FCPS Food Sharing Procedures

Food sharing is another great way to reduce waste in the cafeteria. Sometimes, items students purchase as part of their lunch remain untouched and are put in the trash. Food sharing puts some of these foods to good use through donation to local homeless shelters and food banks. Unopened items collected include string cheese, juice boxes, milk cartons, individual snack containers (e.g., hummus), yogurt, oranges, and bananas. The procedure below, which has been adapted from Churchill Road Elementary School, provides a good starting point for organizing a food sharing effort in your school. You too can achieve these fantastic results with the proper collection system in place.

The first step to donating your unopened food items is finding a recipient. This could include a local church with a poverty outreach program, a local homeless shelter, a local food bank, or other charitable entity. Make sure it is not too far from your school, as sometimes you will have to find volunteers (parents, faculty, or staff) to drive the food to the location (some locations will not provide pick-up service).

Once you have communicated with the charity and agreed to partner, you will need to submit the Memorandum of Understanding for Donation of Student School Meal Leftovers to Local Food Banks to the FCPS Office of Food and Nutrition Services. 
Send completed forms to Dianne Hardbower at [email protected].

Procuring a refrigerator may be as simple as sending out a note to parents asking if anyone has an old refrigerator they would be willing to donate. The PTA or principal may also have funds to put toward the purchase of a refrigerator. The size needed will depend on the size of your operation, but the one pictured below suits Churchill Road ES well with its student population of just under 850.

Students are encouraged to only purchase the food that they wish to eat, but you will need to educate them about how any leftovers they might have can go to your school’s food sharing program. At Churchill Road students know to put their unopened perishable items (e.g., milk, yogurt, string cheese, and hummus) in the refrigerator, which is located next to the general food waste disposal area. If you would rather keep the refrigerator in an area that is off-limits to students you could have a cafeteria staff member collect these items and put them in, although many simply might not have the time for this. Unopened non-perishable items can be kept in storage bins outside the refrigerator. These include such items as: fruit juice boxes; prepackaged applesauce or peaches; whole fruit (e.g., tangerines, oranges and bananas); unopened dips (e.g., ketchup, mustard, salad dressing and jelly); and bottled water. The key is to ensure that students place ONLY UNOPENED / UNTAMPERED PRODUCTS IN YOUR COLLECTION AREAS. Anything that has been opened, ripped, or otherwise modified will not be accepted by local food banks.

Food items that CANNOT be accepted include:

Sliced or quartered fruit such as:
Oranges
Kiwi
Grapefruit
Cups of Salads and Raw Vegetables
Whole Apples

Hot Vegetables
Hot or Cold Meat sandwiches

Hot Meat items such as:
Chicken tenders, Burritos and Cheese sticks

Hot Casserole items such as:
Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Macaroni and Cheese.

As explained in the Letter of Understanding (link provided above), a weekly log should be maintained of the food items taken to local food banks. This tabulated data should be retained on site for Food and Nutrition Services review and for school data collection purposes. The chart to be used for this purpose can be found on the last page of the MOU. The easiest way to keep track of outgoing food items is to print out this chart and keep it in a clipboard by the food collection area (the collection sheet used at Dranesville Elementary is pictured). This form should be maintained by the school/parent volunteer representative who is collecting the donation, identified by their signature on page 3 of the MOU.