Every year, 168 pounds of edible food is wasted by American households on average, according to the Gallup Survey. This amount pertains solely to edible items, excluding inedible scraps. The actual state of recycling does not warrant much praise either. While many efforts are made to separate waste into landfill, compost, and recycling bins, the majority of items are still disposed of in landfill bins.
The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has been making efforts to feed students, not landfills, since 2016, through Love Food Not Waste, which is part of the food recovery and rescue program. School kitchens, custodial staff, administration, students, and hunger relief organizations are cooperating within the department.
Love Food Not Waste is launching a pilot program in April at University City High School (UCHS), led by two sophomores, Henry Jiang and Kai Trees. The goal of the pilot is to reduce the use of plastic sporks offered at the café.
“Currently, the plastic sporks that students use in their school café are not recyclable. We teamed up with Henry and Kai to explore eco-friendly alternatives. We work with several vendors and are testing a few biodegradable alternatives such as birch, bamboo, and pressed bamboo forks,” said Sarah Diaz, the program specialist.
It was a challenge to initiate the pilot with several steps, but Jiang and Trees planned to work step by step to make their school more sustainable. “Working with the Love Food Not Waste program, we came up with the solution to slowly try and test our sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging and utensils,” noted Jiang.
Jiang and Trees naturally developed an interest in environmental issues as they became aware of the problem at hand.
“Being a person who eats school lunch every day, I always threw my single-use containers into trash cans full of single-use waste. I didn’t like seeing all of the waste our school was generating and felt as though something should be done. Being a part of the problem inspired me to be part of the solution,” said Jiang.
“Since I was young, I have loved nature through my experiences with hiking, biking, and camping. When I first learned about climate change and pollution, I felt strongly and wanted to help,” said Trees.
Jiang developed the goal of reducing plastic waste at the school by joining the SDUSD Environmental Literacy Task Force in 2022. After Trees joined with similar thoughts, they began the journey to turn their plans into reality.
In the meantime, Diaz is striving to increase student engagement by creating opportunities for them to take action. “Students are informed about the impacts of organic waste sent to landfills and encouraged to do their part to reduce this impact,” noted Diaz. In the first three years of implementation, “more than 615,000 pounds of food was rescued from school meals, equating to 492,500 meals provided to the local community” through the program.
Love Food Not Waste has also inspired others beyond students. “School kitchen staff have become increasingly aware and they have taken steps to adjust the amount of food prepared and served each day, to reduce food waste and save money,” Diaz said.
For the pilot, they are going to determine which alternatives would be acceptable to students in terms of functionality, durability, and texture. If the pilot attempt yields meaningful outcomes, the next step is to implement it for a longer duration.
“If UCHS proves it’s able to make this change, we hope to see this initiative expanded across schools in San Diego Unified,” mentioned Trees.
Jiang and Trees are resolute in achieving their goal and spreading it to the broader society. “What I am doing may be a small step, but I believe it can have long-lasting positive effects and can hopefully lead to something bigger,” said Jiang.
