Les Bonnes Choses

Okay, so here is what life is like inside the mind of someone who overthinks things. I've been to a number of potlucks. I've hosted a number of potlucks. One thing remains constant: an overabundance of food. I don't know how many times I've implored people to take home some leftovers because it pains me to throw away so much food at the end of the night when there are starving people in Africa. Or indeed, pretty much everywhere. And if you're like me you've wondered from time to time just how much food is being tossed out. And if you're like me today, on the way to buy 3 dozen cookies to bring to a potluck (here's where I was), you figure out a good approximation.

Here's the thing: when someone goes to a potluck, knowing that there will be, say, 10 people there, they buy enough food to feed all 10 people. Okay, it works a little differently when people are invited as couples, or families, but the general gist is the same. Alright, so now each of the 10 people arrive at the party with 10 portions of KFC, lasagne, caesar salad or pie. That's 100 portions of food. Invite 12 people, and now there's 144 portions of food. Even allowing that each of those portions accounts for only, say, 25% of a meal (main dish, side 1, side 2, dessert), at the end of the day, the amount of food that gets wasted is exponential. When resources get wasted at an exponential rate, that's kind of a big deal.

So what's the take home (aside from leftovers)? Well, if you're a math teacher, this would be a really good 2-point question, maybe 5 points if you also ask for an appropriate number of cookies to bring to minimize waste. If you'll be attending a potluck in the near future and are either cost or waste conscious, you might rethink whether you really need to buy the family bucket of chicken. And finally, if you were thinking of hosting a potluck, you might want to cross me off your invite list, because, man, what a buzzkill.