Explore every episode of the podcast K-12 Food Rescue: A Food Waste Solution Podcast

Listen to the inspiring stories of Alexander Black with Recycle Your Food in Burbank California, MarthaWalter, principal at Bret Harte Elementary, andKreigh Hampel who served the City of Burbank for 17 years as a Recycling Coordinator and has been volunteering his time at Bret Harte Elementary.

Alex, Martha, and Kreigh have developed a student leadership program called “Eco Kids” that educates students on food waste solutions, as well as other sustainability practices and responsibilities.   Enjoy the podcast!

In this episode, New Jersey HS junior Veer Agarwal shareshow in the summer of 2024, he started noticing how much food was wasted, and the steps he took to do something about it, founding RESQFOOD, a group of volunteersin his high school committed to finding surplus food in restaurants willing to donate, and to picking it up and delivering it to a local caring agencies.  

Listen to the inspiring school food waste solution story of a current student, Kellen Bees, at Bellevue West HS in Nebraska, and current University of Nebraska Freshman, Jacki Petrow, in Nebraska. Both Jacki and Kellen share how the schools partnership with Green Bellevue was resurrected after Covid, and how it is currently thriving today at Bellevue West HS.

Hear the inspiring story of how West Virginia Delegate Chad Lovejoy discovered the school food waste issue, and how he partnered with other advocates to craft HB4478, which led to many West Virginia schools adopting K-12 Food Rescue practices, but specifically breakfast and lunch share tables.  

Hear Amanda’s story about what piqued her interest in school food waste and how she went from knowing very little about the subject to being fully prepared to make a presentation to her school in 2 weeks.

Listen to Sara Sellitti’s inspiring journey as a K-12 Food Rescue leader in Dobbs Ferry New York. Sara discusses the success and challenges of starting a school garden, composting, and the K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution program in New York.

Hear the inspiring story of Kari Gassman and her journey to solve food waste and develop a K-12 Food Rescue program in her school district after witnessing several school lunch periods one afternoon.

Hear the inspiring story of how Leah McMichael learned about food waste in her school and put together a plan involving students in the solution.

Hear Jill McCune’s inspiring story of teaching kindergarten children about the value of food as a teacher in Zionsville Indiana leading a K-12 Food Rescue program, and solving food waste in her school since 2016.

Hear how 4 students, Ari, Emma, Megan, and Amaya, and their teacher Mrs. Anjali Das, worked together to start a K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution program in their school district in Upper Arlington Ohio.

Hear the inspiring story of Audra Shock, who was instrumental in starting a K-12 Food Rescue program in Hamilton Heights School District as well as The Noblesville School District. Audra also helped establish a Fueled for School program in Noblesville, insuring every student would have food over the weekend with a backpack program that sends food home with students who might need it.  Audra is an innovative food waste solution leader with over 10 years of working on hunger relief issues in her community, and we hope you enjoy hearing her story!

Hear the inspiring story of Anjali Das, a school teacher in Upper Arlington Ohio who became inspired to solve the food waste issue in her school by empowering 9 students to impact their community and world through K-12 Food Rescue.

Hear Dr. Ghita Carroll’s inspiring story they started in 2005 to reduce food waste in the Boulder Valley School District. Dr. Carroll is the Sustainability Coordinator in the BVSD. Mary Rochelle also shares her experiences since joining the BVSD as a manager in the nutrition services department at BVSD!

Listen to Newark Academy students, and their Science teacher, Debra Taveras, discuss their I-Rescue Lunch initiative, which encourages K-12 students to rescue, recycle and reduce food waste while feeding hungry neighbors. Through the use of the nonprofit’s app, Table to Table I-Rescue and key partnerships with school ambassadors, wholesome unopened food like applesauce, fruit, yogurt as well as prepared cafeteria entrees are placed in crates for pickup by Table to Table volunteers and delivered to partners such as shelters, group homes or soup kitchens.

Hear the Impact of K-12 Food Rescue and food waste solutions  in the Avon school district in Indiana from 30 year military veteran David Rieger, who is the director the Lutheran Church food pantry in Avon, and Emily Cates, the Director of Nutrition at Avon Schools.

Hear Linda Temme’s journey as a social worker and K-12 Food Rescue and food waste solution leader at Shortridge HS in the Indianapolis Public School District. Learn also about the Million Meal Day of Service where Shortridge HS students donated 28,000 meals in one day to local food pantries.

Hear Sydney Dressler’s inspiring story about re-starting Daniel Webster’s K-12 Food Rescue program to solve help solve the school's food waste problem after a year long induced Covid 19 shut down. Daniel Webster rescues over 30,000 food items per year through their K-12 Food Rescue program.

Listen to the inspiring story of Mohamed Patel, K-12 Food Rescue and food waste solution leader and teacher at Cypress high school in the Orlando Florida area.

Listen to the inspiring K-12 Food Rescue journey of JanakiKutty Vipin, Biology teacher at Kingstree HS in South Carolina, and how she was able to apply for and receive a grant of $1,500 to start the Share Table program to solve food waste at Kingstree HS.

Allison Finzel, Brandy Bennett, and Larry Agee share their K-12 Food Rescue and school food waste solution journey.

Hear the inspiring story of how Valpo Community schools pivoted from Share Tables to Giving Tables during the pandemic and helped solve the school food waste solution in their school district.

Hear Cathy’s inspiring journey with K-12 Food Rescue partner Helping Hands Ending Hunger. In this episode, Cathy discusses how many participating schools continued their food rescue food waste solution programs during Covid 19.

Listen to Robin Young of "Here and Now" interview Food Rescue founder and food waste solution leader, John Williamson,  and Connecticut student leader Nick Iannone to learn about how students deal with states with more restrictive school food donation donation guidelines than the USDA.

Listen to Western Intermediate Students discuss how they work together with students involved in Life Skills courses to lead the K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution program in their school, led by their teacher Christy Frazier.

Listen to the inspiring story of the Great Plains Food Bank in North Dakota and their school meal repack program. Jill Ambuehl is the Hunger Free North Dakota Coalition Coordinator, and in this 128th episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast from our 39th state to share a school food waste solution story, Jill shares about the Coalitions efforts to make sure nothing is wasted in North Dakota schools.

Hear Vitki’s inspiring effort to end the practice of food waste in her Texas school district.

Hear the inspiring food waste solution story of how three high school students at Solon High School founded Project Leftovers, an organization committed to preserving unopened and unpeeled food from the trays of students that was previously unnecessarily being thrown away.

Ruhi Shirodkar shares her K-12 Food Rescue journey in Minnesota. Be inspired by one student who overcame adversity to make a positive impact in her community and state by fighting food waste in her school.

Hear the story of young Tennessee K-12 Food Rescue food waste fighters and their teacher Karen McIntyre.

Listen to Riya’s inspiring story of connecting surplus food in her Chicago school to a local caring agency each day, solving the food waste problem in her school!

Listen to the food waste solution story of how one school nutrition service director, Lindsey Hill, in one school district changed the world! Hear how custodian David Ward and former Food Rescue chapter president Brooke Carrell presented the problem and provided the solution to surplus school food that was sadly ending up in landfills instead of being fed to families through food pantries.

Hear Elaine Fiore’s powerful food waste solution story about policy development, systemic change, and organizational foundation related to establishing Share Tables and K-12 Food Rescue polices in Broward County Florida, other counties in Florida, and the nation.

Hear the inspiring food waste solution story of how Rhonda Mace in Chittenden VT played a large role in Vermont becoming the second state in the US after Indiana to have their government state departments write guidelines for Share Tables and recovering food in schools in 2016. Hear the power of advocacy and learn how your state government can play a role in schools becoming more comfortable feeding families instead of landfills with unopened and unpeeled food from e trays of students that they choose not to eat. #FoodIsNotTrash.

Learn about Delayne’s K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution journey at CapRock Elementary in the Forth Worth Texas area.

Hear Lili Coleman with Second Helpings and Michele Dewan with Hilton Head Elementary share their journey to end school food waste in South Carolina.

Listen to the story of the Waste Warrior Program at Richmond Elementary in Rhode Island, featuring 3rd grade students Ethan Heys and Emma Ferguson, principal Mrs. Sharon Martin, and teachers Mrs. Daigle and Mrs. Stahl.

Danyele shares her K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution journey as a leader with students with special needs in Westfield Indiana at Food Rescue’s 10 year anniversary celebration.

Listen to the food waste solution story of three students who have gone on to sustain a K-12 Food Rescue program not only in their Elementary but now in their Middle School. Hear their plans to continue the program once they reach Noblesville HS, and how it has spread throughout their school district.

Karen Khor shares her food waste solution efforts as a parent volunteer in the Mamaroneck school district to develop a K-12 Food Rescue program in Mamaroneck.

Hanna shares how a HS project her Sophomore year led to her becoming K-12 Food Rescue’s National Director of Student leadership for 2 years. Her journey also includes a transition from program implementation to advocate for policy change, as North Carolina’s school food waste guidelines have temporarily ended her vision to have all schools in NC adopt food recovery policies. Be inspired by her #nofoodwaste story!

Tanis Fox tells her Inspiring story of being a food waste fighting champion through Table of Grace Ministries in Pennsylvania. Tanis Learned about food waste through her daughter, and she immediately googled Food Rescue and the rest is history.

Hear the inspiring story of 2 school food waste champions in Georgia and how they are expanding Helping Hands Ending Hunger beyond Georgia. HHEH has initiated over 60 school food recovery programs and partnered with Georgia’s Department of Education and Department of Health. #FoodIsNotTrash

Be inspired by Shawn’s food waste solution story of how he started a Share Table at Hoover Elementary in Livonia Michigan through an Eco Schools USA project. #FoodIsNotTrash

Hear Janet Whited’s K-12 Food Rescue food waste solution journey, and be inspired by the over 500,000 pounds of food she has been able to rescue in the San Diego Unified School District while leading the #FoodIsNotTrash movement in San Diego.

Jennifer Janus shares her inspiring food waste solution journey to promote K-12 Food Rescue throughout Connecticut and lead the #FoodIsNotTrash movement.

Josh shares his food waste solution story about founding ReProduce 81, and shares details about the progress the state of Washington is making on school food recovery.

Jacqueline Richard is the School Nutrition Program Director of the Calcasieu Parish School District.  Four years ago she noticed food waste at one elementary school, and developed a program that could be replicated in each school for students to participate in a share cart program.   After a hurricane and covid stifled the program for a few years, the program has been rebuilt, and Jacqueline shares her story in this episode of the K-12 Food Rescue Podcast.  This episode represents the 38th state we have shared a school food waste success story from.

Listen to the inspiring story of Grace Klein Community founder Jenny Waltman, and author of "God Chose the Wrong Person". Grace Klein Community in Birmingham Alabama has 600 food rescue drivers, and is able to provide 2 million pounds of food to 500,000 children and families in need from multiple Grace Klein Community locations. In addition, Grace Klein Community partners with 62 schools, and has a vision for every school in Alabama to adopt share table and K-12 Food Rescue policies in the future.

Paul Tolar is the General Manager of Operations at The Eau Claire Area School District in Wisconsin. In this episode, Paul share about the origins of the composting and share table programs, and provides compelling data from school food waste audits that demonstrate the importance finding school food waste solutions nationwide.

Listen to the inspiring story of Jim Conklin, co-founder and Executive Director of Cultivate Food Rescue in South Bend Indiana.