K-12 Food Rescue: A Food Waste Solution Podcast

In celebration of Food Rescue's 18th year, and our 100th episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast, John Williamson, our founder, president, and executive director, tells the Food Rescue story from 2006 to present. Discover how Food Rescue came into existence, and how and why the transition to K-12 Food Rescue with a focus on student education and leadership came to pass.

Emilie Dirck works with San Mateo Health and provides training on food waste audits and school share tables. San Mateo Health has a full section of their website dedicated to these subjects. https://www.smchealth.org/sharetable There are currently 11 of 300 schools in the school districts they serve involved directly with Emilie and San Mateo Health, with 4 more to be onboarded soon. That leaves 2...

Brittany Gage is a school food waste solution leader in Billings Public Schools in Montana with Sodexo. Montana is the 31st state featured on the K-12 Food Rescue podcast, and we are excited to bring you this story. Brittany shares about acquiring food waste tracking software from LeanPath, as well as the utilization of share tables within the school district.

Jill Riggs is the director of food service at Penn Harris Madison School Corporation. She has been leading school food waste solutions at Penn Harris since at least 2012, and the impact of 15 schools donating instead of dumping for 12 years is very inspiring, and we hope you enjoy hearing her story and the story Penn Harris Madison School Corporation.

Linda Williams started the Fishers UMC food pantry in 2007, almost the exact same time that Food Rescue was founded. In 2016, the Fishers UMC food pantry was once of the very first food pantry partners involved with K-12 Food Rescue, picking up from 7 schools in the Hamilton Southeaster School District.

Listen to the inspiring story of Indianapolis Public Schools Jonathon Jennings (IPS 109) Family and Community Liaison, Veronica Fuentes, and her effort to restore the schools' K-12 Food Rescue program after the pandemic.

We are excited to share the food waste solution journey of Cornell University Sophomore, Trisha Bhujle. When Trisha was a senior in high school in Texas, she wrote a letter to the Lewisville Independent School District regarding suggestions to reduce food waste in her school district, and we recently stumble upon that letter that she published on her Substack, calle the Sentimental Environmentalis...

Listen to the exciting school food waste solution journey of Marie Johnson, the Student Nutrition Program Coordinator at Farmington Municipal  Schools and former New Mexico Nutrition Association President, and Paula Szczepanek, the Resident District Manager with K-12 By Elior, a food service company partnering with Farmington Municipal Schools.  This marks the 30th state we have recorded an episod...

Hear the inspiring story of City Barbeque's Food Rescue Program, as told by Ronnie Berry, their Chief Administrative Officer. City Barbeque is a fast growing scratch restaurant with 70 locations nation wide.

Listen to the exciting journey of Robert Lee, the Co-Founder of Rescuing Leftover Cuisine, a national food rescue organization. Robert left his job at JP Morgan in his early 20's to pursue leading the #FoodIsNotTrash movement through Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. RLC has rescued millions of pounds of food since it's foundation as a Not for Profit organization since 2015.

Hear the inspiring story of Windy Ridge gifted and talented teacher Marta Heistand, as she shares how her students led the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in 2019 at Windy Ridge through their K-12 Food Rescue Share Table and food pantry partner program.

Listen to the inspiring partnership between Noblesville Schools, The White River Christian Food Pantry, and Food Rescue. The WRCC food pantry has received an estimated 350,000 food items in the past 7 years from the Noblesville School District's K-12 Food Rescue Program according to our guest Jeff Demasie, the food pantry director.

Listen to Vicki Ballas, the Michigan State University Extension Community Nutrition Instructor, discuss the' inspiring story of the Munising Public School's Mustang Food Share Program.

K-12 Food Rescue celebrates the early days of our Food Rescue efforts with this vey special episode with Mike Cookman and Jocelyn Challas. Hear how Jocelyn answered a Craigslist ad from Food Rescue for a service opportunity in Charlotte in 2008 to take surplus food from a restaurant to a food pantry regularly, and how Mike Cookman joined her team and went on to found the Food Recovery Group in Cha...

Take a trip down memory lane as we reflect on the growth of Food Rescue, in the hope of perhaps exposing listeners interested in rescuing food in schools to other food rescue opportunities outside of schools. Hear the inspiring story of Athens Food Rescue founder Teresa Curtiss, and how her efforts have led to over 270,000 food items donated to caring agencies feeding children and families in need...

Listen to the inspiring story of how one food pantry serves their local school district by recovering their surplus food and distributing it to children and families in need in their community. #FoodIsNotTrash. The episode features Allison Lehane, Jane Merrow, and Bay James, who all play key roles in the distribution of rescued food from schools in Newbury.

Hear the inspiring story school food waste solution journey of Shelby Cornett, The Park City School District Sustainability Coordinator in Park City Utah.

Listen to the inspiring story of the partnership between Indianapolis Public Schools, The Martin Luther King Center, The Boulevard Place Food Pantry, and K-12 Food Rescue, as told by Matt Hayes, the Executive Director of the Boulevard Place Food Pantry.

Listen to the inspiring story of High School Freshmen Lily Wheeler and Jolee Flynn on their journey to eliminate school food waste in their school district in Natick Massachusetts.

Listen to the inspiring story of Samantha Sandhaus and Feeding Philly on their journey to end school food waste in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

Listen to the inspiring story of share tables and school food pantries in 6 schools in Dekalb Central as told by Aubrey Gough, the food service director and Dekalb Central. Their share tables have rescued an estimated 378,000 food items since 2016.

Listen to Faculty Fellow Susanne Lee from the Senator George J Mitchell Center For Sustainability Solutions at the University of Maine share the results of their school food waste study, as well as her passion for seeing an end to wasted food in Maine K-12 schools and beyond.

South Harrison Schools Food Service Coordinator Stephanie Zimmerman shares her story of onboarding 7 cafeterias to participate in share tables in the school district, resulting in an estimated 31,000 food items rescued in 7 cafetieres for 8 schools annually.

Hear the inspiring story of how Lee's Summit R-7 School District Nutrition Service Director Lori Danella implemented share tables in 25 schools in her district. An estimated 200,000 food items will now be rescued annually as a result of the districts commitment to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in Lee's Summit R-7.

Hear the inspiring story of Hamden CT school teacher and Bear Path Green Team leader, Doreen Stohler, and how she inspired the students of Bear Path School to lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement.