Mrs. Obama has taken on the project of altering American school children's diets in the ever grow concern over childhood obesity. But, the kids aren't buying it.
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| Mrs. Obama's School Menu Items |
According to EGAnews.com New Mexico’s Galloping Grace Youth Ranch is accepting fruits and vegetables thrown away by students at several elementary schools in the Rio Rancho area and collects some five tons per week.
“It’s really whatever they don’t eat coming off of their trays, so when they get up to the trash cans they will scrape it into one of our buckets that we pick up on a daily basis,” says ranch CEO Max Wade.
Earlier this year, a New York district estimated its students throw away 85 percent of their fruits and vegetables.
American schools spend an estimated $3.5 million per day on food that ends up in the garbage can.
Interestingly, the Rio Rancho “healthy” school lunch repurposing program isn’t unique.
The Nebraska Farmers Union was working to partner with Lincoln-area schools to collect discarded food to fuel a worm farm, known as vermiculture.
“Composting gives them more hands-on experience. They can see how their waste is going to be turned into a useful product rather than going into a landfill,” says Brittney Albin, interim recycling coordinator at Lincoln Public Schools.
She says she isn’t sure how much of the 11,600 pounds of food waste per month come from the cafeteria.
“However, food waste does make up a large portion of the school waste, so we would expect the vermicomposting program to make a big dent in that number,” Albin tells the Journal Star newspaper.
Some 3,000 pigs at a Rhode Island hog farm scarf up uneaten fruits and vegetables, too.
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| More than one million public school students said “no way” to their new cafeteria menus after 1st Lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign led to foods disliked by kids. |
The pigs are enjoying “half-eaten tuna sandwiches and other food scraps students discard during their lunch periods” as part of a new recycling program established by the town of Cumberland, according to WoonsocketCall.com.
Two Rhode Island districts – North Smithfield and Burrillville – that are sending their scraps to My Blue Heaven Farm. Both districts are participants in the National School Lunch Program, which is implementing the hated federal lunch rules.
