K-12 Food Rescue: A Food Waste Solution Podcast

Listen to Erin Dorr, a facilities management consultant for Bedford Public Schools in MA, share how she first became interested in the subject of school food waste, and the steps she took to make a difference and lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in Bedford Public Schools.

Hear the inspiring story of the founder of The Should Project, Andrew Plotkin, as he shares how he learned about wasted food in schools, and what he did to make sure 40 pounds a day of food in one school is given to a local caring agency instead of feeding landfills.

https://www.theshouldproject.org/

Fountain Valley Food Rescue is featured on the 104th episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast. Students Stella Rhee, Annabelle Cabaniss, and Gunnar Mason, along with the science department chair of Fountain Valley, Danielle Llewelyn, share the story of Fountain Valley Food Rescue in Colorado.

Mark and Mallory Topoozian are siblings in Fresno California, and Mark attended Bullard High School, and Mallory currently attends Bullard High School. Mark started a school recovery program that spread to 25 schools, and Mallory started a monthly effort to provide food for food insecure families for she and her classmates to participate in. Mallory is also involved the food recovery program Mark founded at Bullard and beyond. Mark recently graduated from college, and Mallory is currently a Sophomore, and they were nice enough to take the time with me together to share their story on the 103rd episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast.

The Zionsville Presbyterian Church Food Pantry has partnered with the Zionsville Community Schools and K-12 Food Rescue since 2015, rescuing an estimated 315,000 pounds of food from 9 schools that is distributed 2 days a week to children and families in need in the community. Angie Campbell, Stephanie Mbathi, and Austin Ide have volunteered faithfully for many years, and in this episode, they share the many ways the K-12 Food Rescue has impacted the community, even beyond the hunger relief provided. For more information, you can learn more about the ZPC Food Pantry at the link below.

https://www.zpc.org/event/1753814-2022-11-03-zionsville-food-pantry/

In celebration of Food Rescue's 18th year, and our 100th episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast, John Williamson, our founder, president, and executive director, tells the Food Rescue story from 2006 to present. Discover how Food Rescue came into existence, and how and why the transition to K-12 Food Rescue with a focus on student education and leadership came to pass.

Brittany Gage is a school food waste solution leader in Billings Public Schools in Montana with Sodexo. Montana is the 31st state featured on the K-12 Food Rescue podcast, and we are excited to bring you this story. Brittany shares about acquiring food waste tracking software from LeanPath, as well as the utilization of share tables within the school district.

Jill Riggs is the director of food service at Penn Harris Madison School Corporation. She has been leading school food waste solutions at Penn Harris since at least 2012, and the impact of 15 schools donating instead of dumping for 12 years is very inspiring, and we hope you enjoy hearing her story and the story Penn Harris Madison School Corporation.

Linda Williams started the Fishers UMC food pantry in 2007, almost the exact same time that Food Rescue was founded. In 2016, the Fishers UMC food pantry was once of the very first food pantry partners involved with K-12 Food Rescue, picking up from 7 schools in the Hamilton Southeaster School District.

Listen to the inspiring story of Indianapolis Public Schools Jonathon Jennings (IPS 109) Family and Community Liaison, Veronica Fuentes, and her effort to restore the schools' K-12 Food Rescue program after the pandemic.

We are excited to share the food waste solution journey of Cornell University Sophomore, Trisha Bhujle. When Trisha was a senior in high school in Texas, she wrote a letter to the Lewisville Independent School District regarding suggestions to reduce food waste in her school district, and we recently stumble upon that letter that she published on her Substack, calle the Sentimental Environmentalist. She has gone on to pursue her passion for both hunger relief and environmental sustainability issues while at Cornell, and we believe it's important to highlight people who take their interest in food waste and take an action step, such as a compelling letter to a school district. Trisha's letter provided a great template to follow for so many, and we are happy to share that letter on today's podcast.

https://sentimentalenvironmentalist.substack.com/p/local-food-waste-reduction-an-email

Listen to the exciting school food waste solution journey of Marie Johnson, the Student Nutrition Program Coordinator at Farmington Municipal  Schools and former New Mexico Nutrition Association President, and Paula Szczepanek, the Resident District Manager with K-12 By Elior, a food service company partnering with Farmington Municipal Schools. 

This marks the 30th state we have recorded an episode regarding a successful school food waste solution program. Due to some difficulty with the podcast connections in New Mexico, Paula had to call into the podcast on a cell phone, so the audio is a little rougher than normal, but we were glad to hear her and the Elior food service perspective on the partnership with Farmington Municipal Schools.

Hear the inspiring story of City Barbeque's Food Rescue Program, as told by Ronnie Berry, their Chief Administrative Officer. City Barbeque is a fast growing scratch restaurant with 70 locations nation wide.

Listen to the exciting journey of Robert Lee, the Co-Founder of Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, a national food rescue organization. Robert left his job at JP Morgan in his early 20's to pursue leading the #FoodIsNotTrash movement through Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. RLC has rescued millions of pounds of food since it's foundation as a Not for Profit organization since 2015.

Hear the inspiring story of Windy Ridge gifted and talented teacher Marta Heistand, as she shares how her students led the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in 2019 at Windy Ridge through their K-12 Food Rescue Share Table and food pantry partner program.

Listen to the inspiring partnership between Noblesville Schools, The White River Christian Food Pantry, and Food Rescue. The WRCC food pantry has received an estimated 350,000 food items in the past 7 years from the Noblesville School District's K-12 Food Rescue Program according to our guest Jeff Demasie, the food pantry director.

Listen to Vicki Ballas, the Michigan State University Extension Community Nutrition Instructor, discuss the' inspiring story of the Munising Public School's Mustang Food Share Program.

K-12 Food Rescue celebrates the early days of our Food Rescue efforts with this vey special episode with Mike Cookman and Jocelyn Challas. Hear how Jocelyn answered a Craigslist ad from Food Rescue for a service opportunity in Charlotte in 2008 to take surplus food from a restaurant to a food pantry regularly, and how Mike Cookman joined her team and went on to found the Food Recovery Group in Charlotte NC, which has rescued over 8 million dollars of retail food since 2010 with 36 volunteers.

Take a trip down memory lane as we reflect on the growth of Food Rescue, in the hope of perhaps exposing listeners interested in rescuing food in schools to other food rescue opportunities outside of schools. Hear the inspiring story of Athens Food Rescue founder Teresa Curtiss, and how her efforts have led to over 270,000 food items donated to caring agencies feeding children and families in need since 2014. In this episode, we discuss the rapid growth of Food Rescue organizations since 2014 when there was very little information available on the subject.

Listen to the inspiring story of how one food pantry serves their local school district by recovering their surplus food and distributing it to children and families in need in their community. #FoodIsNotTrash. The episode features Allison Lehane, Jane Merrow, and Bay James, who all play key roles in the distribution of rescued food from schools in Newbury.

Hear the inspiring story school food waste solution journey of Shelby Cornett, The Park City School District Sustainability Coordinator in Park City Utah.

Listen to the inspiring story of the partnership between Indianapolis Public Schools, The Martin Luther King Center, The Boulevard Place Food Pantry, and K-12 Food Rescue, as told by Matt Hayes, the Executive Director of the Boulevard Place Food Pantry.

Listen to the inspiring story of High School Freshmen Lily Wheeler and Jolee Flynn on their journey to eliminate school food waste in their school district in Natick Massachusetts.

Listen to the inspiring story of Samantha Sandhaus and Feeding Philly on their journey to end school food waste in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Listen to the inspiring story of share tables and school food pantries in 6 schools in Dekalb Central as told by Aubrey Gough, the food service director and Dekalb Central. Their share tables have rescued an estimated 378,000 food items since 2016.

Listen to Faculty Fellow Susanne Lee from the Senator George J Mitchell Center For Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine share the results of their school food waste study, as well as her passion for seeing an end to wasted food in Maine K-12 schools and beyond.

South Harrison Schools Food Service Coordinator Stephanie Zimmerman shares her story of onboarding 7 cafeterias to participate in share tables in the school district, resulting in an estimated 31,000 food items rescued in 7 cafetieres for 8 schools annually.

Hear the inspiring story of how Lee's Summit R-7 School District Nutrition Service Director Lori Danella implemented share tables in 25 schools in her district. An estimated 200,000 food items will now be rescued annually as a result of the districts commitment to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in Lee's Summit R-7.

Hear the inspiring story of Hamden CT school teacher and Bear Path Green Team leader, Doreen Stohler, and how she inspired the students of Bear Path School to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement.

Listen to the inspiring story of a New Hampshire Elementary School Teacher, Tara Happy, and how being frustrated watching food being wasted in the school cafeteria led to a truly empowering student leadership experience at Hollis Elementary.

Listen to the inspiring story of Hilliard Elementary intervention specialist in Ohio, Ekta Chabria, and her journey to empower her students to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement through composting and K-12 Food Rescue.

Listen to the inspiring journey of New Hampshire K-12 Food Rescue Food Waste Solution Leader Paul Karpawich With Sustainable Transitions. This is the 26th state represented on the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast, and we are excited to share Paul's story.

Listen to the inspiring journey of K-12 Food Rescue Food Waste Solution Leader Katherine Rakowski in Wisconsin. Katherine is the Education and Agriculture Coordinator for the Bayfield School District, and she leads a composting and share table initiative in the Bayfield School District in Wisconsin.

Listen to the inspiring food waste solution journey of Cedar Walters, the Public Information Officer for the Otter Tail County Solid Waste Department in Minnesota.  Cedar worked closely with Cleveland Elementary and others through a grant to develop food waste solutions and lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in Otter Tail County

Hear the inspiring K-12 Food Rescue story of Carol Phipps and the Interchurch Food Pantry of Johnson County in Indiana. They pick up over 95,000 pounds of rescued food items per year, which is the equivalent of over 350,000 food items from over 20 Marion County schools in 2 school districts.

https://www.jccf.org/interchurch-food-pantry-of-johnson-county

Listen to the story of school food waste solution leader Vanessa Robertson, who is the Executive Director of Envirolution in Carson City, Nevada. In this episode, Vanessa shares about the Envirolution teacher curriculum Project Recharge, as well as the their partnership with over 100 schools around the country, including Empire Elementary in Nevada.

Listen to the inspiring journey of a life skills teacher in Pennsylvania and one of her students, as they share the story of the "share refrigerator" at Palmyra HS, that rescues over 800 food items per week.

Hear the inspiring story of Tamika Fordham, a school teacher in South Carolina, who is helping her students lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in their school district.

Listen to the inspiring story of Nick Pease and the Grace Care Center in Hamilton County Indiana and how they partnered with K-12 Food Rescue to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash Movement in Hamilton County Schools, leading to the rescuing of an estimated 500,000 food items in 7 years in Hamilton County Schools.

Hear the inspiring story of Empire Elementary and Adrienne Wiggins, a teacher with a passion to support students who are inspired to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement!

Hear the inspiring story of Flagstaff Academy Green Team members Kassidy Brackett and Elyse Prestopnik in Longmont Colorado, and their elementary science teacher and Green Team Leader Stacy Wolff. Their Food Rescue table is teaching their fellow students and community that #FoodIsNotTrash!

Hear the story of a White Plains School District parent in New York, Anna Giordano, and her journey to find solutions to school food waste.

Hear the story of the birth of the "share fridge" at Palmyra High School in Pennsylvania from the perspective of Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher and school food waste solution leader Jodi Stafford.

Hear the inspiring school food waste solution journey of the Malakoff Independent School District through the eyes of their Superintendent Don Layton. Learn about the steps needed to establish a Share Table or Share Refrigerator in Texas schools and beyond!

Hear Oregon School Food Waste Solution Student Leader Mia Aberle share her journey of establishing a composting program at Clackamas High School, and how it is leading to discussions about rescuing some of the nutritious unopened and unpeeled food items from the trays of students that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill from school lunches.

Laurel Bates is the Waste Reduction Education Coordinator in Clackamas County in Oregon. Hear how Laurel connected with an inspiring high school student in Clackamas County who was very interested in the subject of school food waste and finding a a solution, and what happened what happened next.

Here the inspiring story of  the impact of the Center Grove K-12 Food Rescue program in the lives families in need served by the Impact Center in Greenwood Indiana.  Pastor Steve Saunders shares data and stories from a food bank point of view that indicates the importance of expanding the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in schools across America.

Listen to Katherine Bruns, West Hartford's Recycling Coordinator, share her journey to start food scrap programs in the West Hartford School District, as well as her observations about unopened and unpeeled food items from the trays of students that could be rescued in the future.  

Hear the inspiring story of how Center Grove Schools have rescued over 600,000 food items over  7 years and donated them to the Impact Center in their community who feeds over 200 families each week.  All 600,000 plus food items would have ended up in a  landfill if it were not for their K-12 Food Rescue program.  #FoodIsNotTrash