San Diego High School Student Changes the World in 4 Months

BE INSPIRED TODAY!!!!!!!!
From Start to Finish, How 1 Student Changed the World
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October 7th: 2015: You've just received a new submission to your Getting Started Form.
Submitted Information: Name: Meilynn
Comment
I'd like to start a food recovery program at Westview High School in San Diego, CA.
As part of school newspaper, I have spent tens of hours researching waste consumption and diversion and talking to city officials, waste haulers, district officials, custodians, administration, teachers, and students to discuss our current situation, our current obstacles, and how we can overcome them to begin to foster a zero waste ethic at our school. And now that I know so much more about the waste system we interact with everyday, I want to apply it to Westview to create a greener campus.
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FOOD RESCUE Oct. 7th, 2015
Call me and we can discuss. . We are 3 hours behind in Indiana. I'd be glad to help in any way possible.
FOOD RESCUE: A call was arranged and questions were answered.
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Hi Mr. Williamson, Dec. 3, 2015
Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!
I plan to reach out to our district school board soon about starting a food recovery program at Westview High, and it would be more convincing if I presented some of the specific foods that we could recover. You mentioned that the foods should be unopened and packaged, and that we can recover foods that are perishable and whose expiration dates have passed.
Attached are our school menus. What foods have the potential to be recovered? And how do we handle and store those foods properly?
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FOOD RESCUE Dec. 3rd and 7th, 2015
The best thing to is to go to k12foodrescue.com and click on the active schools link. Tons of pictures. Fruit cup, banana, apple, orange, crackers of any kind, cheese stick, milk, etc. and food that is handled properly called back of the cafeteria waste. While it's possible to save this type of food, it's easier to start with the unopened and unpeeled stuff. Feel free to call and discuss anytime. The packaging and peel is the best determining factor, and that is different in every district.
Unpeeled and unopened is our target. Milk, yogurt, cheese sticks, fruit cups, fruit such as apples and bananas with a peel, crackers, etc. Packaging on sandwiches PBJ sandwiches varies. Anything in quesiton can be discussed with the local health inspector to make sure they are on board.
Call me if you have any questions.
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FOOD RESCUE Jan. 8, 2016
I was wondering if you were able to make any progress at implementing a K-12 Food Rescue program in your school district, and if not, if there are any questions I can answer or perhaps be of some help or encouragement?
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Hi Mr. Williamson, Feb. 17th, 2016
We’re meeting with our district Food and Nutrition Operations Manager next week. I’ll let you know how it goes. I think we’re almost there!
Thank you for your support!
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Hi Mr. Williamson, March 1st, 2016
We started last Thursday and donated four boxes of food to a local pantry last Friday! We've been going in every day since to collect, log, and store excess foods. So Food Rescue is now up and running at Westview High School! Hopefully, with our logs, we can also see some patterns in leftover foods and help the cafeteria reduce these amounts.
I'm excited we were able to finally make this possible. Thank you for your support!
Meilynn
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