There are an estimated 47 million people who suffer from food insecurity in the U.S. Food insecurity is the term used when a person does not know where their next meal will come from. For most of us that is hard to imagine, waking up hungry and having no breakfast available or sitting through a class trying to learn, when all you think about is food. This is the reality for millions of children in our country. According to the U.S department of agriculture, the average person eats between 4-5 pounds of food a day.
During the 1st Trimester of school, Cary Academy collected a total weight of 20,170 pounds of compostable items which included; edible food (leftovers on peoples plates and foods that we are unable to serve during future lunches), food disposed of during its preparation (non-edible food scraps) and compostable paper products (napkins, plates, bowls, pizza boxes, etc…). The edible food portion of that weight was approximately 12,102 pounds. That food could have fed 2,420 individuals for a day or 66 people for a year.
Please visit the CA Green Blog to see how you can help CA with this very important issue.
After reading the Blog, please email cagreen@caryacademy.org with additional recommendations on how CA can reduce its food consumption and help reduce hunger.
Thank you,
Kris Wetterling
CA Green Committee Chair