ESRAG INITIATIVE

Lunch out of Landfills

Every student, every school, every day.
Successfully diverting 40 to 60% of landfill designated waste by
providing containers for liquids, organics, recycling and trash.

WHAT IS IT?

Lunch out of Landfills

Lunch out of Landfills began at Urbana High School in January 2018 with a district grant and contributing funds from 5 Frederick MD Rotary clubs 14 schools were added in the fall of 2019 and operated until the pandemic shutdown. At Lincoln Elementary a food recovery program was added and recovered on average 64 milks per day and taken to a local food bank.

As we emerge from the pandemic, entire school systems are looking for ways to divert waste, recover uneaten food and decontaminate recycling. Rotary can lead the way by providing instruction, support for teachers and green team, containers and creating food recovery networks.

LUNCH OUT OF LANDFILLS

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INITIATIVES

Objectives

Lunch out of Landfills is working to reduce Landfill designated waste from school cafeterias, by decontaminating recycling, extracting organics and liquids from the trash and recovering uneaten food to be used at share tables and taking food to local food banks. As much as 85% of cafeteria waste can be diverted from the waste stream.

What can you do to make an impact?

  1. EDUCATE. Educating students teachers and parents on the impact of food waste and providing the infrastructure to collect and compost organics, make trash free lunches, teach parents of appropriate lunch portions and to reduce waste at home
  2. INVOLVE YOUTH WITH INTERACT and ROTERACT. The initiative is to be student led. High School students and earn SSL and internship opportunities to mentor younger students on waste diversion, monitoring contamination and assisting building services with waste removal. High School green teams can and should look to Rotary interact clubs to provide resources and support for program implementation
  3. NETWORK. Create a food recovery network providing coolers for safe handling of perishable goods, identifying food banks, local church welfare sites to take uneaten food and creating a network of food runners to collect uneaten food items from schools daily
  4. ADOCATE. Create the infrastructure for compost facilities, compost haulers and overall waste reduction solutions by lobbying state legislatures and identifying funding sources thru public and private partnerships.

Addressing climate change with solutions based actions. Lunch out of Landfills is not a one time activity. It engages every student in every school everyday. Learning the impact of our consumption on the climate and empowering students to take meaningful action can reduce the third largest contributor to methane emissions while feeding hungry people

Want to take action with food waste?

Take action: interested in becoming a volunteer or starting a project?
We’d love to hear from you.