K-12 schools – ISTC blog

Mark your calendars for Food Waste Prevention Week, scheduled to take place April 7-13 this year.

The US EPA estimates that in 2019 alone, 66 million tons of wasted food was generated in the food retail, food service, and residential sectors, and most of this waste (about 60%) was sent to landfills. Food Waste Prevention Week (FWPW) is a collaborative effort to raise awareness about food waste and its negative impacts on our society and environment, while also sharing resources to help individuals, families, and organizations reduce their food waste. Because the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) Zero Waste team has experience working on food waste reduction and management projects, ISTC is proud to be a FWPW partner organization for the third year in a row!

Be sure to check ISTC’s social media platforms during April 7-13, for highlights of relevant projects, as well as facts and resources to help you on your food waste reduction journey. If you’re not already following us on social media, you can connect with us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

How do I get involved?

The FWPW website provides a wealth of information to help various sectors with food waste prevention efforts, including descriptions of webinars presented by partners across the country. Here are just a few suggestions for relevant activities and webinars, arranged by sector, including links to ISTC and partner organization resources, as well as links to appropriate sections of the FWPW website for further information and inspiration. Links to specific programs or services are for informational purposes only and should not be construed as endorsements by ISTC, the Prairie Research Institute, or the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Colleges & Universities

Host a “Weigh your Waste” event to get students involved and to illustrate the magnitude of food waste generated. Uneaten food from student trays from a single meal period is collected, weighed, and put on display. This offers opportunities for discussion around the causes of waste and encourages students to brainstorm ideas for reduction. See this case study from Chapman University for inspiration.
Promote your campus chapter of the Food Recovery Network (FRN), or consider forming one if your campus is not yet participating. FRN is a non-profit that unites students with businesses and other community partners to recover perishable food and fight hunger while simultaneously fighting waste.
Register for these webinars (and check the FWPW webinar page regularly for addition of similar events):
- NourishNet Educational Tools for Pantries and Universities, April 7, 12 PM Central
- Innovative Strategies for Reducing Food Waste on University Campuses, April 9, 3 PM Central

See https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/universities for additional ideas.

Local Governments

Check out the NRDC Food Matters Beginner’s Guide. The NRDC Food Matters project partners with cities to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste through comprehensive policies and programs. This guide introduces policymakers, agency staff, and activists to the project and provides resources related to food waste reduction and communication strategies, as well as case studies from successful initiatives in partner cities.
Use the NRDC Guide to Making a Public Commitment on Food Waste. This can be a way to harness local leadership and constituent buy-in, while increasing accountability, and helping your city serve as inspiration for peers in other locations.
Register for these webinars (and check the FWPW webinar page regularly for addition of similar events):
- A Case Study on Food Waste Management at a Municipality, April 7, 3 PM Central
- How to Engage Community to Prevent Food Waste (an overview of Food Rescue US), April 8, 11 AM Central

See https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/cities for additional suggestions for municipalities.

K-12 Schools

Review the suggested activities and other archived materials from the Green Lunchroom Challenge, a past US EPA-funded ISTC project focused on food waste prevention and reduction in K-12 schools.
Engage students in the FWPW Student Art Contest. This year’s theme is “What Food Means to Me Love Letter to Food.” There’s also a FWPW Student Poetry Contest with the same theme.
Register for these webinars (and check the FWPW webinar page regularly for addition of similar events):
- What happened when k12 educators, high school students, and life-long learners took the Make the Most of Food Challenge with a Veggie Twist? April 7, 5 PM Central
- Challenges with surplus food recovery at the public school level? Tips for how we divert 1.2 million lbs annually, April 10, 1 PM Central

See https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/k-12schools for additional resources for K-12 schools.

Events, Hospitality, & Sports Teams

Review the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) toolkits and resources for fighting food waste in hospitality and food service.
Check out the Zero Waste Event Planning Guide from Seven Generations Ahead. This guide is the basis for their famous Oak Park Microbrew Review, the Midwest’s largest zero-waste craft beverage festival.
Watch this recorded session from Waste Expo 2019 on Food Waste Reduction and Recovery at Sports Stadiums and Other Large Venues.
Register for these webinars (and check the FWPW webinar page regularly for addition of similar events):
- The Business Case for Zero Food Waste Initiatives at Events, April 11, 11 AM Central
- Scoring for Sustainability: A food recovery partnership with Gillette Stadium, Food Recovery Network, and Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, April 10 at 2 PM Central

See https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/events-hospitality for more suggestions for events and hospitality. See this link for more info for sports teams.

Restaurants

ISTC currently has grant funding to provide free sustainability assessments for restaurants and other small food-focused businesses in DuPage and Kane counties in IL. These assessments include pollution prevention, energy efficiency, water conservation, and alternatives to hazardous chemicals, as well as waste reduction. Learn more about a recent ISTC project focused on food waste assistance for small businesses, and contact the zero waste team at istc-zerowaste@illinois.edu to explore how they might assist your business.
See this page for additional information for restaurants.

Individuals & Families

Explore the resources at Savethefood.com, including recipes to use up ingredients and leftovers, storage tips to keep food fresh longer, a tool to estimate the amount of food you’ll need for a certain number of guests, and other planning suggestions.
Register for these webinars (and check the FWPW webinar page regularly for addition of similar events):
- About that Date: What you should (but might not) know about “expiration dates”, April 9, 11 AM Central
- Food Waste & Climate Change, April 9, 1:00 PM Central
- Using Them Up: How The World Makes Leftovers Taste Like New, April 8, 1 PM Central

Just in time for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the Wasted Food Action Alliance is pleased to announce the release of the Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools. Though schools throughout the state are currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this toolkit will allow districts and food service staff members to make plans for food waste reduction efforts when schools are able to welcome back students and staff in person.

The Wasted Food Action Alliance is a diverse set of organizations helping build a unified approach towards reducing wasted food and leveraging it to benefit our region. Its mission is to develop a working strategy and action platform that makes Illinois a leader in reducing wasted food by connecting and building on current wasted food initiatives, education, and policy in unified ways that holistically promote source reduction; food recovery for hunger relief and other uses; and recovery of food scraps for composting and creating healthy soil.

Joy Scrogum, a member of ISTC’s Technical Assistance Program (TAP), is part of the Wasted Food Action Alliance subcommittee which developed the school food waste reduction toolkit. Joy coordinated ISTC’s Green Lunchroom Challenge project, and continues to work on food waste prevention and reduction through TAP’s work with clients, the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition, and related local and regional projects. The Wasted Food Action Alliance school toolkit subcommittee was lead by Seven Generations Ahead.

What’s the problem with food waste in schools?

Over 7 billion school meals are served each year in the United States. Much of this food, however, is currently feeding landfills instead of nourishing students. This is while one in six children is food insecure. When food is landfilled, not only are its nutrients lost, so are all the energy, water, and labor that went into producing, transporting, and preparing it. K-12 schools have a unique role in teaching students to value food instead of wasting it.

The Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools can help.

The Toolkit is a comprehensive resource that provides all schools, no matter their size or location, the tools to tackle the issue of wasted food. It identifies the main sources of wasted food and offers strategies for food waste prevention, recovery and redistribution, composting, education and engagement, and celebrating success. A variety of solutions are shared–from easy and quick to implement to longer term and more resource intensive.

The Toolkit’s easy to use format allows you to jump in to find the strategies that work for your school. Each section includes case studies that highlight inspirational efforts to reduce food waste in schools across Illinois and provides guidance on:

Measuring food waste

Waste audit guides
How to determine what to audit in your lunchroom and kitchen
Food waste tracking in kitchens
Analyzing waste audit data

Preventing food waste

Sourcing food from school gardens and local farms to encourage consumption of healthy foods
Menu planning and food preparation
Preventing food waste at the serving line, including Offer versus Serve

Recovering and redistributing surplus food

Policies and laws regarding share tables and the redistribution of food (including the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act that supports the donation of recovered food)
How to set up and operate a share table
Redistribution of surplus food within a school
Donation of surplus food to an outside organization or in-school food pantry

Composting food scraps

The environmental benefits of composting
Onsite composting
Offsite commercial composting
How to get started composting in your lunchroom

Educating and engaging the school community

Hands-on classroom or service learning projects
Curricula and lessons about food and food waste
Teaching tools and resources

Communicating and celebrating success

Communications within school community
Communications with the wider community
Get recognized with programs such as Green Ribbon Schools and the U.S. Food Waste Challenge

The toolkit is available on the Wasted Food Action Alliance web site.

Tag: K-12 schools

ISTC is proud to be a 2025 Food Waste Prevention Week partner

How do I get involved?

Food Waste Reduction Toolkit for Illinois Schools now available for download