Applicant: Sharington School District Title: Food Distribution and Utilization
Target audience: The 555 Hope Elementary students (primarily the 76 5th grade students (2007-2008 academic year) and 76 6th grade students (fall 2008)—in other words, the current 4th grade cohort).
Need: To provide students with citizen action skill development and self-reflective learning opportunities in which they consider the economic and ecological impacts of their actions; and if they are so inclined, implement behavioral changes. The district desires to provide student directed EE leadership opportunities that provide students with a sense of personal “locus of control.” A food resource utilization project is being proposed since all students face daily food resource utilization decisions and the amount of food waste currently generated at school is substantial.
Goals Addressed: A modified curricula that goes beyond developing observational skills (awareness and knowledge) related to resource utilization, and provides students with opportunities to transform food waste to a food resource (citizen action skills and citizen action experiences) supports Goal III of the EE2010 plan. Sixth grade student generated projects will be shared, and may ultimately be included in a set of exemplary criteria by which schools can self-audit their EE programs.
Evidence of Need: “Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year. The nation spends about 1 billion dollars a year to dispose of food waste. In 2003, almost 12% of the total MSW generated in American households was food scraps and less than three percent was recovered.”1
On an average day at Hope Elementary, more than 20 gallons of milk is served to our students. A one week investigation, conducted by the current fourth grade students, revealed an average of 5.2 gallons of milk wasted daily. Students found a lot of food waste too--- an astonishing first day figure of 70.4 pounds. At that rate students will waste over 3,600 gallons of milk and 12,600 pounds of food this academic year!
Meanwhile farmers in our community are experiencing ever increasing costs for producing the food stuffs they bring to market. For example, “Fertilizer has more than doubled in price in a short time period. The price for anhydrous ammonia fertilizer has risen to $450-$475 a ton, up from $200 a ton in 2003.”2 A joint venture with the local agricultural community will enable the school community to turn a “waste” product into a valuable animal feed resource, providing some economic relief to local farmers, and also provide students with hands-on, problem-solving, awareness to citizen action learning opportunities in which they may alter their attitudes and behavior due to a realization of their personal locus of control.
Previous Effort: The amount of milk and food waste was measured for one week. The activity was strictly a measuring and graphing activity. No effort was made to have students reflect on their lifestyle choices and actions, nor on the economic and ecological impacts of these actions. In a follow up survey, when the 4th grade students were asked, “Who is responsible for dealing with the school’s food waste?” 92% identified the custodian as the responsible party. While this is a legitimate response, students need to be aware of their personal influence and their ability to alter circumstances (in other words, their own locus of control). Hence, the submission of this proposal.
Goal 1: Support and enhance awareness and knowledge environmental education tenants of fifth grade students at Hope Elementary via a series of resource distribution and utilization lessons.
Objective 1. To modify instruction (previous instruction was a one hour discussion of the food pyramid) to incorporate a focus on resource distribution and utilization—specifically food resources— as related to personal decisions and actions. Success will be measured by pre and post tests that assess students’ knowledge and attitudes of food resource distribution and utilization.
Activity 1: Students will tour a potato processing and distribution system (Sept. 21, 2007).
Activity 2: Students will create maps of where the potato crops sent to the above processing facility are grown and distributed (by Sept 28, 2007). Electronic mapping provides a consistent data collection and management system and allows for easier identification and analysis of future alterations to the growth and distribution locations. (In the future, students will be asked to compare their map with maps from prior years.)
Activity 3: A farm cooperative manager and farmers’ market vendor will serve as guest speakers to discuss alternate food growth and distribution methods (week of Oct 1 2007). Students will select a food, research ecological and economic aspects of its production, processing and distribution, and create an assessment product of their choice (e.g., poster, report, video, website, PowerPoint presentation, etc) to share with the class information they have gathered (by Oct 26, 2007).
Activity 4: Class discussions regarding food availability and its influence on various ethnic group cuisines will occur (Oct 29-Nov 2, 2007). Each student will create a cafeteria menu for a one week period. Interested students will submit their “best” daily menu for possible preparation (by 11/9/07). The food service staff will select five daily menus (by 11/16/07) and each will be prepared and served once between 11/19 and 12/21 2007.
Goal 2 Implement an action project designed to make students aware of the economic and ecological impacts of their daily food utilization decisions, and provide opportunities for students to work collectively to transform food “waste” into a “resource.”
Objective 1. To expose all 555 elementary students to a food waste separation system in order to cultivate critical thinking regarding food resource utilization and provide opportunities for behavioral change. Absentee lists will be compared to class instruction schedule to insure every child has participated in a learning session.
Activity 1: Custodial staff, under the guidance of project director and food waste reduction expert, set up food separation system and collect baseline food waste weight data (September-mid October 2007).
Activity 2: Project director and cafeteria aides provide food waste separation instruction (Oct 8-12 2007) Children will be told that food waste will become a food resource since it will be sent to a local farm to supplement animal feed. In order to discourage children from generating food waste on purpose, in order to feed the farm animals, the concept that farmers work hard to produce our food will be stressed.
Activity 3: Students free to choose whether to place their food waste in the designated containers. (After the training week, cafeteria aides will not monitor student behavior.) Collection, weighing and transfer duties transferred from the custodial staff to student volunteers. (Students responsible mid Oct 2007-Dec 2008.)
Objective 2. To have interested 6th grade students, with the assistance of food waste reduction consultant, research the feasibility of additional food waste collection and utilization methods with the goal of implementing an additional food waste reduction program.
Activity 1: Interested students join an after-school Food Waste Recovery Club with project director and consultant serving as advisors. Students receive hands-on instruction about vermi-composting, traditional composting, and container composting, food banks, and established food waste reduction programs in WI groceries, restaurants, and food processing facilities.
Activity 2: Students may choose to implement a program to divert food waste (initially generated at the school and/or other locations (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, etc) using one or more of the above as a model. Students generate possible ideas (by Oct 17 2008) and select a project to implement (by Oct 24th 2008). Club implements and monitors program success as measured by # of club members involved in project, amount of food waste diverted, and # of people club reaches with its educational message. (Oct-Dec 13, 2008)
Dissemination: The project director will post modified curricula information on the school’s website (by Jan 2008) and will also make a presentation at the fall 2008 WAEE conference. Three 5th grade students (one representative per classroom-selected by their peers), a cafeteria aide, and the project director will report to the school board (June 2008) on the food waste reduction program. Club members will present information about student directed waste reduction/diversion programs (objective 3) to community members during annual science fair (December 19, 2008).
Project Evaluation: It is anticipated pre-post testing will document enhanced: 5th grade students’ ability to graphically and verbally describe a food production, processing and distribution system. A comparison of the weight of food waste in Sept. 2007 to June 2008 and Dec 2008 will measure behavioral change. Change in attitude regarding locus of control will be evaluated by a resurvey (Dec 2008) which includes the original question, “Who is responsible for dealing with the school’s food waste?” Farmer will report economic value of waste as based on any reduction in the purchase of animal feed.
Staff Qualifications: Project director: Penny Pound: 5-6 unit leader (6 yrs), fifth grade teacher (12 yrs), daughter of a Wisconsin pork farmer. (Food waste (resource) will only go to farms Ms. Pound has no prior affiliation with.)
Continuation: Curriculum modifications and cafeteria food separation program will remain in place. Project director will continue to serve as club advisor and assist in implementation and monitoring of new and existing food waste reduction projects as long as students are interested in this type of community action project. Funds will come from student activity fee, PTO, and community donations.