The National Honor Society students were brainstorming ideas for a charity project to focus on for the 2023-2024 school year. A recurring issue that came to our attention was a concern over food waste and food insecurities happening in our communities today. The students did some extensive research and found that the USDA shows that about 90 billion pounds of food goes uneaten each year, which is equal to $372 per person, per year, wasted. Most ofthis waste was attributed to schools and hospitals. We also noticed, during lunches at Alter, a lot of food was being thrown away. We found that this was because the students were too full or didn’t like what was packed. In addition, some students were not eating because some had no money in their lunch accounts or had food insecurities.
We did not like what we were seeing and wanted to do something to reducefood waste in our school. We decided to implement a Share Table. A ShareTables is a supervised table in our cafeteria where students can leave or take asnack, a piece of fruit, a drink, or a microwavable meal.
What can you do?
- Talk to your student about being mindful of food waste.
- Consider the right amount of food to pack for your student.
- Discuss with your child whether they think too much food is being packed.
- Consider packing an extra snack for a student in need.
- Donate individually wrapped fruit snacks, popcorn, chips, apples, bananas, microwavable meals, cup of noodles, Hot Pockets, Breakfast sandwiches etc.
Our Alter family will continue to reach out, give back and strive to take care of each other. We appreciate your support as we continue our efforts to reduce food waste in our community. Thank you.
God Bless and Go Knights.
Ms. Sanders
National Honor SocietyCharity Project
