Plate Wastage and the Service Quality of the Cafeteria in a Private High School
Millions of people in the world are suffering from scarcity of food, yet tons of food are wasted every day. This study was conducted to determine the food wastage of high school students and the service quality of a cafeteria located in Silang, Cavite. Convenience sampling was utilized to select high school students enrolled in the school where the cafeteria is situated to participate in the study. A descriptive-evaluative research design was used and data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation. Quarter waste method was used to measure plate wastage while adopted questionnaire was used to determine the service quality of the cafeteria. Findings revealed that the highest percentage of food wastage was gluten followed by ground vegescallop, vegemeat, tofu, and beans. In terms of service quality, the lowest percentage was the dining area (Mean= 2.95 and SD= 0.80), followed by Food Quality (Mean=3.44 and SD= 0.80), Food Variety (Mean= 3.76 and SD= 0.61), Personnel employees’ service (Mean= 3.80 and SD= 0.79), and Serving time (Mean= 3.85 and SD= 0.80). Among the five protein foods that incurred a leftover, gluten has the highest percentage of waste while among the five factors contributing to the service quality of a cafeteria, dining area has the lowest percentage. Based on the results, the use of gluten as part of the meal and the dining area as a place to eat should be improved to lessen the food wastage and enhance the service quality, respectively.