Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
User submission
6K
School Cafeteria Helps Kids In Need By Giving Them Leftover Lunch Food To Bring Home, And People Are Loving It
More than a third of food produced in America becomes food waste, which means that approximately 50 million tons of food annually is going in the trash. What is more alarming is that around one in seven people is faced with food insecurity. Therefore, an Indiana school district has came up with a genius idea to fight these two problems. They are teaming up with a local food rescue program to make sure that the leftovers from the school cafeteria wouldn’t go to waste but instead to kids who might not have enough food to eat at their homes.
[h/t WSBT] (Facebook cover image: WSBT)
RELATED:
One Indiana school district is taking steps to combat food waste and feeding kids in need
Image credits: Cultivate Culinary Food Rescue
Elkhart Community Schools in the state of Indiana is working together with the nonprofit organization Cultivate to repackage the leftover food from lunch periods to give them to students who might be hungry at home on evenings and on the weekends. The students are given breakfast and lunch at school, but the program is making sure that the kids still get nutritious food at their households.
20 elementary students are currently benefiting from the program
Image credits: Cultivate Culinary Food Rescue
The food that has been unused during lunchtime is turned into portable frozen dinners for kids to take home. They bring home eight frozen meals every Friday and will continue doing so until the end of the school year. Jim Conklin of Cultivate says that “Over-preparing is just part of what happens. We take well-prepared food, combine it with other food and make individual frozen meals out if it.”
Cultivate comes to the school three times a week to salvage the food
Image credits: Cultivate Culinary Food Rescue
Cultivate is an organization that operates in North Indiana and focuses on rescuing unused food to provide it to those in need. They usually take food that has been never served from catering companies and large food service businesses. “You don’t always think of a school,” Cultivate representative told the media. But this time they did – and they have high hopes that the program will spread to other schools, as well.
The organization hopes that the program will also help educate community members about food waste
Image credits: WSBT
U.S. Department of Agriculture have been highlighting the issue of food waste in school cafeterias for a while now. They have reported that in order to combat the issue, some schools are using different strategies, such as composting and donating excess food to charity organizations. Naturally, the new initiative introduced by Cultivate has been met with cheers not only by the cafeteria staff, but by the media all across the country, as well. We are hopeful that the idea will spread not only to schools in US, but all over the world, as well. What are your thoughts on the initiative?
30Kviews
Share on Facebook
What do you think ?
Exadoor Rising123 6 years ago
How about worldwide? Or, at least in Western Society, how good would that be.
Load More Replies...
Luis Milian 6 years ago
if only more schools would follow this, hell if only the Military would follow this. but it is a Military regulation to discard leftovers.
Petra Schaap 6 years ago
I worked at a school kitchen in Belgium, preparing the food for lunch (well, heating it up in the oven) The left overs had to be thrown away. We (staff, teachers, cleaners, whoever) were not allowed to eat it in our own break, or take it home and we were not allowed to give it home to children. SO MUCH WASTE every day.
diane a 6 years ago (edited)
When a supermarket has a problem with a chilled section, once an alarm goes off overnight to say the temperature has risen over the recommended limit, even if only by 1 degree, the entire contents of the affected shelves must be disposed of. Huge amounts of fresh meat written off which would be perfectly safe to eat, not allowed to be given away, even to staff, despite the temperature having still being within the range of a domestic refrigerator.
Load More Replies...
Aria Whitaker 6 years ago
My husband and I were figuring out who we were going to give our charitable donations to this year....I think I have found the program!! This is EXCELLENT...a great way to address the food waste issue and the child hunger issue at the same time! We need to give, give, give to great orgs like this that are doing SOMETHING other than wagging their finger and shaking their heads at the problem...Kudos!
jovas rifa 6 years ago
I used to work as a security guard on a bakery, and they always throw away the bread that didnt sold for the day, i asked why they didnt give it away to charity, and they said because if soemone gets sick they would be resposable for a law suit. So the guys all the bread they tripple bag it, and it was the last thing they toss away so it would be on top of the waste, and latter that night a couple homless came and took the bag. I asked my coworker about it, and he said, that nobody saw anything, no homeless in the permices, then he winked. That was my best night as a guard
Herb Eaversmells 6 years ago
This is a giant fallacy in the food industry. I have worked in places that do donate,unused food. Its an easy excuse for a place to not donate. There has never been one case, or settlement in such a case. In fact, there was a law passed to protect restaraunts from this kind of litigation. https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/partners/become-a-product-partner/food-partners
Load More Replies...
Phoenix 6 years ago
Yes... this is my only issue too! My father volunteers at Meals on Wheels and the packaging used is just more waste! I wish there was a product that could be used that could both stop food waste AND food packaging waste.
Load More Replies...
Effseven Six 6 years ago
This should have been started ai g time ago, but better late than never. All restaurants, grocery stores and schools should do this. No one, regardless of their situation, should ever be denied the ability to have access to food.
Cathie Fahrney 6 years ago
No food that can be saved should be wasted. This is a wonderful idea. The same could be done at grocery stores, convenience stores or any establishments that sell food
Exadoor Rising123 6 years ago
How about worldwide? Or, at least in Western Society, how good would that be.
Load More Replies... Luis Milian 6 years ago
if only more schools would follow this, hell if only the Military would follow this. but it is a Military regulation to discard leftovers.
Petra Schaap 6 years ago
I worked at a school kitchen in Belgium, preparing the food for lunch (well, heating it up in the oven) The left overs had to be thrown away. We (staff, teachers, cleaners, whoever) were not allowed to eat it in our own break, or take it home and we were not allowed to give it home to children. SO MUCH WASTE every day.
diane a 6 years ago (edited)
When a supermarket has a problem with a chilled section, once an alarm goes off overnight to say the temperature has risen over the recommended limit, even if only by 1 degree, the entire contents of the affected shelves must be disposed of. Huge amounts of fresh meat written off which would be perfectly safe to eat, not allowed to be given away, even to staff, despite the temperature having still being within the range of a domestic refrigerator.
Load More Replies... Aria Whitaker 6 years ago
My husband and I were figuring out who we were going to give our charitable donations to this year....I think I have found the program!! This is EXCELLENT...a great way to address the food waste issue and the child hunger issue at the same time! We need to give, give, give to great orgs like this that are doing SOMETHING other than wagging their finger and shaking their heads at the problem...Kudos!
jovas rifa 6 years ago
I used to work as a security guard on a bakery, and they always throw away the bread that didnt sold for the day, i asked why they didnt give it away to charity, and they said because if soemone gets sick they would be resposable for a law suit. So the guys all the bread they tripple bag it, and it was the last thing they toss away so it would be on top of the waste, and latter that night a couple homless came and took the bag. I asked my coworker about it, and he said, that nobody saw anything, no homeless in the permices, then he winked. That was my best night as a guard
Herb Eaversmells 6 years ago
This is a giant fallacy in the food industry. I have worked in places that do donate,unused food. Its an easy excuse for a place to not donate. There has never been one case, or settlement in such a case. In fact, there was a law passed to protect restaraunts from this kind of litigation. https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/partners/become-a-product-partner/food-partners
Load More Replies... Phoenix 6 years ago
Yes... this is my only issue too! My father volunteers at Meals on Wheels and the packaging used is just more waste! I wish there was a product that could be used that could both stop food waste AND food packaging waste.
Load More Replies... Effseven Six 6 years ago
This should have been started ai g time ago, but better late than never. All restaurants, grocery stores and schools should do this. No one, regardless of their situation, should ever be denied the ability to have access to food.
Cathie Fahrney 6 years ago
No food that can be saved should be wasted. This is a wonderful idea. The same could be done at grocery stores, convenience stores or any establishments that sell food
Related on Bored Panda
352
64