By Megan Holler, Director of Food Recovery and Compost at Toward Zero Waste
SHARE is a food recovery program by Toward Zero Waste (TZW) with Wake County Public School System in North Carolina to capture wholesome leftovers from Child Nutrition Services and feed students, rather than landfills. To date, SHARE is operating in 47 schools in Wake County, recovering and redistributing an average of 41 unopened and unpeeled items per day, per school.
Edible peel fruits, like apples and pears, are not eligible for the SHARE program in Wake County, as they are not bagged before serving. Food safety guidelines ask that these fruits be wrapped or bagged, in order to be included as part of a sharing table program in schools. But, schools see a large volume of uneaten whole fruits heading to the trash. Over an 8 week period, one elementary school counted 669, uneaten, apples and pears being discarded.
To work within food safety regulations, and still help save perfectly good food from the landfill, TZW helps interested SHARE schools in Wake County collect these uneaten fruits separately, utilizing Busch Systems’ Multi Recycler, for donation to community food pantries. Customers of food pantries are then asked to wash the fruits at home, prior to consumption. With most food pantries experiencing increases in visits in recent months, these fresh fruits have been welcomed. Busch’s Multi-Recycler itself is perfect for this task, providing a heavy duty bin for the collection and movement of these rescued foods.
“We are very thankful for the opportunity to share these uneaten fruits through our pantry with families who might not otherwise be able to afford fresh produce on a regular basis. Many of our families have expressed their appreciation for the increase in fresh produce, and it has been a wonderful addition to the resources we are able to offer.
We really appreciate the SHARE program and its partners for bringing this opportunity to our school and helping us make sure good food gets to families who can use it!”
-School Social Worker, Wake County Public School System
