If you have ever been in a school cafeteria then you have undoubtedly noticed the amount of waste that is generated during the course of lunch. Obviously, you have the waste of trays and plastic wrappings that come along with serving lunch to hundreds of students every day, but it may come as a surprise that much of the food itself is often wasted. This is ironic because many of the same kids served lunch during the school day will go hungry on the weekends and over breaks. One school district has decided to solve both of those problems with one solution.
Indiana’s Elkhart School District has partnered with a nonprofit called Cultivate to ensure that food isn’t wasted, and students aren’t going home hungry. The program works like this:
- Cultivate comes to the schools and salvages left over, “well prepared” food that was never served.
- That food is repackaged and combined with other food into individual frozen meals.
- The frozen meals are then distributed in backpacks to students in need to take home over weekends and breaks.
The problem of hungry students is not unique to Elkhart. Lots of school districts have brainstormed and attempted to solve the problem of feeding students outside of school hours. Some school districts like Indianapolis Public Schools, have gone as far as to continue to provide free breakfast and lunch during breaks.
Read the full story here. (WSBT)