Another Reason Not to Eat at a Buffet

by Allene Edwards on 4/13/2011

Mexican buffet My son, Joel, and I went out yesterday for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, arriving minutes before the lunch buffet ended. I ordered from the menu, but Joel headed for the buffet. He'd missed lunch and was unusually hungry. Knowing he wouldn't be able to go back for seconds, he made enough tacos to feed a small army.

I do try to control all involuntary displays of maternal disapproval now that my sons are grown. I really do. They are men, good men, who don't deserve sighs, eye rolling, or that look—you know the one. The one that says, "You really do know better. I raised you better than that. Why are you embarrassing me?" I must admit, I'm not always successful in turning off the mother response.

I'm not sure which of the above behaviors I had slipped into that prompted Joel to defend himself, but he quickly told me that he wasn't wasting food. In five minutes they were going to throw away the all the food anyway, so it really didn't matter if he had made too many tacos.

"No, they won't," I said. (Now I was really into the mother role). "They can use the beans and rice and cheese. All those taco shells. All that meat. Maybe they'll throw away the burritos and things like that, but they can use most of that food."

"No, they can't."

He smiled as I called over the waitress to prove I was right. He was still smiling when she told me I was wrong.

Every bit of food on that buffet, from salad to fruit, taco shells to melted cheese, had to be thrown away when they tore down the buffet.

"Can't you donate it to the local shelter?" I asked.

"No," she said. "We could be fined $20,000 for doing that. It all goes in the trash."

On one hand, I understand the reason for the law. On the other, throwing away all that food is excessive and ridiculous! People can walk in, load up a takeout container with the food, and take it home. But a shelter can't do the same? Why not?
I intend to find out why. In the meantime, I'll never look at a buffet the same. I'll just wonder how much food is thrown out each day.

Allene Edwards is a contributing writer and the editor for both Organic Lifestyle Magazine and Green Lifestyle Magazine. She first became interested in alternative medicine and holistic treatment modalities when she successfully used diet therapy to manage her children’s ADHD. Later when she became chronically ill with an auto-immune disease that multiple doctors could not identify, much less cure, she successfully treated both the symptoms and the cause through naturopathic treatment and nutrition. Read more about Allene Edwards