School District Food Rescue Program Donates 10,000 Pounds
SoWashCo Schools presented their Food Rescue Program to the Woodbury City Council Thursday, highlighting a partnership that has donated nearly 10,000 pounds of food to community members over three months.
The program redirects uneaten school meals to Basic Needs Food Pantry rather than discarding them as waste. Students place unwanted items like milk, bread or fruit into designated collection carts, and the food is then redistributed to community members in need.
The initiative developed in response to increased food waste following Minnesota's implementation of free school meals. According to the presentation, the district has seen a 25% increase in students eating both breakfast and lunch since meals became free statewide, resulting in more food waste.
Nutritional services staff initiated the partnership approximately two years ago when they began focusing on cafeteria waste reduction. The program allows the district to redirect resources while serving community needs, according to the presentation.
Community members can volunteer or make donations through the Basic Needs Food Pantry website at basicneedsmn.org. The pantry weighs, sorts and distributes the donated food items to anyone needing food assistance.
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Notable Quotes (5)
well the food rescue program is a program where students are able to take unwanted and uneaten items that will be safely redistributed to a company that we have partnered with called basic needs food pantry
since meals in the state of Minnesota have become free we're seeing a lot more students eating not only lunch but breakfast with us we're up about 25% in conjunction with that comes an increase in the amount of waste so we tried to figure out a way to use like use the resources and at the same time help the community and that's how the partnership was developed
over the past 3 months we've donated almost 10,000 PBS of food
what I love most about this partnership is that it came from the school district itself um it came from nutritional services and they were so passionate about not wanting to just simply throw away this food they wanted to give it a second life and they wanted to make sure that it got out into the community to the people that really needed it
if people would like to help if they'd like to show support um they can go to our website at basicneeds mn.org um and you can find out how to volunteer there if you'd like to make a donation for the mission here
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Food Rescue Program and Waste Reduction
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