What a waste!

My last blog covered the Xtreme Eating Awards and the ridiculous entrees dreamed up by chain restaurants. Many of these entrees supplied a full day's worth of calories and up to several days worth of things like fat and sodium.

While she's dropped like a stone from the headlines, you probably recall reading about the school cafeteria worker who was fired for feeding a hungry kid, something she's done before, she said.

“I had a first grader in front of me, crying, because she doesn't have enough money for lunch,” Curry, a mother of two, told a CBS Denver station. “Yes, I gave her lunch.”

I realize that schools gotta take a stand somewhere, but in a country where a member of the middle class will order a 1.5 pound entrée, graze at an all-you-can-eat buffet for some ridiculously low price, or eat an 8-pound burrito to get the free t-shirt, I don't think kids should be going hungry.

Our collective gluttony aside, did you know that 40% of food in the U.S. goes uneaten? That's equal to more than 20 pounds of food per person per month.

Fortunately, all is not lost (tossed), per this Time Inc. article. Food rescue groups are redistributing perfectly fine food to soup kitchens and shelters. A former Trader Joe's exec is piloting a nonprofit grocery concept in which nutritious food from grocery stores, food supplies, restaurants will be made available at very low cost in urban areas.

While the school's defense is that it is not required to feed kids (and to be fair, they do give them three hot meals, and then, a cheese sandwich and milk thereafter), it's a shame that our educational system is so rigid and inside the box.