Indiana Elementary School Pilot Program That Integrates Unused Food into Take-Out Meals

A primary school in South Bend, Indiana, reportedly partnered with a local non-profit organization, Cultivate, to package the food left over from the cafeteria as a take-home meal for underprivileged students.

Breakfast and lunch at the school are offered to students at the Woodland Elementary Elementary System of the Elkhart School System, but some may be hungry on weekends when they can not get to at the cafeteria. Cultivate will provide 20 selected students with a backpack containing eight frozen meals every Friday until the summer break.

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Jim Conklin, founder of Cultivate, explained how schools usually prepare more food than is actually consumed every school day. Cultivate, therefore, repackage leftover food to feed those who might otherwise miss a meal.

"We mainly get food prepared but never served by catering companies, large catering companies, like the school system," Jim Conklin told WSBT. "We take well-prepared foods, combine them with other foods and make individual frozen meals. if that's the case. "

"At Elkhart Community Schools, we waste a lot of food," said Natalie Bickel, who works with Student Services. "There was nothing to do with the food. So they came to school three times a week and saved the food. "

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The Chamber of Commerce Leadership Academy would also have played a role in introducing Cultivate to Woodland Elementary.

"This has a big impact," said Melissa Ramey, a member of the Chamber Leadership Academy at WSBT. "I'm proud of that. It was heartbreaking to learn that children are returning home on weekends and that they have nothing to eat.

The Elkhart school system would work to extend the refurbished feeding program to other schools to help children in need.