3/9/2017 So that headline is exaggerating for effect, right? Perhaps that's what you are thinking, but the data and math at the end tells the story. A 10 year old in Houston is attempting to secure hundreds of thousands of meals for city wide food pantries through his K-12 Food Rescue efforts.
On February 8th, Food Rescue received an inquiry from the president of Make a Difference Entrepreneurs (M.A.D.E.) in Houston, and one of their founders, 10 year old, Yash Semlani. In just 30 short days, the following is a list of Yash and M.A.D.E.’s impact on the Houston Independent School District (HISD) using the resources provided from Food Rescue, including one on one mentoring sessions that accompany access to our “Get Started” toolkit. 1) M.A.D.E. and Yash contacted his school principal, area cafeteria manager and district food service director for HISD, and asked for permission to launch a getMADEkids Food Rescue Program, which included a food waste audit. All approved items were donated after the audit. Through M.A.D.E., getMadekids use entrepreneurial skills to impact the world. 2) M.A.D.E. and Yash published Food Rescue’s impact dashboard using the Food Rescue Online Tracking, and the chart is posted in the school cafeteria for children to see the impact. 3) M.A.D.E. and Yash contacted a state Representative who is working on school food waste issues in the state legislature and arranged meetings with the Speaker of the House, Lt. Governor, and Governor. 4) M.A.D.E. and Yash connected with 2 other schools to get their pilot getMADEkids Food Rescue programs up and running and invited the district trustee to see the program in operation. 5) M.A.D.E. and Yash asked a local TV station do a story on the work he is doing to raise awareness. 6) M.A.D.E. and Yash connected with a state student government organization to present the getMADEkids Food Rescue program to a statewide student government group as a potential service project for student government groups to take on. Making students the face of Food Rescue and providing them resources to learn about the environmental and social impact of food waste has unleashed a powerful voice in favor of hunger relief and environmental stewardship, and against landfill feeding. If you know any students who would be interested in joining the #foodisnottrash movement, we continue to seek young faces to change the world. Don't hesitate to reach out and empower a son, daughter, niece, nephew, student in your area. And if you are interested in the "math" I referred to above, check out the statistics below. There are 283 schools in the Houston Independent School District. Our data shows schools waste 60 unopened and unpeeled items each day from the trays of students that feed landfills not families. (We know it's as high as 500 per day, but we prefer to remain conservative.) 60 (items per day x 283 (schools) x 180 (school days) = 3,056,400 food items fed to landfills annually from the trays of students each year. 3,056,400 divided 4 food items (equivalent of 1 pound) = 764,100 pounds of food. Divided by 1.2 pounds (1 adult meal according to Feeding America) = 635,750 meals |