Diverting Food for Human Consumption – Page 2

July 8, 2020

Fund Focuses on Pandemic Relief Initially, Possibly Food System Resilience Long-term

Launched in June 2020, the Chicago Region Food System Fund responds to hunger and business disruption by bolstering the Chicago region’s communities and local food system to withstand COVID-19. Only 501(c)(3) organizations can apply, and the Fund focuses on an area that extends roughly 200 miles from Chicago (i.e. within a day’s drive from the city). Organizations applying must include the Chicago metropolitan area as part of their market. From the Fund’s web site:

“In Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, funding consideration includes nonprofits serving or collaborating with: urban farmers; food hubs/cooperatives; farmers markets; community organizations with close ties to informal community associations; food businesses (processors, distributors, slaughterhouses, retail, restaurants, institutional providers); food chain workers impacted by COVID or at a high-risk of contracting the virus; emergency food system support; and wasted food projects. Funding consideration in other regions of Illinois, southeast Wisconsin, northwest Indiana, and southwest Michigan is for nonprofits serving rural farmers, food aggregation hubs, and food processors that include the Chicago metropolitan area as part of their market. This includes nonprofits supporting food chain workers impacted by COVID-19 or at high risk of contracting the virus.”

The Fund will initially focus on COVID-19 response projects, with a special interest in projects that strengthen the food system. In the fall, and dependent on the effects of the pandemic, there may be a second round for funding that might shift in focus toward building long-term resilience within the regional food system.

For full details and to apply for funding, visit ChicagoRegionFoodFund.org to fill out the eligibility quiz, register, and complete a short screening questionnaire. Screening questionnaires can be submitted until July 29, 5 p.m. CT, and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Upon review, organizations deemed best able to address the Fund’s priorities will be asked to submit a full application for funding, with submission instructions and details provided at that time. Grants from $5000 to $250,000 will be considered. Fresh Taste, fiscally sponsored by Forefront, manages the Fund.

Chicago Region Food System Fund logo

June 17, 2020

NRDC Releases “Food Matters” Resources to Guide Municipal Food Waste Efforts

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has announced the availability of a compendium of resources from its “Food Matters” project. The resources are meant to assist municipalities as they tackle various food waste issues. Read the full press release on the NRDC web site at https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200616:

“The Food Matters Program and Policy Toolkit is designed for city policymakers and agency staff nationwide who are seeking to advance a program or implement policies to prevent food from becoming waste, increase donation of surplus food, and recycle food scraps. Alongside the toolkit is a curated set of guides to tackle food waste at the local level which have proven successful in NRDC’s work with Food Matters cities. The toolkit and templates are designed to meet cities at different stages of their food waste journey, providing users with practical resources to take both incremental steps towards city-wide change as well as bold accelerated strategies.”

Case studies from cities such as Baltimore, Denver, Nashville, and New York are included in the resource compendium.

View the full compendium at https://www.nrdc.org/food-matters.

screenshot of food matters pages on NRDC web site

May 8, 2020

Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools now available for download

This post originally appeared on the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Blog on April 13, 2020.

Just in time for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the Wasted Food Action Alliance is pleased to announce the release of the Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools. Though schools throughout the state are currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this toolkit will allow districts and food service staff members to make plans for food waste reduction efforts when schools are able to welcome back students and staff in person.

The Wasted Food Action Alliance is a diverse set of organizations helping build a unified approach towards reducing wasted food and leveraging it to benefit our region. Its mission is to develop a working strategy and action platform that makes Illinois a leader in reducing wasted food by connecting and building on current wasted food initiatives, education, and policy in unified ways that holistically promote source reduction; food recovery for hunger relief and other uses; and recovery of food scraps for composting and creating healthy soil.

Joy Scrogum, a member of ISTC’s Technical Assistance Program (TAP), is part of the Wasted Food Action Alliance subcommittee which developed the school food waste reduction toolkit. Joy coordinated ISTC’s Green Lunchroom Challenge project, and continues to work on food waste prevention and reduction through TAP’s work with clients, the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition, and related local and regional projects. The Wasted Food Action Alliance school toolkit subcommittee was lead by Seven Generations Ahead.

What’s the problem with food waste in schools?

Over 7 billion school meals are served each year in the United States. Much of this food, however, is currently feeding landfills instead of nourishing students. This is while one in six children is food insecure. When food is landfilled, not only are its nutrients lost, so are all the energy, water, and labor that went into producing, transporting, and preparing it. K-12 schools have a unique role in teaching students to value food instead of wasting it.

The Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools can help.

The Toolkit is a comprehensive resource that provides all schools, no matter their size or location, the tools to tackle the issue of wasted food. It identifies the main sources of wasted food and offers strategies for food waste prevention, recovery and redistribution, composting, education and engagement, and celebrating success. A variety of solutions are shared–from easy and quick to implement to longer term and more resource intensive.

The Toolkit’s easy to use format allows you to jump in to find the strategies that work for your school. Each section includes case studies that highlight inspirational efforts to reduce food waste in schools across Illinois and provides guidance on:

Measuring food waste

Waste audit guides
How to determine what to audit in your lunchroom and kitchen
Food waste tracking in kitchens
Analyzing waste audit data

Preventing food waste

Sourcing food from school gardens and local farms to encourage consumption of healthy foods
Menu planning and food preparation
Preventing food waste at the serving line, including Offer versus Serve

Recovering and redistributing surplus food

Policies and laws regarding share tables and the redistribution of food (including the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act that supports the donation of recovered food)
How to set up and operate a share table
Redistribution of surplus food within a school
Donation of surplus food to an outside organization or in-school food pantry

Composting food scraps

The environmental benefits of composting
Onsite composting
Offsite commercial composting
How to get started composting in your lunchroom

Educating and engaging the school community

Hands-on classroom or service learning projects
Curricula and lessons about food and food waste
Teaching tools and resources

Communicating and celebrating success

Communications within school community
Communications with the wider community
Get recognized with programs such as Green Ribbon Schools and the U.S. Food Waste Challenge

The toolkit is available on the Wasted Food Action Alliance web site.

December 18, 2019December 17, 2019

Seven Generations Ahead Helps Oak Terrace School Achieve Ninety Percent Diversion

Seven Generations Ahead recently reported on assistance provided to Oak Terrace Elementary School in Highwood, IL as part of the Zero Waste Schools-Lake County Program. The dedicated students have helped their lunchroom achieve an approximate 90% diversion of materials from landfill.

“Instead of tossing all lunch waste into the trash, students now use sorting stations with containers for liquids, recycling, compost (for all food scraps, food-soiled napkins, and lunch trays), and landfill trash. Their sorting stations also have share tables where students can put school lunch items (whole fruit and factory-sealed foods) they take but do not eat which can be used later as snacks.” Some specially trained students, designated “Zero Waste Agents” monitor cafeteria sorting stations to ensure materials are placed into appropriate bins and to reduce contamination of recycling and composting streams. Back-of-house sorting is also occurring and food service workers, custodial staff, and teachers have also been involved in training and hands-on contributions to waste reduction efforts.

To read more about this case study, see the project update on the Seven Generations Ahead web site.

October 30, 2019

CA: School District, County Public Works Department Implement Food Scrap Composting, Food Share Programs

Here’s a recent case study of food scrap composting and a “share table” project from California:

“GOLETA, Calif. – Santa Barbara County Public Works Department and Goleta Union School District implemented a food share and food scraps composting program at nine elementary schools in Goleta on Tuesday. This program will prevent thousands of pounds of fruit, milk, containers and packaged food from heading to the landfill.”

Read the full story, by Julia Nguyen, dated 10/29/2019 on KEYT-TV/KCOY-TV/KKFX-CD (Santa Barbara, Calif.) at https://www.keyt.com/news/santa-barbara-s-county/public-works-and-school-district-implement-food-share-program-in-goleta/1137070360.

June 7, 2019

Case Studies of K-12 Schools Fighting Food Waste—Spring 2019

Below are a few examples of food waste prevention, reduction, and diversion efforts at K-12 schools that I’ve read about recently. Check them out, and consider emulating these efforts at your school or organization!

CA: Monica Favand Campagna shared a video created to instruct parent volunteers at Franklin Elementary in Glendale, CA on proper procedures for supervising organic waste separation during breakfast, snack, or lunch. Check out the clearly marked bins for their sharing table, where uneaten, unopened foods can be placed for use by other children. According to Monica, “CA has mandates for organic waste diversion, which apply to our school district (GUSD) – and we parents at the school (I am our school’s Green Team captain via our Parent Foundation – and we also have a Green Lunch Committee under the PTA) wanted to help them initiate a program. Our hauler, Southland Disposal, provided us with green bins and picks up once per week to compost in a commercial facility about 20 minutes away. This is a pilot program for the entire GUSD – so we are really wanting this to be successful!” Good luck and continued success!

Still shot from the parent volunteer instruction video from Franklin Elementary in Glendale, CA.

IL: LaSalle digs into onsite composting and slashes food waste: “LaSalle is one of several Chicago Public Schools (CPS) this past school year to engage students in environmental learning and action on a daily basis– right in their own lunchrooms. Since March 2019 when their zero waste program launched, LaSalle has reduced lunchroom landfill waste by over 50% by weight through food recovery, onsite composting, liquid diversion, and recycling.”

IL: Plainfield East High School students create a rap video to promote food scrap composting. What a great way to get fellow students thinking about waste management and learning how to sort! Will County, in partnership Organix and with some funds from ILCSWMA helped two Plainfield High Schools pilot food scrap collection and composting in Spring 2019 (see photo below, from Illinois Food Scrap Coalition Facebook post on the pilot program). Teenaged boy carrying empty milk carton and plate, preparing to deposit materials into waste sorting bins. Tables, other students, and other features of the school cafeteria are in background.

IL: Old School Montessori was among the organizations praised by the Village of Grayslake for their use of the village’s food scrap composting program. Learn more about Grayslake’s program on the Village web site: https://www.villageofgrayslake.com/533/Food-Scraps-Composting.

IL: Bloomington Public Schools District 87 was among the 2019 Illinois Green Ribbon Schools nominees. Composting was noted among the efforts highlighted for District 87: “The most innovative project implemented has been a district-wide cafeteria composting and recycling initiative. Since the start of the program in 2014, the district has reduced dumpster sizes by half, preventing over 50 tons of waste from entering area landfills.” Read about efforts from Green Ribbon Schools nominees from around the country in the US Green Building Council Green Ribbon Schools highlights document.

IL: Roundout Elementary School is the first in the Seven Generations Ahead-lead Zero Waste Schools-Lake County Program. “The school uses a structure called ‘the village,’ where each student takes a role in a village department. The Rondout Public Works Department took on the zero waste program as their project. Public Works students conducted the waste audits with SGA.” Excellent example of student engagement and incorporating food waste issues into the curriculum!

IN: School district turns unused cafeteria food into frozen, take-home meals for kids. “Elkhart Community Schools teamed up with a non-profit group called Cultivate to create a pilot program that will provide weekend meals for a small group of children at Woodland Elementary, WSBT reported…As part of the pilot program, 20 kids will receive a backpack with eight individual frozen meals every Friday until the end of the school year. The meals will be made using food that cafeteria workers prepared but never served, according to WSBT. ‘Over-preparing is just part of what happens,’ said Cultivate spokesperson Jim Conklin. ‘We take well-prepared food, combine it with other food and make individual frozen meals out if it.’

NC: This messy school cafeteria project dives into how students eat and waste food. Another great example of student engagement in a cafeteria waste audit! “After last week’s food audit, in which students sorted and weighed food waste, liquids, disposable trays and other types of cafeteria trash, Whitewater switched to compostable paper trays this week. Working with Every Tray Counts, a nonprofit group based in Chapel Hill, the school hopes to set the stage for a full-district switch from polystyrene to paper trays, following the lead of Chapel Hill-Carborro, Durham and, most recently, Wake County Public Schools.”

Are you aware of a food waste-related program at a K-12 school elsewhere? Do you have information about a food waste prevention or reduction program at a different type of organization that you think is noteworthy? Contact me with details and/or a link to the program’s web site and I’ll consider sharing it on this blog our the Green Lunchroom Challenge social media accounts.

February 5, 2019

Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Innovation Fund Inaugural Call for Projects

Check out the Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Innovation Fund inaugural call for projects. Submit a Letter of Intent from Feb. 4 to midnight ET on March 4, 2019. Full applications will be invited by March 29; grant recipients will be notified of awards in May. Full details on who should apply and the evaluation criteria are available at the link below.

Grants will be awarded for emerging technologies and solutions focused on food waste prevention, recovery and recycling; awards will range from $25,000 to $250,000. Grant recipients will also have access to mentoring, the potential to pilot their solution with Kroger and partners, the opportunity to network with peers, and the opportunity to apply for follow-on funding.

https://innovationfund.kroger.com/application-process.html?fbclid=IwAR3oezwE22JmtyVlIghYGZgE7ELWVMBeSQ7xL5NrTbfso8xuTNWSXiZ5I3g

Kroger innovation fund logo

February 5, 2019

Minneapolis Public Schools Release ‘True Food, No Waste’ Action Plan

Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) have recently released a plan to reduce costs and food waste in school cafeterias and kitchens. As reported by JoAnne Berkenkamp and Jonathan Bloom on the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) blog,

‘The school district today released a new “True Food, No Waste” action plan for curtailing wasted food in school cafeterias and kitchens…Developed in concert with NRDC and consultant Jonathan Bloom, the district’s plan offers an innovative model for schools around the country to follow. It also highlights an important area of opportunity for city governments as they commit to tackling wasted food in their communities.’

The plan includes a focus on ‘fresh food prepared in on-site kitchens,” and follows the EPA Food Waste Reduction hierarchy, incorporating plans for food waste prevention, diverting surplus food for human consumption, and diverting food scraps from landfill through composting.

You can read the entire NRDC blog post at https://www.nrdc.org/experts/joanne-berkenkamp/k-12-and-food-waste-reduction-innovations-heartl.

The “True Food, No Waste” Plan is available at https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/minneapolis-k-12-food-waste-action-plan-201901.pdf.

Cover of MPS plan

January 11, 2019

Webinar Jan. 15 on Food Recovery and Composting in Hospitals

Register today for the Seven Generations Ahead webinar on hospital food recovery and composting, scheduled for Tuesday, January 15, 2019 from 10:00 to 11:30 AM CST. Speakers will include:

Jen Nelson, Senior Program Manager, Seven Generations Ahead (MODERATOR)
Jennifer M Grenier DNP, RN-BC, Director of Nursing Medical/Surgical Unit and Acute In-Patient Rehab Hospital at Rush University Medical Center
Joe Iosbaker, Recycling Coordinator, Office of Sustainability, University of Illinois at Chicago
Cynthia Vasquez, Director of Volunteer Services and PlanItGreen Core Team representative for Rush Oak Park Hospital

Image listing name of webinar, time and date