Listen to Robin Young of Here and Now interview Food Rescue founder and president John Williamson and Connecticut student leader Nick Iannone to learn about how students deal with states with more restrictive school food donation donation guidelines than the USDA.
Jennifer Janus shares her inspiring journey to promote K-12 Food Rescue throughout Connecticut and lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement.
There are always some hurdles to cross when starting a Share Table or K-12 Food Rescue program in your school district. At no cost, Food Rescue provides one on one sessions or group conference calls to review our online educational resources to all who inquire. Often teachers, parents, cafeteria managers, or other school administrators are able to leverage their knowledge through geographically specific presentations to inspire those in their district or surrounding counties to adopt K-12 Food Rescue Policies in their buildings. This is a beautiful story about how one student, Nick Iannone, inspired a few parents in Wallingford CT, Jennifer Janus and Lisa Teodosio, to lead an entire school districts #FoodIsNotTrash K-12 Food Rescue Program. The ripple effect nudged another parent, JoAnne Grabinski to do the same in neighboring Meriden Public Schools, and they received an $8,000 grant to expand their K-12 Food Rescue program. Click on photo below to read about Wallingford and Meriden School Districts in Connecticut Click on photo below to read about and hear a national interview on NPR's "Here and Now", how one student inspired two school districts in CT.
Introducing Nick Iannone: Food Rescue's Connecticut Student Director of Leadership
In October, 2015 , I was recommended for my school’s “Middle School Capstone Pilot Program”, based off of design thinking. I took the opportunity along with 13 other students. We immediately started to practice using design thinking with several activities. Our Class was later challenged with finding a problem within our school community, and working to solve it using the Dream, Design, Do process that we were taught. Immediately I knew what I was passionate about fixing… cafeteria food waste, specifically from the lunch line. Because federal law states that students purchasing school lunch must have fruit/vegetable, students end up taking food that are unwanted, and it goes to waist. By the end of the school year I had not had enough time to complete my project. I was asked by my superintendent, Dr. Salvatore Menzo, and my school principal, Joseph Piacentini, to continue the project into next year(2016-17). I accepted the offer, and immediately got to work. I set up a “Food Share Table” in the front of the cafeteria for students to place unwanted sealed food items for other students to take as they please. Cafeteria food waste has decreased and ideas to lessen food waste even more are increasing. Nick Iannone nickiannone203@gmail.com |
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