Be grateful for everything you have. That's the theme of "Clean Your Plate" by Claire Quan. This story teaches the importance of appreciating everything in life, even things taken for granted, like eating food. Claire is faced by the struggle of finishing everything on her plate everyday. However, her mother enforces the strict rule of not leaving even a scrap of food remaining. After learning the harsh life her grandmother has lived, eating every crumb to fight the ache in her stomach, Claire made sure to scoop every bite into her mouth until her plate became bare.

As a child, I rarely ever finished everything on my plate. There would always be pices of vegetables left, or scraps of meat, that would get tossed into the trash can. I was never told to finish everything, and I was spoiled with all the foods I wanted to eat. But for Claire, she's lectured thoroughly about finishing her food, "We have suffered through her tedious lectures. In the end, each victim feels scarfing down the remaining food is a far better option than listening to one more word hurl from her mouth." And although Claire is "tortured" everyday with food, this story teaches an honest and valuable lesson about how precious and important food is to our lives. Nobody should be wasting something that others don't have the opportunity to have.