NCERT Solutions for Class 5th Maths Chapter 15 Rani's dining hall notice board and the food wastage bar graph — Food Wastage in the School Canteen

The notice board in the dining hall says:

• Take all you can eat. Eat all you take. — the rule of the dining hall.
• Yesterday's food wastage was 13 kg, which could have fed 25 people.

Wasting food wastes much more than food. It wastes the farmer's work, the water in the field, the fuel that cooked it, and the money that paid for it — and someone nearby may have gone hungry.

How we can reduce wastage — six things a child can actually do:

1. Take a small helping first. You can always go back for more. A plate you cannot finish is waste; a second helping is not.
2. Say no politely to a dish you know you will not eat, instead of taking it and leaving it.
3. Finish what is on your plate before you get up.
4. Tell the cook the true number. If ten children are away on a school trip, the kitchen should cook for ten fewer.
5. Keep a wastage board like Rani's school, and check it every day. What gets measured gets better.
6. Never throw food in the dustbin without first asking if someone or something can use it.

What we can do with leftover food:

• Food that has not been served and is still fresh can be packed and given the same day to people who need it, or sent to a shelter.
• Food from plates should never be given to people. Give clean vegetable peels and leftover rice or roti to cows, dogs or birds.
• Make compost. Peels, stalks and spoiled food buried in a pit turn into rich black soil in a few weeks. That soil grows the next crop of vegetables.
• Cook it again. Leftover rice becomes fried rice; leftover dal becomes parathas; stale roti becomes churma. Every Indian kitchen knows these tricks.

Sample answer: "I think food wastage is a serious problem. Rani's school threw away 13 kg of food in one day, and that food could have fed 25 people. We can reduce it by taking small helpings, going back for more only if we are still hungry, and telling the kitchen exactly how many children will eat. Fresh untouched food can be given away the same day, and food scraps can go to animals or into a compost pit instead of the dustbin."

Khichdi, on Wednesday. 8 kg of khichdi was wasted.

1. Look for the tallest bar. It is the third one, over Khichdi / Wednesday.
2. Slide left from the top of that bar to the numbers on the side.
3. Read the number. It stops exactly on 8.

Idli-Sambar, on Friday. Only 4 kg was wasted.

1. Look for the shortest bar. It is the last one, over Idli-Sambar / Friday.
2. Read its height against the side line. It stops on 4.

30 kg in the five days.

1. Write down the five bar heights. 5, 6, 8, 7 and 4.
2. Add them one at a time, keeping the running total in your head or on paper.

90 children.

1. Find the total wastage first. From the last question, it is 30 kg.
2. Read what one kilogram can do. 1 kg feeds 3 children.
3. Multiply, because every single kilogram feeds 3 more children.

Many pairs of days make this sentence true. Pick any two days and put the smaller one first.

Sample answers:

• Friday day had less food wastage than Wednesday day. (4 kg < 8 kg)
• Monday day had less food wastage than Thursday day. (5 kg < 7 kg)
• Tuesday day had less food wastage than Wednesday day. (6 kg < 8 kg)

Here are all five days in order, from least wasted to most wasted. Any day in this list had less wastage than every day to its right.

Yes — khichdi is likely to be wasted the most again.

1. Look at this week's data. Khichdi had the highest wastage, 8 kg.
2. Ask why. The most likely reason is that fewer children enjoy khichdi than the other dishes.
3. Think about next week. The same children and the same cooking will probably give the same result. So khichdi will most likely top the list again.