I had my last customer meeting here in Chicago during this trip this morning, which ended with my colleague and me taking our customer group out for lunch at a nearby, very corporate lunch spot. It was a fairly standard American menu, with different sections for wraps, sandwiches, salads, and burgers. The majority of us at the table ordered salads, and when they arrived, I couldn’t believe how large they were. This could easily have fed three of us, and I felt horrible at the thought of having to waste nearly half of this massive plate at the end, even if I would be expensing the entire meal. When our lunch was done, zero people at my table finished their salads, and most were barely even half eaten.

I understand why people oftentimes get annoyed at eating salad as your meal because they don’t think they are filling, but at the same time, I do not think you compensate for that by just making the salad astronomically bigger, even if it’s with additional avocado, tomatoes, or chicken. The amount of food waste in this country is ridiculous and so indicative of how spoiled and privileged we are, and if only there was a way to actually ask for a specific portion of said salad, that would be the very beginning of restaurants wasting less.