SOUTH PORTLAND — 4 faculty districts throughout Maine had been in a position to cut back their meals waste by 20% by taking part in a 2023 examine performed by College of Maine researchers. To construct on the educational and momentum round decreasing wasted meals in Maine faculty cafeterias, UMaine has launched a second Maine College Cafeteria Wasted Meals Research with 4 faculty districts and help from the World Wildlife Fund.
College students from Brown Elementary College in South Portland, Sherwood Heights Elementary College in Auburn, Sugg Center College in Lisbon and Easton Elementary College have been given numerous classes and actions to find out how they will eat higher and waste much less meals.
New share carts and college group fridges have been set as much as enable college students to provide unopened meals that may be eaten by different college students or donated to feed the group. College students from kindergarten by way of eighth grade are studying to separate their meals scraps from trash. Their meals scraps can be utilized to feed animals or make compost that may develop new vegatables and fruits. The scholars weigh their each day meals scraps to measure any adjustments.
“The Meals Waste Research is a good alternative for our college students to see firsthand how their selections influence the atmosphere and their group. It’s not nearly decreasing waste. Additionally it is about studying to be accountable, considerate, and resourceful,” stated Brown Elementary College Principal Beth Kellogg. “By monitoring what will get thrown away, college students turn out to be extra conscious of what they take, what they eat and the way they will share or save meals as a substitute of losing it. Moreover, we like filling scholar tummies greater than filling landfills.”
In Easton, the meals scraps from the college cafeteria are collected on the finish of every day by native Amish farmers. This meals is then used to feed their livestock and help their native farming and gardening actions.
The actions are a part of the eight-week examine developed by the Meals Rescue MAINE scholar and school crew from UMaine’s Senator George J. Mitchell Middle for Sustainability Options. The examine seeks to enhance scholar diet and cut back wasted meals by way of hands-on studying.
Research co-leads Susanne Lee, Mitchell Middle school fellow, and William Brenneman, UMaine graduate scholar, meet weekly with district faculty diet administrators to plan the examine implementation and in addition go to the faculties to host partaking, school-wide “How Can You Cut back Wasted Meals?” assemblies.
“The examine is efficacious as a result of it has successfully introduced collectively productive communication throughout a number of departments, inspiring college students and adults, and displaying the significance of highlighting the idea of getting again to fundamentals with training within the cafeteria and the explanation behind the why to reuse and recycle,” stated Shawn Perry, Director of the College Diet Program for the South Portland College Division.
The examine was additionally developed in collaboration with the Maine Division of Schooling, state Division of Environmental Safety and the Governor’s Workplace for Coverage & Innovation for the Future. It’s supported by a grant from the World Wildlife Meals Waste Warrior program.
Meals waste results in financial, social and environmental injury. Within the first-ever Maine Meals Loss and Waste Technology Research accomplished in 2024, Meals Rescue MAINE discovered that 361,000 tons of meals loss and waste are generated yearly within the state. Total, that’s nearly 40% of all meals produced in Maine. For households, this implies a median of $1600 price of meals is thrown away annually.
Throwing meals within the trash ends in beneficial meals assets going to non-food disposal assets like Maine landfills the place it produces leachate in addition to methane and different greenhouse gases harming the atmosphere. Protecting meals out of the waste stream and reallocating it to folks in want can’t solely tackle environmental considerations, but additionally assist sort out meals insecurity within the state, which is the very best in New England. Based on Feeding America, 180,000 folks in Maine — about one in eight — skilled meals insecurity in 2022, together with one in 5 kids.
In 2015, the Mitchell Middle’s Supplies Administration crew was tasked with eliminating wasted meals and meals loss, because the Maine DEP recognized this as essentially the most urgent challenge impacting the state’s supplies administration system. The Meals Rescue MAINE program was based in 2019 to finish wasted meals and meals loss in Maine by way of stakeholder-driven, transdisciplinary, triple backside line options to help Maine’s meals restoration hierarchy.
