Navigating School Systems: Learn from the Nation's Leading Food Recovery School District

​This session will focus on how organizations can successfully recover and manage food surplus for their local public school district; by learning from one that did! A Simple Gesture's (ASG) award winning SHARE program has recovered 500 tons of perishable food surplus during the 2023-2024 school year. The SHARE program allows for wholesome extra food that is unopened, prepackaged and individually wrapped including produce, milk and juice to be saved and for any student to partake at anytime during the school day. By the end of this session you will learn best practices of setting up your own program which will mean recovering of 50 lbs a day or 1,000 lbs a month of wholesome food items. This program allows implementation of North Carolina state curriculum standards of minimizing unnecessary food waste and maximizing valuable food resources. Students thrive when wholesome food is valued for nourishment; rather than sent wrongfully to the landfill which will harm the climate.