ReImagining School Food Waste Part 2: Food Recovery Begins!

Sometimes it takes the enthusiastic optimism of students to get the job done. In Spring 2022, we introduced you to a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) student-led initiative to reduce food waste in schools. The Coalition to ReImagine School Food Waste, comprised of students from Bethesda-Chevy Chase and Richard Montgomery high schools, started with a waste-sort study in a few MCPS schools. They found that about 20% of trash in school cafeterias was unopened, edible food such as whole fruit, milk, juice and packages of carrots. In Phase 1, students created pilot composting programs in close collaboration with the Sustainability and Compliance Division of MCPS’s Department of Facilities Management and a two-year grant from the World Wildlife Fund. This program continues today and has expanded to other schools.

In Phase 2, The Coalition to ReImagine School Food Waste wanted to broaden its efforts by redistributing edible food to people who experience hunger. In July, under high school student Shrusti Amula’s initiation, the first food recovery pick up was tested during summer school at Burtonsville Elementary School.

High school students Shrusti and Vayun display a PTA purchased mini-frig used to store perishable uneaten food for redistribution instead of being thrown away.

Shrusti is not new to thinking about food waste.  She first started tackling this problem in her community in 2018 by creating the Rise N Shine Foundation. She recovered food from local businesses and restaurants and donated it to homeless shelters. This year, she joined the CFR network, so when she posts food donations using the CFR matching tool, ChowMatch, the donations are matched with a variety of food assistance providers and transported by CFR volunteer food runners.

As part of the Coalition, Shrusti currently works on composting programs in eight schools and plans to expand food recovery in schools across the county. After starting a composting program at Burtonsville ES, she noticed how much unopened food was getting thrown away or composted, and she knew there was a better use for it.  She brought the idea to the school administration, which was receptive to starting a food recovery program. Next, she contacted John Meyer, MCPS Recycling Manager, Shannon Gueringer, a PTA representative, and Cheryl Kollin of Manna Food Center’s Community Food Rescue (CFR). Thanks to funding by the school’s PTA, a mini-fridge was purchased for perishable food and a share table for non-perishable food was set up in the cafeteria,  where students can place their unwanted food.

Burtonsville ES students learn to put uneaten food into the mini-frig and on a share table for redistribution instead of in the trash.

Once this group figured out the logistics of collecting and storing unwanted perishable food and allowing school access for the CFR food runner, Shrusti Amula, fellow student Vayun Amula, and John Meyer went to Burtonsville ES and introduced the program to the students and staff during each lunch period and showed them where to put uneaten food. “We were all amazed and thrilled at how quickly the students and staff understood and embraced the program,” Shrusti explained. “The students were so excited to find that food that they didn’t eat was being sent and helping those who face food insecurity instead of being wasted.”

Before food is donated through CFR, the school uses a movable cart so that collected surplus food from lunch can be moved around the school for redistribution to students who might like a snack after gym class or during an after-school program. “We don’t want food to go to waste, but of course we want students to consume it onsite when possible,” said  CFR’s Cheryl Kollin. We hope that Burtonsville ES will be the first of a scaled-up food recovery effort among all MCPS schools so that the Coalition to ReImagine School Food Waste’s enthusiastic optimism comes to fruition.