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I work in Long term care and one of the policy is staff cannot eat remaining food from the residents meals (the food that has not being served). It goes in the garbage at the end of the day. Some staff argue that they would rather throw it away than staff eat.

I work as server and some staff in other departments don't bring their own food and are always asking us once all residents have been served. But some of us have to follow the rules because we can lose our jobs for giving them food even though its going in the garbage.

There are some staff that work overnight shifts other homes and directly come to our work. so they don't have time to go home to prepare breakfast and lunch. So this puts me in an awkward position. I feel bad that they are starving. But at the same time, If i give them i risk my job. Then they are some who just don't bring their own food and are always asking. As a matter of fact, another staff member was reported by a family member for giving CNA's food and she was given a written warning.

How would you address this issue?

I work in Long term care and one of the policy is staff cannot eat
remaining food from the residents meals.( the food that has not being
served). It goes in the garbage at the end of the day.

another staff member was reported by a family member for giving CNA's
food and she was given a written warning. How would you address this
issue?

You aren't supposed to give the food away. And you have learned that you could get a written warning for doing so. It could even end up costing you your job.

So don't give the food away. Put it in the garbage at the end of the day as you are directed.

Either continue to say "No" when asked for food and remind them of the rules, or bring it to your manager's attention. Ask something like "How should I handle it when others ask for leftover food?"

The policy seems silly to me and I might be tempted to ask my manager why we had such a policy. I do understand that not having such a policy could encourage having folks intentionally not giving the food to clients so as to have more leftovers. Perhaps there are other reasons.

It wouldn't be worth risking my job to intentionally violate the policy no matter how I felt.

Note: I just noticed that you wrote in another question that you were to be questioned by HR about hiding food to take home later. In that question, you indicated that you ate the food at your workstation, and that you felt the policy was unclear.

So are you trying to get other people in trouble? Or are you still unclear on the policy? If the former, let it go. If the latter, talk with HR until you understand the policy correctly. You don't want to get fired over this.

I'd suggest that you talk to HR and ask them to raise awareness about the rule to the whole staff. There's no point having rules which are not known, not followed or unfairly enforced.

Currently most staff don't follow the rule, either because they don't know it or they think it's fine to ignore it. This means that so far HR doesn't communicate properly about it. They should make sure that all staff know the rule, what they risk if they don't follow it, and preferably explain why the rule is in place (it's always easier to accept a rule when we can understand it).

Once everybody is made aware of the rule and the consequences of not following it, it will be much easier for you to answer your colleagues. It's even likely that they will stop asking you.