause, and their intended meaning is crystal clear to others who believe in that cause. Some people on the right know full well what these liberal slogans mean, and oppose them for exactly that reason. Other people, however, have been sorely misinformed by these distortions, which are deliberately amplified by public figures, and locked in by primal fears or resentments.

“Protect Trans Kids” has become “Give Five-Year-Olds Surgeries and Hormones”

“Abolish ICE” has become “Let Criminals In.”

“Free Palestine” has become “Hamas Rules.”

“Anti-Israel” has become “Kill All Jewish People.”

“Pro-Choice” has become “Abortion Always.”

“Gay Rights” has become “No Straight Couples.”

“DEI” has become “Unqualified Minorities over Anyone Qualified.”

“Black Lives Matter” has become “White Lives Don’t Matter.”

“ACAB” has become “Death to Law and Order.”

It makes me wonder if we’re even speaking the same language. In an age of incredibly harsh division, while certain causes are non-negotiable, sometimes boiling them down to slogans like these leaves them open to misinterpretation by people who might actually want to join them. America is not going to get any better if we don’t make more of an effort to make ourselves understandable to those on the other side of the divide. 

In this case, reaching across the aisle would NOT mean compromising your principles, especially around issues concerning human rights. What it should mean is being more proactive at explaining what these causes actually stand for and against, as well as why we believe in them.  

The other thing we need to do, if we want to get the other side to understand us, is to keep an open mind as to what is actually behind a person’s resistance to these causes. For some people, it may be a matter of clearing away the poisonous fog of misinformation, a big example of this is around issues concerning trans rights and queer children.  

I would also argue that some non-malicious opposition may not even stem from ignorance, but a genuine concern in the practice or ideology behind a slogan.  A person who cringes to see police officers generalized under “ACAB” may also believe that police brutality is a real problem and the police force needs to be reformed.  

In a more global example, the double meanings that have become attached to numerous slogans related to the Israel-Palestine conflict has made dialogue incredibly difficult to have.  People who attach different meanings to “Zionism” or “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” might actually find they share the same goal of a peaceful end to the conflict, with neither holding antisemitic or Islamophobic intentions.

So what can be done about this? I urge readers to think about the conservatives in their lives; maybe they’ve voted red but are unhappy, maybe they say they don’t like to get involved, or maybe they’re set in their ways because they’re afraid to change tents after so long and haven’t heard good things about the other one. Of course, the folks we’d be reaching out to would have to meet us halfway, and be willing to explain their own beliefs in the first place, beyond a like or dislike of a slogan or title. 

A lot is at risk in America right now, and I reiterate that we should not compromise with any hateful ideology. But at the end of the day, we can’t afford to keep writing so many people off as the enemy just because of a hesitance surrounding certain causes. Hesitance is not the same as hatred. If you know someone who doesn’t support a slogan you agree with, or vice versa, don’t jump straight to condemning them. Ask them why. Learn what information spurred their choices, and see if you can’t set the record straight. You might be surprised what a little clarity brings.

I’m not saying this would be easy. Political causes are very emotional for a lot of people regardless of affiliation, and the sad truth is plenty of people aren’t going to listen. But I believe there are plenty more people out there who will listen, if they were to actually see the cause behind a three-word slogan. We are the United States, and it’s about high time we started acting like it.

Whitney White ’28 contributed fact checking.