Avon School District started K-12 Food Rescue in all 11 school cafeterias this week, and their ECO team submitted this video, which will inspire so many school districts to get involved around our state and nation.

​We will soon be requesting these types of videos to be submitted, but this is the second unsolicited video we have received from students participating in our K-12 Food Rescue program.  

We love it that these students embrace the idea that their voice can be heard and change the world.

Food Rescue received an Extending Grace Grant from Grace Church in Noblesville in the amount of  $10,000. We are continually blessed by their support since our inception in 2007.
 
Food Rescue received a Sustain Indy Grant from the City Of Indianapolis for $10,000 in support of our K-12 Food Rescue Program.  Thanks Sustain Indy for your support!
 
The EPA now lists Food Rescue as one of 2 organizations singled out to contact for food donation information. Seen Here. Thanks to Julie Schilf and the EPA for allowing Food Rescue to provide educational resources and mentoring to people interested in establishing a K-12 Food Rescue program in their community. 
 
Dick Woflsie from WISH TV filmed a 4 segment piece on K-12 Food Rescue that aired at the beginning of October.  Thanks to Dick and WISH TV for shining a spotlight on our mission.
 
 K-12 Food Rescue is up to 209 schools, meaning we have added 40 schools since the start of the school year where the cafeterias are now engaging in share tables, school food recovery, or both.  We ended the school year with 169 last June.
 
Food Rescue is in the process of writing a Project Based Learning curriculum that will be completed by mid October, and Fishers High School is partnering with us to involve their students.  The PBL is based around our Student Led Entrepreneurship Program, and will result in data acquisition, data analysis, video and written content development, and the marketing of food waste reduction efforts in their school district. 
 
Food Rescue was invited to speak at the 2016 conference Waste and Hunger Summit in Arkansas.The Food Waste & Hunger Summit convenes student leaders who are pioneering solutions to the interrelated problems of food insecurity and food waste.

Noblesville East middle school students were introduced to K-12 Food Rescue via their video announcements, and featured the PSA filmed by Gloria Merrell, from Noblesville West. and featured on the aforementioned WISH TV piece. 
 
The Sec. of Agriculture and the EPA on September 16th announced historic food waste reduction goals of 50% by 2030, and Food Rescue has written a response in regards to this wave of support from our government.

Food Rescue presented at the Indiana State Township Trustee State Conference to just under 400 State Trustees on both Sept 21st and Sept 22nd about K-12 Food Rescue, and connected with Peggy Welch, Director Intergovernmental Affairs Indiana in the office of Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann.   In mid October, we will  be meeting at the state capital discussing K-12 Food Rescue, where we will be joined by policy director for the Lt. Governor, Ryan Heater.  We look forward in working together with our state government leaders on reversing the culture of food waste in our schools and country.  
 
We are also privileged to be invited to speak again at the Indiana State Nutrition Association state conference in November to provide more information to interested food service directors across the state of Indiana. 
 
A North Carolina student, Hanna Wondmagegn,  has started a k-12 Food Rescue program in her school and will be sending pictures and stories soon about her journey to change her school district and state. She will be submitting a guest Food Rescue newsletter article soon with pictures and date. Hanna is going to rock the city of Charlotte, and the state of North Carolina with her passion.  
 
Jennifer Carmack Brilliant, former reporter for WRTV and WTHR has joined Food Rescue in an advisory role, and we are fortunate she is willing to lend her passion and professional excellence/experience to our mission.  Thanks Jennifer!
 
Food Rescue attended 3 meetings at the invitation of former Pacers President and current vice chairman, Jim Morris and the Mitch Daniels Leadership Foundation to discuss solutions to both food insecurity issues and infant mortality with a handful of other state organizations.  Jim will be the second recipient of the MDLF award in December of 2015, where he will have the opportunity to invest $100,000 in an organization of his choosing.  
 
Hammond Noll Food Service Director, Dr. Julie Boettger, in partnership Dr. Jeannie Sneed and the Center for Excellence for Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition Programs, produced a 21 page study called Make Every $$ Count that noted Hammond Noll's partnership with K-12 Food Rescue, where the Northwest Foodbank of Indiana reported students were taking and not eating 1,100 pounds of food per week at one school.   They reported that over a 3 month period, 16,163 pounds of food were rescued from 3 schools.

Food Rescue Received the following communication from Rhonda Mace, School and Youth Outreach Coordinator of Chittenden Solid Waste District in Williston Vermont.

We spoke on the phone in December of last year about donating food from schools here in Vermont.  It is with pleasure to tell you we have got the wheels in motion to make that happen but would greatly appreciate your guidance as we move forward setting guidelines for Vermont for food donation and share tables within schools.  We have formed a working group spanning several organizations and expertise: Vermont Department of Health, Vermont Foodbank, Chittenden Solid Waste District, Agency of Education, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and multiple people from K-12 schools and university (Nicole Civita).  We are very excited to get a pilot project up and running but feel we could benefit from your expertise and experiences in food rescue as we move forward.

Keep up the great work and inspiring others to donate instead of dump.

Thanks as always to everyone for your continued support of our mission!
   
John Williamson
Food Rescue President
FoodRescue.net
[email protected]
Tel: 317-694-4006 

For those of you who do have time, here is the story behind it. 

I recently presented our K-12 Food Rescue program to an organizational committee for the opportunity to receive a $100,000 grant to further our mission.   When I came home from the presentation that afternoon, Audra Shock, the parent of  12-year-old  middle school student Gloria Merrell, sent me an email that contained a PSA Gloria had filmed for K-12 Food Rescue for a school project.  I had never met Gloria, nor did I ask her to film a PSA.

Immediately when I saw the film, I knew that it was far more important than the $100,000 grant opportunity. People listen to children. Their voices carry a significant amount of weight in our society, and often times they do not realize it.  Gloria's film demonstrates the courage to believe that her 12-year-old voice could make a difference in some way.

157 school cafeterias, (see them here)  in 27 school districts have stopped the madness of treating unopened food items as trash in the last 10 months through K-12 Food Rescue.  Over 60,000 students are now hearing the message that food is not trash. They are hearing it so clearly that they are being inspired to preach the message to anyone that will listen, as Gloria's film does, and as Lauren Clay from West Clay Elementary does  in this television interview.  

Thank You for your continued support!
John Williamson

Food Rescue Executive Director