Cutting down on food waste at St. Mary Catholic School
Posted: July 8, 2026
Categories: nourish to flourish
We received $3000 to purchase a refrigerated sandwich table top bar to complement our fruit and vegetable program.
Previously, our fruits and vegetables were only handed out at recess if there was a staff member available to distribute the items to the students. Our fruits and vegetable were also available in the morning during our breakfast club. We experienced a lot of waste and continuously throwing out food that had spoiled because it just wasn’t getting to the students to consume.
Since getting the “nourish to flourish” grant and purchasing the salad bar we have experienced no food waste. The students have fruits and vegetables available to them from 8:45 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. We have even been able to assist some of our more disadvantaged students who have asked if they can take a few items home at the end of the day, which we have encouraged. Also we can offer a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and students are quickly learning to like foods they’ve never eaten before.