The Zionsville Food Pantry has paired with several schools in Zionsville as part of the Food Rescue Program. Initiated by Zionsville Middle School, and now happening at Pleasant View Elementary and Zionsville West Middle School, students are encouraged to donate food they do not eat at lunch to the Food Rescue Program. We learned a few years ago of a need our clients have for after school snacks or foods their children can eat on their own. We called these items “individual serving items” and added them to our menu. The Food Rescue Program provides our individual serving items. We’ve been able to keep them on our menu as a choice for our clients every week because of the program. Another exciting aspect is that as the school children have learned they can donate food not eaten, the program has grown. We anticipate starting in the Fall a second weekly pick up from the schools. The Caring Center in Lebanon will receive a weekly pick up as well!
Angie Campbell Zionsville Food Pantry
We were recently contacted by Arnold Villalobos, who was reportedly fired for re-directing fruit that would have been thrown away in his school to athletes he was coaching after school . Arnold is a Marine Corps and veteran of the Iraq war. We support Arnold's efforts to preserve nutritious school food from being disposed of in a landfill, and have provided him with resources from our site to help perhaps enact change in his school district. You can see Arnold's story below, as well as his inquiry below. The school is not commenting, and there are of course procedures that must be followed to preserve school food, but we are hopeful whether or not Arnold is ever hired back, that the district will examine the school food waste Issue as other California schools have, including The Oakland Unified School District. I spoke with Arnold on the phone, and he is hopeful his story will lead to change across America, perhaps inspiring adding to the dialog about school food waste
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ReduceWaste/Schools/Models/Districts.htm
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Submitted Information: Name Arnold Villalobos Withheld Comment My school and district actually just put me on suspension last week. Due to collecting bananas, apples and oranges that were going to be thrown away. What I did is collected the fruit and distributed the fruit with staff to eat at school and my athletes after school that wanted some. How do i go about fixing this problem. I really need to go back for my kids. I thought I was doing a good deed. Check out this amazing video! The Andover School District in MA and the work of Carina Schusterman and Claire Stocker has inspired the North Andover School District in MA to jump on board the K-12 Food Rescue revolution! Superintendent Dr. Jennifer Price is even the spokesperson in this video! Susan Harding is the Food Service Director at Jennings County School Corporation. Susan attended the Indiana State Nutrition Association Conference in Indianapolis in October of 2014, and Food Rescue provided her with educational resources and encouragement to begin the process of starting a K-12 Food Rescue program in Jennings County. She agreed to submit this guest blog post below.
Above are some pictures from some of our schools including Sand Creek, North Vernon, and Graham Creek, as well as a photo of the JCMS Homeless shelter. We are having great success with our sharing tables. At the elementary schools they are in the process of creating a food bank for their students. At Jennings County Middle School, we donate items to the Wayside Inn, our local homeless shelter. At Jennings County High School we already have the Panther Pantry established and donate to that. It is a food pantry that is open to the community on certain days of the month. Thanks for putting the pictures on your website. We are glad to have the sharing tables and to donate to our local non-profit organizations. Susan Harding Food Service Director Jennings County School Corporation |
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