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To create a hub for all of our information and resources for Maine’s food system.

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1. Food Rescue MAINE’s website was created in the Spring of 2021.
2. In its beginning stages, the website was simply a page explaining the basics of food recycling and was linked to a QR code in preparation for our first annual summit in 2021. This page was made in hopes of having resources available for our audience to view as a follow-up to the summit.
3. Following the summit, we hoped that stakeholders would view the website and provide us with feedback – and that is exactly what happened!
4. After that vital feedback, we were able to take on another student intern to create the foundations of the website that you see today.

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Since then, student interns have worked on our website and transformed it into what you see now. These resources are not all created internally by our organization but pulled from many key stakeholders in the food system world.

While we still rely on the amazing stakeholders that work with us to always improve this website, we now have access to an online dashboard that provides us with our website’s analytics, so we can keep up with how users interact with the site.

Resources

The website is a hub for so many resources, but here are two that you can’t find anywhere else.

1. FRM Blog Posts
2. FRM Newsletter

Above is a screenshot of Food Rescue MAINE website analytics.

The post Pilot 1: Food Rescue MAINE Brand and Website appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

Goals

1. To educate and engage Maine communities in the common goal of improving their community food systems.
2. To prevent, recover, and recycle food waste.

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1. In order to best create educational materials for a community, we must first understand what their goals are. To do this, a meeting is set up to discuss their goals and options via Zoom or in person.
2. We share with the community what all of the possible options are. There are many possible avenues for education that we can work with a community on.
3. We decide on a course of action together and begin developing ideas.
4. Often, we begin by using the educational material templates that we already have. The community will suggest how to best customize them to fit their needs.
5. We collaborate closely through every step of the education process until the community is satisfied with their efforts and have the tools to be self-sufficient.
6. Food Rescue MAINE gets valuable data to improve how we work with communities in the future.

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Our four pilot communities have made amazing progress and are dedicated to educating their residents through many modes!

We would love every Maine town/city to use all of these educational components. The chart above shows all of the work our pilot communities are already doing!

Resources

1. Community Upstart Guide
2. Community Posters
3. Community Education and Awareness Postings 
4. Informational Brochures
5. Food Waste Reduction Tip Sheet 

Pilot 3 Challenge Spotlights 

By working in collaboration with partners from each of our pilot communities, we have been able to develop educational materials to teach Maine communities about food waste and food recycling. Click on each of the images below to see what we have learned from working with each of these amazing and dedicated communities.

1. Readfield, Fayette, Waye (Coming Soon!)
2. Portland: Dedicated Individuals Amplify Our Efforts
3. Waterville: Students Engage Communities 
4. Winslow: Navigating Successful Social Media

The post Pilot 2: Community Food Waste Education appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

Food Rescue MAINE has collaborated with teachers across Maine both to create and compile educational material for young students. We currently have material available for preschool and ages k-5. We will soon add the high school food system curriculum to our website as well.

Goals

1. To create a fun and engaging elementary curriculum vetted by Maine teachers.
2. To engage Maine’s youth in food system education, hopefully impacting their lives and the lives of their families and communities.

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1. In order to bring this curriculum to k-5 programs in Maine, we first had to learn from school teachers about what they needed.
2. We worked with EcoMaine to develop lesson plans, worksheets, and take-home materials for the classroom.
3. These material were tested in the classroom and eventually added to a curriculum plan.
4. The materials were eventually compiled by a student intern, along with other expert materials outside of our organization, such as a slideshow created by World Wildlife Foundations and several other examples.
5. We reviewed and revised this material with many educators and students across the state.
6. Throughout this process, we worked with amazing teachers like Anna Franceschetti, a garden teacher from the Geral E. Talbot Community School in Portland. Anna has been working with a combination of her own vetted food system lessons, along with the special program curriculum that we created based on her ideas.
7. This process of improving our curriculum for Maine students is ongoing, and we look forward to working with more schools in the future.

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Anna Franceschetti and her garden classroom students collected 1,452 pounds of food waste in their first year of food waste collection.

With the help of Franceschetti and her students, we were able to finalize the first edition of three different elementary curriculums:

1. Traditional In-Class Curriculum
2. Special Program Currciulum
3. Cafeteria Guide

“We sat together in a circle and listened to the fifth-grade students’ amazing understanding of food waste- They could fully explain the steps of the food recovery hierarchy, and even how the decomposition process in composting works. The students have even created their own ‘garbage to garden-esque’ composting operation where they pick up food scraps from classrooms around the school and measure how much food they rescue from the trash each week. The day that I was there, they actually reached their 1,000 lb. benchmark” – Hannah Mathieu, Student Intern

A fifth-grade student weighing food waste collected from classrooms.

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• For Home: Click on this link to get access to documentaries, coloring pages, and other fun activities to use with your young students at home. 
• For the Classroom: Click here to access all of our in-school curriculum vetted by Maine teachers. These resources include traditional in-classroom, specialty classes, and cafeteria curricula for elementary students. 
• Materials from the 2023 Maine School Cafeteria Food Waste Study:
  • Power Point slides – Designing the 2023 Food Waste Study
  • Power Point slides – 2023 School Assembly Program
  • Power Point slides – Results from the 2023 Food Waste Study

The post Pilot 3: School Food Waste Education appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

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1. To reduce school food waste, volume, and cost.
2. To improve nutrition intake.

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1. Worked with the Maine Department of Education nutrition director and faculty team to identify the most effective food waste and nutrition interventions.
2. Researched best practices for elementary school food waste reduction.
3. Recruited and selected four (4) participating Maine elementary schools for the Study.
4. Implemented School Cafeteria Food Waste Interventions:
   1. Prep For Study 
      1. Prep school faculty/staff and cafeteria staff about School Food Waste Study.
      2. Prep kitchen for “offer versus serve” program.
      3. Replace disposable eating utensils with reusables.
      4. Sign-up food waste recycling hauler for weekly pick-up.
      5. Set up new cafeteria waste sorting stations with instructional signage (Find in Resources).
      6. Set up new cafeteria “Share Baskets.”
      7. Recruit food waste training, tracking and measuring student aides (4th and 5th-grade students).
   2. Take Baseline Assessments 
      1. Take daily Week 1 food and liquid waste measurements to set a baseline.
      2. °ä´Ç²Ô»å³Ü³¦³ÙÌýWeek 1 Food Waste Nutrition Audit. 
      3. Measure family baseline with Pre-Study Family Food Waste Survey. 
   3. Track Food Waste Reduction
      1. Hold Week 2 Food Waste Education School Assemblies (15 minutes).
      2. Post four (4) Food Waste Education Cafeteria Posters (See image 1).
      3. Track daily Weeks 2-8 food and liquid waste measurements.
      4. Create individual school Weekly Food Waste Progress Charts (see image 2).
      5. Conduct Week 8 Food Waste Nutrition Audit.
      6. Measure family impact with Post-Study Family Food Waste Survey.

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Quantitative Data 

All schools involved in the study experienced a reduction in their food waste over the study period. At the four schools, fruit and veggie waste was reduced by more than one-quarter. The reductions ranged from 24% to 64%.

Qualitative Data 

Family Survey ¸é±ð²õ³Ü±ô³Ù²õÌý

• 53% of respondents reported their children talking to them about food waste after the study.
• 75% of respondents reported their family discussing food waste recently.
• “The biggest change is the reflection of my child’s own food choices and how much they serve themselves.”

School Cafeteria Interview Excerpts 

• “Encourage food waste reduction by educating. I think that’s the biggest piece that we’re all missing. It’s the most important piece.” – Morgan Therriault
• “Not having liquid in the trash can make the bag much lighter. It makes my whole job easier.” – Aaron Putnam, Custodial Staff at Asa Adams Elementary
• “Allowing the student to choose which fruit or vegetable they wanted resulted in less waste because they picked something they likes and wanted to eat.” – Laurie Rufo, Kitchen Staff at Asa Adams Elementary

Resources

1. Materials from the 2023 Maine School Cafeteria Food Waste Study:
   • Power Point slides – Designing the 2023 Food Waste Study
   • Power Point slides – 2023 School Assembly Program
   • Power Point slides – Results from the 2023 Food Waste Study
2. Waste Sorting Station Signage
   1. “Trash” Sign
   2. “Trays” Sign
   3. “Silverware” Sign
   4. “Liquids” Sign
   5. “Milk” Sign
3. Share Basket Signage
   1. Share Table Guidance
   2. Share Basket Signage
4. Food Waste Education Posters
   1. “Maine Food Waste Hierarchy” Poster
   2. “Feed Your Body!” Poster
   3. “Take What You Want” Poster
5. “Stop Food Waste/What is a Meal?” K-5 Assembly Slideshow – Contact us if you are interested!
6. K-5 Student “Food Too Good to Waste” Poster Competition Sheet (Coming Soon!)

Image 1: Poster designed by student intern, Eddie Nachamie, in Sebago Elementary School cafeteria near food waste sorting stations.

Image 2: Weekly Progress Charts displayed in the Lisbon community school cafeteria.

The post Pilot 4: Maine School Cafeteria Food Waste Study – 2023 appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.