Sustainability through CONNECTION
Get a pulse on training needs for staff, students, community partners. Start committees such as Parent Advisory, District Health Advisory Committee (DHAC), School Wellness Teams to build trust and support your work. If stakeholders do not know my WHY, then there is greater risk of my programs failing. Feeding hungry students is a strong WHY. Food waste in our cafeterias is noticed by students, staff, and parents. Fruit and vegetable waste on average is around 55%, which is also money being sent to landfill. After implementation of food rescue, students were able to save milk, cheese sticks, pre-packaged items and whole fruit with peels. Positive outcomes: staff does not have to order as much milk and fruit as they had prior to program start, and students can access food if they are still hungry. We were able to scale up and leverage resources on the student farm through local food grants. Our Future Farmers of America (FFA) students are now able to raise pigs and lambs on site. We were able to process and develop several hyper local menu items, saving transportation costs. Continuing to drive that connection led SVVSD FFA and Nutrition Services to partner with the Prostart Culinary students alongside a Master Butcher to make student-raised pork Italian and German sausage links that will be used in our school menus. This then creates a complete circle from farm to school alongside teaching our students valuable traits. Takeaways on how your organization can address economic sustainability & reducing waste: Begin a Food Rescue in each cafeteria. Partner with a local environmental municipality for onboarding and education. Involve student green teams, eco clubs, PTO/ PTA’s in your work. Grant funding sources.
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