I went out last Saturday night with a group of people to a busy restaurant.  We had a pretty large group, so we had to grab the first table we could find.  There was a table about to become available, so we stalked it, and slid into the seats at the same time the others were leaving, taking no chances on loosing this opportunity.

As I looked on the table at the multiple baskets, which should have been empty, they were not.  They were filled with food with one, maybe two bites out of it.  I heard the lady sitting there before us make the comment to her kids, “…this was not a cheap meal, so I hope you enjoyed it.  It will be a while before we can do this again.”  I’m guessing the full baskets of food were from the kids, but (a) if they’re not going to eat it, why order that much?  And (b) why didn’t they take home the leftovers?

I guess this just bothers me because I know there are people out there that would love to have this food.  More than that, it’s the waste factor that bothers me.  I tell my kids we can always order more food if we’re still hungry, but we can’t put any back.

How did this become the social norm?  At what point did we start ignoring wastefulness?  This is lost money, lost resources and a poor example for the next generation.  What would it take to create a society of people that are wise with money, care about others and want their kids to learn the same principals?  I really hope my actions are teaching my kids that this could be better and their actions can change the world.