Is this wrong...please fucking say it is!

[HairOfTheDog]

No when I'm finished with a plate of food what's left on the plate, which is generally not a lot, is garbage. Two french fries some sauce and a couple of button mushrooms are going to provide a homeless guy with much sustenance.

If someone lives a large portion of their food on their plate the consensus in the UK would be “what did you order that for? Eyes bigger than your belly?”

I don't bother taking a couple of french fries or 3 string beans or some equally absurd amount of food, obviously. And, I don't have the same experience as you. I've traveled quite a bit through Europe and Asia - never noticed a big difference in portion sizes as compared to the US, but I don't eat American fast food when I'm abroad and typically don't order large portioned dishes here either.

Still, I often have a lot left when I got out for dinner. I don't keep tortilla chips and bread in the house (no sweets either). So, if I go out for Italian or Mexican, which I love, I usually splurge and eat more of them than I should when they're served as an appetizer. Then, I'm not usually able to finish my meal, but will take home what's left and enjoy it later. It's essentially a meal that's half dine in and half take out.

As for finding someone needy to eat it, how is that done and who does it? The person who left it on their plate? I'm pretty sure that person doesn't want to drive around looking for tramps to give it to they just want to go home now! And if staff at the restaurant are touring the streets with plates of leftovers who's covering for them at the restaurant?

I don't know if you've ever been to San Francisco, but it's a walking city. We walk a lot to restaurants - either from home or from a parking garage. There aren't restaurant parking lots for most establishments.

There are a lot of great little places with all kinds of foods from around the world - everywhere. I usually go out in the Mission or Haight districts - there are many homeless on the streets outside of restaurants. If they ask for money, which I don't carry there and am less inclined to hand over anyway, I'll offer them left-overs if they say they want the money for food. Some of them actually get pissed. But, others really are hungry and are glad to have some good food in front of them (and it's not a big loss to me).

Do you think all restaurants should employ full time leftovers distributors for the needy?

You do know that supermarkets, cafes and sandwich shops throw massive amounts of perfectly good food away everyday right? Maybe you should be getting in their grill about waste rather than diners and their poxy little leftovers?

Restaurants don't need to employ any such employees. It's simply up to their customers if they choose to take food out and offer it up or not. Period.

I already said that I don't care if other people don't take home left-overs. It's nobody's responsibility to eat whatever they buy or donate it. I often do, personal choice. I just think it's silly for those who'd rather see it tossed to act as those who choose to make use of it are all of those negative adjectives that were thrown out there. Difference of opinion, is all.

Yeah, I know food gets thrown away by businesses. I also know that some of it gets donated. I live near the San Francisco Food Bank and volunteer there twice a quarter as part of a rotation. They have an excellent program which helps feed a lot of people in the community. Grocers and restaurants are the biggest donors.