Must schools throwout leftovers?
By Mark Robison, Reno Gazette-Journal
The claim
Federal law requires school districts to throw out food that could feed the hungry.
The background
Silvia Fascio of Gerlach wrote in a recent letter to the editor, “Media reports that one in six Americans are hungry. Meanwhile, each and every public school across this land, including Level One schools (four feeds per day), throw away unconscionable amounts of food, daily. Not scraps, but ‘hermetically’ sealed individual portioned bags of unopened foods …
“Can’t we give this unopened food to soup kitchens, senior citizen centers, tent cities or sell to the local pig farmer; it must by law go to the landfill to feed the rats!”
Fascio blames the “grandly inefficient federal government” for usurping states’ rights on this issue.
Kathy Kubly of Reno was upset at the “lunacy” Fascio described, writing in her own letter to the editor:
“Unopened food that sat on a meal tray for less than an hour can neither be used or donated and is required, by law, to be opened and thrown away? Please, someone, tell me this isn’t true. And this is happening across the country in all of our public and private schools?”
She too blames politicians and says, “Do we just accept or (do we) take action?”
She urges everyone to contact lawmakers about this outrage.
As it turns out, not only doesn’t the federal government outlaw schools from donating food, it actively encourages the distribution of leftover food.