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 wastedevery day. This study was conducted to determine the food wastage of high school studentsand the service quality of a cafeteria located in Silang, Cavite. Convenience sampling wasutilized to select high school students enrolled in the school where the cafeteria is situated toparticipate in the study. A descriptive-evaluative research design was used and data gatheredwere analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation.Quarter waste method was used to measure plate wastage while adopted questionnaire wasused to determine the service quality of the cafeteria. Findings revealed that the highestpercentage of food wastage was gluten followed by ground vegescallop, vegemeat, tofu, andbeans. In terms of service quality, the lowest percentage was the dining area (Mean= 2.95 andSD= 0.80), followed by Food Quality (Mean=3.44 and SD= 0.80), Food Variety (Mean= 3.76and 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 hasthe highest percentage of waste while among the five factors contributing to the service qualityof a cafeteria, dining area has the lowest percentage. Based on the results, the use of gluten aspart of the meal and the dining area as a place to eat should be improved to lessen the foodwastage and enhance the service quality, respectively.