Letting food go to waste or to waist

Have you ever had to “finish off” something? “It’s just a few more bites! I don’t want it to go to waste.”As a child I was trained to eat everything. I had to sit at the dinner table until my plate was clean. I was also denied dessert until I ate everything. When I’d complain - I was reminded about “the starving children of the world.” I learned that wasting food was bad and over-eating