Solving Waste Through the Eyes of a child

2016/2017 School Year

by:Jennifer Brilliant
Lead Program Director

Near the end of the school year, we were contacted by Louise Stevenson, the Cafe Manager of Holy Name Catholic School, a small private school in Beech Grove. She had received a letter from a third grader concerned about food waste and was inspired to do something about it--so she reached out to us. Louise was fairly confident they didn’t have much waste but I encouraged her to do a food audit.

What's a food audit? For one week, just collect the tray to trash food--all the unopened, unpeeled unwanted food left over on student trays--and just see how much there is. So, she did and to her surprise, she collected 275 items in just one week! Mind you, this is a small school of less than 300 students. It just goes to show there is waste at every level, no matter how big or small a school may be. We connected Holy Name with Second Helpings to rescue what was collected and the Food Rescue seed was planted.

Louise says the school will launch a full Food Rescue program in the fall. All of this thanks to a third grade student who saw a problem and DID something about it! Check out the letter below and may it inspire you to go beyond saying “we should do this” to actually doing it!

2017/2018 School Year

Clare Diaz has managed the K-12 Food Rescue program at Holy Name for 3 years with the assistance of cafeteria manager Louise Stevenson.

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2018/2019 School Year

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TOTAL FOOD ITEMS DONATED IN 3 YEARS FROM 2016-2019