El Paso schools work to reduce waste during breakfast, lunch
El Paso City Council recently declared 2017 as the “Year of Food Waste and Recovery” in El Paso, even setting up a committee with that goal in mind.
Area schools are one of the biggest offenders of food waste because it’s hard to predict exactly how much the kids will eat, and federal regulations mandate that the rest must be discarded.
EPISD started a pilot program last year in which they now give, excess non-expired food that they would normal have to throw out, to homeless shelters like the opportunity center.
Socorro ISD looked into doing something similar last year, but has yet to implement it. They are currently waiting on the local shelter to have the capacity to store the extra food, but even once that happens it won’t be easy to get the food there.
“Because it is food that is going to the public we have to insure that it is safe for consumption, so in order to do that we have to follow USDA rules and El Paso County Health Department”, said Shelley Chenausky, Director of Child Nutrition Services with Socorro ISD.
There are federal and local regulations that they must follow to make it happen, “We are more than willing to research it and see what can we do to be in compliance with the USDA, and be in compliance with the El Paso City County Health Department”, said Chenausky.
SISD also does other things to ensure they reduce the waste as much as possible.
“Students attend our food shows and thing like that, and they do surveys, and they do sampling and testing, and this helps us ensure we know what they enjoy to eat, and we serve that, and that helps reduce waste,” said Chenausky.
