Brighten Your Day

Unused Cafeteria Food Is Being Turned Into Take-Home Meals For Kids

April 4, 2019

An Indiana elementary school is taking steps to ensure all kids have enough to eat.

Credit: WSBT 22

Students usually get breakfast and lunch at school, but on the weekends at home, they may be without food.

So, Woodland Elementary teamed up with Cultivate, a nonprofit food rescue, for a pilot program that provides students with repackaged meals every Friday.

Jim Conklin, the founder of Cultivate, explained how schools and businesses usually cook more food than is actually consumed each day.

"Mostly, we rescue food that's been made but never served by catering companies, large food service businesses, like the school system," said Jim Conklin, the founder of Cultivate. "We take well-prepared food, combine it with other food and make individual frozen meals out if it."

"At Elkhart Community Schools, we were wasting a lot of food," admitted Natalie Bickel, who works with student services. "There wasn't anything to do with the food. So they came to the school three times a week and rescued the food."

The program is making a big difference in the lives of the students receiving the meals.

"It's making a big impact," said Melissa Ramey of the Chamber Leadership Academy. "I am proud of that. It was heartbreaking to hear that children go home on the weekends and that they don't have anything to eat."