Every day, Americans waste enough food to fill a football stadium, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. And school lunchrooms are part of the problem.

To celebrate National STEM/STEAM Day on November 8, the STEMconnector’s second annual National Day of Design is challenging students of all grade levels to design solutions for eliminating food waste in their school’s cafeteria.

The contest, which is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, encourages real-world critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and overall STEM skills. It was created to spark interest in STEM and inspire more young people to pursue STEM careers. The 2017 inaugural National Day of Design drew more than 30,000 participants across the country.

The 2018 National Day of Design Mission, Food Rescuers: STEM Innovations to Reduce Food Waste provides an interdisciplinary, hands-on way for K-12 students to acquire a deeper understanding about an issue that affects their daily lives and their communities while using various science, English, technology, and engineering skills to tackle it.

“This Mission reminds students that each of us has a role to play in solving complex global challenges at the local level,” said Erin White, STEMconnector’s senior director of product development and research. “It helps them to make the connection that what they learn in school can actually be applied in the world around them.”  That these are the skills adults use to solve actual problems. And hopefully that translates into lifelong interest in STEM and problem-solving.”

The standards-aligned Mission can be downloaded for free at: www.nationaldayofdesign.com, and participants are asked to share photos, quotes, videos, and other updates from the Mission on social media using #DayofDesign2018 on November 8. For additional information, contact DayofDesign@STEMconnector.com.

Meanwhile, the USDA’s U.S. Food Waste Challenge invites K-12 students and schools to develop ways to reduce and recover food waste. The effort includes an infographic and webinars for teachers, with inspiring stories of schools like Chesterbrook Elementary School in McLean, Va., where every student learns how to separate waste into categories like recyclables, food to be donated, upcycling bins, and general trash.  The school’s Eco Team, run by sixth graders, ensures their fellow students are putting waste into the correct bin. The team then collects, weighs, categorizes, and places the food to be donated into separate refrigerators, provided by the Food Bus, a non-profit organization that works with schools to donate food that would otherwise go to waste. At the end of the week, PTA members or community volunteers deliver the food to the local food pantry.  In the 2013-2014 school year, the 12 schools that work with the Food Bus provided 13,502.6 pounds of food to their local food pantries.

Check out these smarter lunchroom tips for improving nutrition while reducing waste, and this Ohio State University slide presentation on the role of trays in contributing to waste.

Schools also can get involved with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Challenge.  That effort aims to measure the extent of food waste locally and nationally while celebrating innovations developed by schools, universities, grocery store chains, and businesses that use data-proven methods for reducing waste and making use of food that normally would get discarded.

Opening image: Andrew Updyke makes his choices at the donated salad bar in the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School cafeteria, on Wednesday, February 2, 2011. The school is the first Washington, D.C., school to achieve the Gold Award of Distinction from the HealthierUS School Challenge (HUSSC). U.S. Department of Agriculture photo by Lance Cheung.

Filed under: K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features

Tags: Competitions for Students, Contest, Design, Engineering Design, food recovery, food waste, hunger, National Design Day, National STEM/STEAM Day, school cafeteria, STEMconnector, USDA