Student leaders Eleanor Melo and Abigail Carr share their time and effort to keep this program a reality. Their responsibilities include keeping the sharing fridge organized and items logged. They also set aside any food that is about to be spoiled for the local family farm. We are grateful for the partnership with K-12 Food Rescue and look forward to doing our part to reduce food waste.
Staggering data in America shows that 40% of food is wasted, while 1 in 6 families are food insecure. With this said, it's our duty as educators to do our part to actively teach students about this food waste crisis. Here at the Westport Elementary School in Westport, Massachusetts we have been doing our very best to keep food from being tossed away. With a school community of 400+ students we see our fair share of waste.The insight we have gained from the K-12 Food Rescue Program, coupled with our newest Farm to School initiative, students and staff alike are working hard to teach #FoodIsNotTrash. Students here at the WES are lucky to have a “sharing fridge” that was made possible by our amazing food service workers, led by director Michelle Rapoza. Students are able to donate unwanted, unpeeled, and unwrapped food items that otherwise may have been thrown away. Students may also take from the saved items if they are still hungry at lunch/snack. All food saved is logged at the conclusion of the week and any food that may be spoiled over the weekend is donated to a local family farm for animals to consume. Utilizing this initiative we are thrilled at the opportunity to teach this generation of students that food waste is a huge issue. Our goal is to help them create a new mindset of waste reduction. I am Crawford Lee, a junior at Trion High School in Trion, GA where I am active in my school and community. I have been involved in school sports since I was in sixth grade. Wrestling is where I am most competitive. My team is State Dual Champions and I placed 5th in the Individual State Tournament as a sophomore. I am an All-American Wrestler, placing 4th in the NUWAY National Tournament in June 2021. I was recognized by the National High School Coaches Association as an Academic All-American. I am on the football team where I serve my team on both offense and defense and help lead summer football camps for youth. I have been a part of Helping Hands Ending Hunger since it began in my school. Since middle school I have been a volunteer involved in rescuing food from our cafeteria, packing milk and food bags and distributing food to students and their families on Fridays. Because of my work with Helping Hands, it came to my attention that some of the same students who were getting food were also on my sports teams. I noticed when we went to away games and tournaments those students didn’t have food or money to buy food. My parents sent extra money to buy food for my teammates in need, but that was only helping a small fraction of student athletes. Students were expected to compete all day with little to no food. That was a big problem! That is when I came up with the idea for Snackletics. I helped develop this program as an off-shoot of Helping Hands Ending Hunger to send snacks to away games, events and functions for high school sports teams, bands and clubs. Coaches also make use of milks that may not be distributed through Helping Hands to nourish their athletes with essential protein, ensuring nothing is wasted. I work at my school in the summers as assistant to our technology administrator. I teach Children’s Church to children ages 5-10 at Harvest Worship Center and I volunteer in the sound booth with community youth theater. The opportunity to serve as a docent for a Smithsonian exhibit was a wonderful experience. I was inducted by National Society of High School Scholars and was nominated by College Board for national recognition. My goal is to attend Virginia Tech as a cadet and major in engineering. Following college, I plan to commission in the Army where I will use my degree in the field of combat engineering. |
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