Natalie Cohen and Tina McBride, dedicated volunteers with the LPS Green Team and Lexington school community parents, began their inspiring journey with a troubling realization: perfectly good, unopened food was regularly discarded and composted at local schools, despite the known issue of hunger within their community.
Initially, some parent volunteers informally donated unopened food to charitable organizations or brought it home for consumption. Unfortunately, concerns regarding liability forced the cessation of this practice. Determined to find a viable solution, Natalie and Tina sought inspiration from successful food donation programs at other schools nationwide.
Their breakthrough came in October 2018 when they attended a conference organized by Alison Cross of the Wellesley Food Waste Initiative and the EPA, focusing on initiating school food rescue programs. Over the following 15 months, Natalie and Tina worked tirelessly alongside Alison, Kevin Silvia of LPS Whitson’s Food Service, Lexington’s health director, and a representative from Arlington’s Food Link. Their objective was clear: create a Food Recovery Program fully compliant with legal and health code standards. In January 2020, their hard work culminated in the launch of a pilot program at Diamond Middle School.
However, the onset of the pandemic abruptly halted the program just two months after its initiation. Yet, Natalie and Tina remained committed to their cause. With the return of full-time, in-person schooling in fall 2022, they swiftly collaborated with Lexington’s new health director, Joanne Bolanger, to successfully restart and expand their initiative. They introduced the Food Share Program at the middle and high schools, allowing food from school kitchens, sealed containers, and whole fruit to be safely redistributed.
Thanks to Kevin Silvia’s continued support, fridges were donated to participating schools, facilitating the safe storage of donated food. Jonathan Wettsone, Assistant Principal at Clarke Middle School, took on the essential role of supervising weekly donations, maintaining the program’s consistency. Whitsons now features this program on their website, indicating increasing regional and institutional support.
the fridge at Clarke Middle School with just several days’ worth of saved, uneaten extra food
In fall 2023, Green Team members Cindy Arens and Lin Jensen discovered a Massachusetts law amendment allowing sealed food and whole fruits from student lunches placed in Share fridges to return to kitchens for redistribution. This significantly reduced both waste and donations. Simultaneously, Kevin Silvia leveraged insights from the program to refine procurement and preparation, greatly reducing food waste overall. Although regular weekly donations decreased due to these efficiencies, substantial donations continue prior to school breaks.
Currently, Natalie and Tina are collaborating with Kevin Silvia and Maggie Peard to educate kitchen leads at each school about collecting surplus food at day’s end. Their goal is to consolidate this food from multiple schools, maximizing impactful donations to Food Link.
Their journey has required perseverance and dedication, but seeing tangible impacts on food waste reduction and community support makes every effort worthwhile. Their experience exemplifies how thoughtful action can inspire meaningful community change!
Written in collaboration with Natalie Cohen and Tina McBride. Their story was one of several inspiring personal journeys of climate action shared recently at our “Sustainable Voices” Open Mic event.
You can read more about the food rescue program here.