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TIME Editor in Chief Sam Jacobs and Executive Editor Alex Altman sent the following memo to staff on Monday: 

Dear all,

TIME aspires to lead in the coverage of the remaking of the world by artificial intelligence.

Last week, we released our annual TIME100 AI list, led by Ayesha Javed, and an exclusive cover story about OpenAI drawing on unprecedented access inside the company. Today, we're announcing a significant investment in our AI and technology coverage. 

In just a few weeks, we’ll relaunch In the Loop, our AI newsletter, with a new format. Later this year, we plan to expand it to five days a week, giving readers a daily, essential briefing on the industry and the influences shaping it. Next year, we'll build on the success of this year’s AI events in Davos, Cannes, New York and San Francisco by launching our first-ever TIME100 AI Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C. We are exploring additional opportunities to convene the world's most influential AI leaders internationally too.

To support our continued commitment to this work, we’re pleased to announce the following staff changes.

Naomi Nix joined us Aug. 17 as a Senior Correspondent based in Washington. Naomi comes to TIME after four years covering Meta and the broader social media industry for The Washington Post, where her reporting focused on how powerful platforms shape American democracy and global politics. Before The Post, she covered tech lobbying and corporate influence for Bloomberg News, and got her start covering beats including education and City Hall for The 74, The Star-Ledger and the Chicago Tribune. At TIME, Naomi will contribute to In the Loop, write ambitious features and investigations, and report across platforms with a focus on policy, regulation, tech's political influence, and the nexus between Silicon Valley and the nation's capital.

Manisha Ganguly joins us as a Senior Correspondent based in London, starting Nov. 1. Manisha is a decorated investigative journalist and a pioneer in using open-source intelligence to expose war crimes. She joins us from The Guardian, where she was investigations correspondent and led visual forensics; she previously built out open-source investigative workflows at the BBC. She holds the first PhD awarded for research into OSINT's impact on investigative journalism, from the University of Westminster. Manisha is currently writing her first book. At TIME, she will pursue investigations and features on AI and national security, profile key leaders and policymakers, and contribute to In the Loop and our coverage across platforms.

Harry Booth, who joined TIME in 2024, becomes Staff Writer and will relocate to San Francisco in January to anchor our coverage of the world's most important AI hub. Since joining the London bureau, Harry has been a force behind our TIME100 AI, Philanthropy, and Climate franchises and our Best Inventions coverage. He co-authored our March cover story on Anthropic’s rise and its standoff with the Trump Administration, based on reporting inside the company. Harry will lead our beat coverage of the AI boom on the ground in the Bay Area, covering the frontier labs, hyperscalers, and startups defining this moment. 

The additions of Naomi and Manisha, and Harry's expanded role in San Francisco, will strengthen a team that already includes two agenda-setting correspondents on the AI beat: Billy Perrigo, based in London, and Andrew Chow, based in Washington. All will work with Senior Editor Dayana Sarkisova, who has done a terrific job leading our global beat coverage of AI leaders, companies, and their impact on society. Charlie Campbell, reporting to Gemma Fox, will continue to contribute greatly to our AI coverage from Asia.

In recent years, this global team has brought readers inside companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, and Waymo; broken robotics scoops showing what the next wave of automation looks like; and reported on the global data center boom and the political backlash it has provoked, taking readers from a remote valley above the Arctic Circle in Norway to frontline communities in Tennessee and Texas. Last December, we named "The Architects of AI" our Person of the Year.

Assembling this team reflects TIME's commitment to covering the most consequential story of our time with the ambition it demands—across every platform, through access and accountability, and careful scrutiny of AI’s promise and perils. Please join us in welcoming Naomi and Manisha, and in congratulating Harry on his upcoming move to San Francisco.

Sam and Alex

Collect everything the average American kid throws away in the school cafeteria over a single year, pile it on a scale, and you'd be looking at roughly 39 lbs of food. That’s about what a typical 4-year-old weighs.

Multiply that across the country, and school food waste adds up to an estimated 530,000 tons every year—an alarming amount of uneaten sandwiches, rejected fruit, and unopened snacks. 

That makes food waste difficult to dismiss as somebody else’s problem. “If you eat food, you’re part of this whether you like it or not,” says Lauren Click, founder of the nonprofit Let’s Go Compost, which runs food-waste programming in more than 600 schools, libraries, and community centers. The flip side is that you’re also in a position to waste less—starting with a packed lunch, one of the few pieces of the food system a family fully controls. 

Here’s how experts recommend packing a school lunch that produces less trash—and stands a better chance of getting eaten.

See what comes home

Before you overhaul your lunch-packing routine, spend a couple weeks paying attention to what returns at the end of the day. Which foods are untouched? Is the bologna sandwich always missing exactly one bite? What never even made it out of the wrapper?

After a few days, you’ll probably start to notice a pattern. “If you pack based on what actually comes home, not what seems balanced on paper, you can track it each week and adjust over time,” says Lizzie Horvitz, founder and CEO of Finch, a platform that evaluates products for sustainability.

You don’t have to keep tabs on the lunchbox all year. August and September are when parents are still figuring out what—and how much—their kids will eat. “If you're really paying attention to ‘what's my kid eating?’ and ‘what's my kid consistently bringing home?’” Horvitz says, “there really shouldn't be any waste after a couple of weeks.”

Ask your kid what happened

Seeing what comes home is only half the job. You also need to find out why—and good luck guessing correctly.

Click has heard every version of this story: A kid suddenly stops eating apples, and their parent assumes they don’t like the fruit. The real problem? A classmate declared apples uncool. “You can't make assumptions, because you'll never guess what's going on in the mind of a 5-year-old,” she says.

Keep the conversation curious, not accusatory. Ask your kid who they sit with, how much time they have to eat, and what their friends bring. Maybe the orange takes too long to peel, or they can’t open one of the containers without help. Maybe their friend brings two sandwiches and shares one every day—in which case, congratulations, you can stop making a sandwich.

Save new foods for dinner

The school cafeteria isn't exactly an ideal tasting room. Lunch periods are short, cafeterias can be loud and chaotic, and no one is sitting nearby encouraging your kid to give that unfamiliar vegetable one more chance. (Rutabaga, anyone?)

“Maybe this isn't the time to have a really balanced, try-new-things meal,” Horvitz says. “Let's save that for meals at home.” That's not an argument for packing nothing but cookies. It means lunch should mostly consist of foods you already know your child will eat; save the experiments for dinner, when you’re there to encourage them.

Choose the food before the lunchbox

Compartmentalized bento boxes are adorable. They're also built for a very specific amount (and shape) of food, which may not match what—or how much—your kid eats.

Lindsey Schoenfeld, a registered dietitian nutritionist, chef, and co-author of To Your Taste: How to Eat Well and Feel Better for Your Whole Life, suggests starting with the food instead. Ask your kid what they ate all summer and which lunches they loved last year. Then choose containers that fit those foods. The folded half-sandwich that nestled perfectly into one tiny compartment in second grade might not cut it for a middle-schooler.

Before splurging on new gear, check your cabinets. “There's so many containers that we have around the house,” Schoenfeld says. “Maybe they don't have a lid right now. Maybe we need to dig through a few shelves.” You might need a new lunchbox, but you probably don't need every container inside it to be new too.

Reusable containers only reduce waste if you use them over and over, so make cleanup as painless as possible. Many silicone bags and food containers can go straight into the dishwasher—check the manufacturer’s instructions—and you don’t need to scrub them spotless first. “The dishwasher’s job is to make them completely spotless,” Horvitz says.

Pack the amount your child actually eats

An oversized container practically begs to be filled, Schoenfeld says—and parents often respond by packing more than their kid will eat.

As a rough starting point, she suggests about half a cup of fruit, or one small piece of whole fruit, for younger elementary-school kids, in addition to a quarter- to half-cup of vegetables and one serving of grains, such as a slice of bread or a 6-inch tortilla. Middle-schoolers might need the higher end of those ranges, while high-schoolers may eat a full cup of produce and two servings of grains.

But kids aren’t measuring cups. “They grow at different times, and their activity is very different,” Schoenfeld says. One child might spend all day running around on the playground or practicing with the marching band, while another might take medication that suppresses their appetite at lunchtime. If the same amount keeps returning, try sending less before deciding your child has rejected the food altogether.

Find out what time lunch starts

Plenty of parents don’t know what time their kid eats lunch. It's worth checking: Because schools stagger lunch by grade, some are sitting down with their sandwiches at 10:30 a.m.

That can explain a lot. A child who ate breakfast at 7 might not be hungry three and a half hours later, even though they're ravenous when they get home. Pack a little less for an early lunch, Schoenfeld suggests, and have a substantial snack ready after school. She likes options that include a real food group, such as cheese and whole-grain crackers, fruit, or carrot sticks.

“It's good to capture these kids when they're hungry and you have something good ready,” she says.

Send last night's dinner

One of the easiest ways to waste less is to pack food you already made—and already know your child likes.

Jessica Randhawa, the chef and recipe developer behind The Forked Spoon, has used vacuum-insulated stainless-steel containers for her son's lunch since preschool. In the morning, she reheats leftovers—vegetables, meat, whatever is in the fridge—and transfers them to the insulated container. In winter, she sends leftover chicken soup, one of his favorites, in a larger container with a handle. A reusable metal spork goes in with it.

Her larger point: The container matters far less than whether the food gets eaten. “The best low-waste lunch system is one that the child actually eats,” Randhawa says. “Reusable containers aren’t helpful if the food inside is repeatedly wasted.”

Open the lunchbox before the pantry

When a hungry kid walks through the door, take a look inside their lunchbox before handing over a new snack. Schoenfeld does this automatically. “I’m known for saying, ‘Oh, you’re hungry?’” Schoenfeld says. “I just open the lunchbox back up. ‘Look, it’s perfect. It’s ready to go.’”

Of course, food safety gets the final say. Shelf-stable foods—crackers, a sealed pouch, an unopened bag of chips—can go back into the pantry or be eaten later. Perishable food is a different story: If it didn’t stay cold during the school day, toss it.

Don't automatically rule out single-serve packages

An individually packaged snack isn’t always an environmental villain. If your kid brings home an unopened package of crackers, it can go straight back into the pantry. “It’s like it never came to school,” Horvitz says.

Loose crackers can be saved too, of course, but people are often more willing to toss food that’s already been opened and portioned out. Buying in bulk and using reusable containers still produces the least packaging—but a single-serve snack that gets eaten another day can be better than food that lands in the trash.

“If we're assuming a kid is eating everything in their lunchbox, we of course want to stray from individually packaged food,” Horvitz says. But if your child is unpredictable about what they'll eat, a sealed package that comes home isn't necessarily a failure. The best option is to buy in bulk and portion food into reusable containers; after that, a packaged snack that gets eaten another day can be better than loose food that lands in the trash.

The same general rule applies to drinks: A reusable bottle is best, and pouring juice from a large jug creates less packaging than sending an individual box. If you do pack a can, don't crush it afterward; Horvitz notes that intact cans are easier for recycling facilities to sort.

Consider a secondhand lunchbox

There's no rule that says a lunchbox has to be new. Click suggests checking Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, and eBay, where last year's enthusiasm for a particular cartoon character is now available at a discount. “They have every character you can think of,” she says.

Just don't try to replace every disposable item in one frantic back-to-school shopping trip. Pick one change, get used to it, and then consider another. “Don't try to go zero-waste in one day, because you're gonna get frustrated,” Click says. “It's like saying you're gonna lose 50 lbs in one month.”

Be skeptical of “compostable” packaging

“Compostable” packaging usually needs more than a trash can—or even a backyard compost pile. Many products break down only in commercial composting facilities. Yet a 2025 national analysis found that just 18.1% of the sampled U.S. population had access to a curbside or drop-off program that accepted food scraps and at least some forms of compostable packaging. If your local program doesn’t accept these products, they’ll probably end up in a landfill.

“The word compostable doesn't mean it will compost,” Click says. She recommends choosing reusable items first. If you do buy compostable products, make sure you have a realistic way to compost them—either at home, if they’re certified for home composting, or through a local service that accepts and processes them.

Show kids where the trash goes

The most effective tool for cutting lunch waste isn't a product. It might be a field trip.

Click takes children to landfills, where the hard hats, safety vests, and enormous trucks are a hit. But the adults tend to leave with the bigger revelation. “You start to see the birds there eating trash,” she says. “You're really faced with this reality of, like, you contribute to this.”

Many recycling facilities offer free tours, and county extension offices around the country run gardening and composting programs for kids. The point isn’t to make children feel guilty about every granola-bar wrapper. It’s to help them see where their trash ends up—and why small changes matter.

“There's not a magical product that you can order online and have it shipped with two-day shipping that will solve this,” Click says. “It really comes down to healthy daily habits that you build over time.”

The Mediterranean diet is one of the most researched and most prescribed eating plans for weight loss, heart health, and many conditions in between. Research has linked it to better health outcomes, including lower rates of Type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart issues, cancer, and even better cognitive health. 

Yet many people still have misconceptions about the Mediterranean diet: mainly that it’s expensive and difficult. “I think that people just have to be told that it is affordable and it's quite easy,” says Joan Salge Blake, clinical professor of nutrition at Boston University, author of the book Nutrition & You, and the host of the nutrition podcast Spot On! 

The pillars of the Mediterranean diet include eating more vegetables, whole grains, fish, and olive oil, and consuming minimal amounts of alcohol, red meat, and saturated fats. Getting good amounts of physical and social activity is a core tenet of the lifestyle plan, too. But you don’t have to overhaul your diet overnight. “Try to take one one or two small steps at a time, and you'll eventually get there,” says Angel Planells, a registered dietitian in Seattle and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

We spoke to experts about easy ways to start adopting the Mediterranean diet. 

Embrace frozen and canned produce

Americans are woefully behind on their produce intake. Only about 12% of U.S. adults ate the recommended amount of fruit, and 10% ate enough vegetables, according to the latest analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention..

A great way to start getting more produce on your plate is through your freezer and pantry, Blake says. When you’re first learning to prepare fresh fruits and vegetables, they can become expensive—especially if they end up rotting away, forgotten, in a fridge drawer. Since grocery bills have skyrocketed over the last few years, that can make the shift even more daunting. But Blake points out that frozen and canned produce can carry the same nutrients in an easier-to-store, more cost-effective format. 

“Some people think, ‘Oh, I’ve got to cook from scratch, and everything's got to be fresh,’” says Blake. “And the answer is, ‘No, it does not.’”

It’s also easier to deal with. “Canned and frozen produce is cleaned, chopped, and ready to go. It's like having Rachael Ray in your freezer and pantry,” she says. “Fresh is not always best.” 

Choose frozen or canned seafood

Fresh seafood is also often pricey, but it’s not a requirement that your seafood be fresh, either. 

“It could be frozen. It could be out of a can,” Blake says. Tuna and salmon also come packaged in a pouch, which is “extremely, extremely affordable and really, really good for you based on the science that we have today,” she says. 

For time-strapped Americans, frozen and canned foods can help speed things along, reduce food waste, and ensure that there’s always some kind of produce at the ready. 

Read More: 6 Easy Ways to Move More While Working from Home

“These are as nutritious as fresh, and they're convenient, and this way you don't have to go back to the supermarket more than once a week,” she says. She also recommends checking out your local supermarket’s deals to see what’s on sale that week. 

Diversify your protein sources

“We get kind of fixated that it has to be animal protein, and that's clearly not the case,” says Planells. For animal protein, the Mediterranean diet favors seafood and leaner cuts of meat, and it also recommends plant-based sources of protein like beans and lentils. 

Despite rising grocery costs, a May 2026 report from the American Farm Bureau Federation finds that “America’s demand for meat continues to grow.” As of July, ground beef prices were up 10% from the same time in 2025. 

“Everyone wants protein, protein, protein, but we're going to go broke,” says Planells. 

Swap in leaner cuts and types of meat, embrace eggs, and try more plant-based protein like tofu, beans, nuts, and seeds, he recommends, which both comply with the Mediterranean diet and might end up being a cost effective and healthier trade. 

You can also add leaner, greener proteins into meaty dishes you already like. “If you're going to make a chili, what you can do instead of putting in like 2 lbs of ground beef is put in 1 lb of lean ground beef and double up or triple up on beans,” Blake suggests. “You cut the cost of that meal per serving, and you also decrease the saturated fat and increase the fiber per serving.”

Take baby steps

“Whatever way people eat, whatever way they shop, it would be better to try to look into their life and try to make small, gradual changes in what they're doing than trying to give them the pathway to excellence,” says Planells. Instead of fried foods, opt for baked, grilled, or steamed. In terms of meats, pick leaner cuts. Choose healthier snacks, like nuts or yogurt, instead of products like chips. Swap in whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta instead of processed versions. 

“Every time we have a meal or snack, it's an opportunity to try to make it as nutrient-rich as possible,” says Planells. 

When Planells works with a patient, he often suggests making one small diet-related and physical-related change a week. 

Movement is just as key to the Mediterranean lifestyle as the food is. When researchers originally started studying the diets and lifestyles of people in the region, Blake says, they found that physical activity was an important part. “We really need to start getting movement in our life as a habit,” says Blake. 

Correction, Aug. 31

The original version of this story misspelled a dietitian's name; she is Joan Salge Blake, not Joan Saldge Blake.