In late 2015, Food Rescue Executive Director John Williamson spoke at the Indiana State Nutrition Association to a group of Food Service Directors about K-12 Food Rescue as one of the solutions to the School food waste epidemic. In this article below by Olivia Covington of the Republic Newspaper in Columbus, IN, the journey of Nancy Millspaugh and Bartholomew County school corporation to end school food waste is chronicled.  



Local students are doing their part to ease the hunger pangs felt by other children.

Across the 11,575-student Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., 44 percent — about 5,000 — came from families eligible for free or reduced-price lunches based on family income in 2015.

As part of a collaboration between Love Chapel and the school district’s food services operation, BCSC schools introduced “No Thank You” tables, which starting with the fall semester has allowed students to donate their unwanted food items to local children and families in need.

So far, BCSC students already have donated nearly 2,000 pounds of food to families in financial need, said Nancy Millspaugh, BCSC food services director.

“That’s a ton of food in one semester that we put back in the community,” Millspaugh said.

All BCSC students are required to take at least one fruit and vegetable for a standard meal plate, a fact that often brings chagrin to younger students who would rather eat a cookie than a carrot.

When a child does not want the food a cafeteria provides at lunch or breakfast, it usually lands in the trash can, completely untouched, Millspaugh said.

“That’s upsetting,” Millspaugh said.

After attending a recent Indiana State Nutrition Association conference, Millspaugh learned that health officials had eased restrictions on sharing food among students — and inspiration hit.

“I thought it would be a great idea to bring the food back to our community,” Millspaugh said.

When BCSC students do not want parts of their breakfast or lunch, the first step in the donation process is to put their uneaten items on the No Thank You table.

Milk, juice, cereal and yogurt are the most commonly discarded items, along with various fruits and vegetables, Millspaugh said.

Once they have given away all of their unwanted food, students have a chance to glean seconds for themselves from the items their peers tossed off.

“Everybody runs for the milk,” said Solomon Hall, a fourth grade student at Columbus Signature Academy-Lincoln campus.

​Although BCSC students are served a wholesome meal at school, healthy foods might not be available for every child once the school day ends.

That’s why Millspaugh allows students to pick seconds for themselves off the No Thank You table before donating the food to local pantries.

“There might be students in sports or who have hunger issues, so there are a lot of reasons they might want additional food,” she said.

Like his peers, Solomon said he likes to take an extra carton of milk off the table, as well as any vegetables his classmates leave behind.

After the students have had their fill, the remaining food is wheeled away and prepared for donation.

Columbus East and North high schools each have their own food pantries, which make donated food available to the general public. But BCSC elementary and middle schools donate their unwanted items to Love Chapel meal programs.

“It’s great,” said Elizabeth Kestler, Love Chapel director. “We pick up a couple times a week and receive an abundance of items.”

Love Chapel uses the food it receives from BCSC in its food pantry and Wednesday night hot-meal program, which benefits more than 1,000 local residents a month, Kestler said.

“We have more people coming in, and they can have all and any of the food we receive,” she said.

Love Chapel especially benefits from milk donations, as milk can be costly when purchased in large quantities, Kestler said.

At the end of the fall semester, students were donating an average of 53 gallons of milk per week.

Even though they are giving up food that would not normally be appetizing to them, BCSC students say they know that somewhere in Bartholomew County, another child will gobble up the opportunity to enjoy fresh food they otherwise might never get to eat.

“It’s nice to help kids,” Solomon said.

Original Article: http://www.therepublic.com/view/local_story/Schools-save-share-food-unwant_1452986747

In October of 2015, Jennifer Kainz reached out to Food Rescue to learn more about the resources she had seen on our site.  Our impact is driven through story telling, resource sharing, and collaboration.  By sharing these things freely, a beautiful story is developing in Barrington, IL  Jennifer will be guest blogging here soon to share her story, but please enjoy this article written by Kate Smith at Barrington365 for a preview.  


​Ever wonder how much food gets thrown out in the lunchroom at Barrington High School? Well, the founders of a new Barrington non-profit, Mindful Waste, are shedding new light on the answer plus a few key takeaways after a lunchroom waste audit they hosted at BHS Thursday. In just one day, they collected 27 pounds of uneaten food, 42 pounds of garbage headed for the landfill, 84.6 pounds of food scraps for composting, 28 pounds of liquid being thrown away and 36 pounds of recycling.  Wow – We’re talking some serious trash!

Jennifer and Renee have sponsored similar waste audits in District 220 schools at Prairie, Countryside, Roslyn and Hough and have found an noteworthy correlation.  The lunch time allotted for the different age groups is quite different:

• High school students are allowed 49 minutes
• Middle schoolers, 30 minutes
• Elementary school students’ lunch lasts only 20 minutes

Their data shows that the elementary schools are generating far more food waste per student than the high school—showing the relationship between shorter lunch periods and increased amount of food waste.

“When students cannot finish or choose not to finish their food, we would like to give them an alternative to sending their food to a landfill,” Renee says. “The best way to do this is through food recovery programs.” Mindful Waste has partnered with Northern Illinois Food Bank to make food recovery in the schools a reality. Recovered food will be sent to centralized locations and the Food Bank will send representatives to pick it up.
Some exciting news is that the Barrington 220 school district has approved a pilot food recovery program at Countryside Elementary school, which will start next week. Mindful Waste donated a refrigerator so that milk and other perishable items like cheese and yogurt can be rescued along with fruit and sealed packaged items.  Additionally, the Village of Barrington and Barrington 220 will begin composting food scraps this spring, as provided in the new Groot contract approved by the Village Board in October of 2015.

The 220 HESS (Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Schools) committee has set some great goals for the near future. One of these goals is a 25% reduction of solid waste going to landfills by 2020—a goal that Jennifer and Renee believe is entirely reachable if we reduce the amount of uneaten food and compost our food scraps. With all this momentum, Renee and Jennifer say now is a perfect time to raise awareness of the volume of food waste we generate as a community and move forward with action.
CLICK HERE for more information about the cause and ways you can pitch in to reduce waste in our lunchrooms and beyond.

by Kate Smith at Barrington365