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Man does not live on bread and water alone and your worms shouldn't have to live on paper and water alone. Here's where the food waste comes in.
You could say that worms need a low-fat diet. This means no meat, no dairy products, and only minimal amounts of oily foods in the worm bin. Fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds (filters too), tea bags and grains are all welcome additions. You may find that some foods decompose more slowly than others. It is best to chop up really large items and crush egg shells well to help the process along. Care should be taken to not overload the bin with acidic items. In other words, if you make fresh orange juice, don't fill the bin full with orange peels.
The food waste should be placed under the bedding material or dug into the worm castings and not left on the surface. This will minimize the food's potential for odors and attractiveness to fruit flies. Add additional bedding when necessary. Rotate the burial of the food waste throughout the bin. You may want to use a marker or make a chart to help you keep track of where you fed the worms last. Many people start in one corner and work their way around until they return to that corner and then repeat the pattern.
In general, err toward underfeeding rather than overfeeding. If you get back to your initial placement location and find that not much of the food has been eaten, consider reducing the feeding schedule or stopping for awhile altogether. While a bin that's fed less than it can handle will not produce worms as quickly as it would if it received the perfect amount of food, a bin that's being overfed can smell bad, will have lots of excess moisture, and can result in massive worm death. Newly started bins should be fed lightly at first until the worms acclimate and get comfortable (and hungry) in their new surroundings.
With this in mind, you can schedule daily small feedings or less frequent larger feedings. Feeding should probably occur at least biweekly. This decision should be based on convenience and educational goals. It will be necessary to feed the worms during a school's summer vacation and you may want to take the bin home with you or ask a student to take the bin home during the summer.
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