What We Do
The RCE Food Waste Team offers:
- School cafeteria food waste audits
- Effective waste reduction interventions to schools
- Food service/cafeteria staff trainings
- Pre- and post- trainings measures
- Detailed reporting of your schools food waste and progress
- Distribution of School Food Waste Reduction Toolkit and other resources
What we have accomplished thus far:
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In 2017, food waste audits and trainings were executed in Paterson Public Schools. This resulted in about 12 pounds of waste saved per school per day, and a total of 90,720 pounds of food waste saved for the whole district for the year. The estimated savings of food cost was $76,452!
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In 2018-2019, food waste assessments and trainings took place in New Brunswick Public Schools. This resulted in 3,871 pounds of food saved and redistributed to the community! Click here to learn more.
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In 2021, the RCE Food Waste team partnered with Sustainable Jersey on grant-funded project Sustainable and Scalable Food Waste Solutions for Schools. Food waste audits were conducted in three NJ public schools to assess waste. Food waste reduction trainings and interventions were held in 2022. On average, students wasted 20 grams less vegetables after the intervention and 6.7 grams less of overall food waste per student per meal. There was a 70,760 grams or 42% decrease in overall food waste. An average of 79,832 grams of food was composted and 53,524 grams of food was collected to be redistributed. Using these results, RCE and Sustainable Jersey collaborated on the creation of Reduce, Recover & Recycle Food Waste, a waste reduction toolkit for K-12 schools. This toolkit can be found publicly here: https://www.sustainablejerseyschools.com/fileadmin/media/Grants_and_Resources/Resources/Food_Waste_Toolkit/SJS_PreK-12_Food_Waste_Toolkit.pdf
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In 2022, the team received an NJ Department of Environmental Protection Recycling Enhancement Act Grant to develop “NJ Leaves No Bite Behind”, a two-year project to research, create, pilot, and evaluate a hybrid (in-person and online) 5th grade curriculum centered on climate change education and reducing food waste. Lessons for the pilot schools were taught during the 2022-2023 school year. Almost three quarters of participants that received the curriculum agreed or strongly agreed that the lessons were fun (75.5%), liked the card games (72.5), and learned a lot (78.4%). Over half of participants also agreed or strongly agreed they wanted to learn more about climate change (65.6%), wanted to teach others about climate change (50.0%) and believed their friends in other schools would learn a lot from the program (71.6%). Additionally, over one-third (39.0%) reported sharing the NJLNBB online games with either their friends or family.
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In 2022, the team received funding from a USDA AFRI grant and developed the People, Plants, and the Planet program. This program is an integrated research, education, and Extension project that aims to develop, implement, and pilot-test an innovative planetary health curriculum that will encompass the impact of food on planetary and human health. It was grounded in decision-making processes to increase plant-based foods that support the prevention of chronic disease among adolescents. This pilot study resulted in a significant increase in knowledge, indicating that the curriculum was effective at increasing students’ knowledge on food choices for planetary and human health.