In the restaurant industry, plenty of food goes uneaten and gets thrown away at the end of each day.
The average American would be amazed at the amount of food that gets thrown away each day, whether it be by catering companies, stores and even schools.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture a staggering $161 billion worth of food was wasted in 2010.
But one non-profit has decided to turn this awful waste into something positive and the results are attracting a lot of national attention.
A school in Indiana is now working to reduce food waste and provide students in need with meals to take home over the weekend.
Elkhart Community Schools students, in Indiana, usually get breakfast and lunch at school, but on the weekends at home, they may be without food.
Non-profit Cultivate Culinary decided to do something about this and provides weekend meals to a small group of students.
Working with the community and university partnerships, Cultivate provides healthy meals to those in need for as little as $1.50 per serving.
“Mostly, we rescue food that’s been made but never served by catering companies, large food service businesses, like the school system,” said Jim Conklin of Cultivate Culinary, according to ABC News. “You don’t always think of a school.”
‘Rescued the food’
Cultivate Culinary takes unused food from the school and turns it into nourishment for the kids that need it most.
“Over-preparing is just part of what happens,” added Jim.
The organization also picks up food leftover from university events, such as football games.
“We take well-prepared food, combine it with other food and make individual frozen meals out if it.”
Twenty students will receive a backpack with eight individual frozen meals every Friday until the end of school.
“At Elkhart Community Schools, we were wasting a lot of food,” said Natalie Bickel, student services.
“There wasn’t anything to do with the food. So they came to the school three times a week and rescued the food.”
Such a simple idea and yet so effective.
It’s heartbreaking to hear that children go home on the weekends and that they don’t have anything to eat.
Every kid deserves proper nourishment to feed their bodies and minds. I’m so glad this scheme exists!
Please share this inspirational story on Facebook; you never know who might be inspired to set up a similar scheme.
No child should go hungry!
