The Bell PTSA has been advocating for changes in the lunch room and we are excited to share some recent successes.
When students returned to in-person learning this year, they were required to throw all their food in the trash, including uneaten food (e.g., unopened milk, uneaten fruit, unopened packaged foods). There were days where we were seeing more than 100 pieces of uneaten fresh fruit going in the trash (in addition to unopened milk and other food). To remedy this, the Bell PTSA did the following:
- We worked with King County Green Schools, LWSD, and Sodexo (LWSD's contracted food service provider) to obtain all the necessary approvals needed to relaunch a food donation program at Bell (quite a bit of red tape to get through, but we are finally up and running). During each lunch period, we now set out food-collection bins. We put the food in a fridge and take it to the food bank at the end of the week.
- We expressed our concerns to our legislators, the school, school district, and to Sodexo. Sodexo recently made a simple change (i.e., no longer REQUIRING students to take certain foods, while still meeting USDA requirements). This change has had a substantial impact on waste levels in our lunch room and across the district. Early estimates indicate that this has resulted in 4K pieces of fruit per day not being wasted (across the district).
- We re-launched our food composting program, reducing our landfill contribution by approximately 50%.
Sustainability should not take a back seat during a pandemic. We must continue this vital work. Our students need to see sustainability efforts in our schools and in our homes. Our actions need to reflect what we're teaching our kids.
Thank you, Amanda Gibson, for leading our Green Team. And thank you, Kristin Coberly, for stepping into the role of staff Green Team lead earlier this week. We are excited to partner with you.
