Mamaroneck High School Students Analyze Food Waste from School Lunches

As part of their food waste reduction initiative for the Original Civic Research & Action (OCRA) program, juniors Svea-Liv Sheehan, Oliver Johnson, and Juliette Remy collected data on unused food from the free brown bag lunches distributed at Mamaroneck High School. During the months of January and February, they collected and analyzed 335 discarded brown bags. Some of the major takeaways from the data were that 55% of fruits and vegetables from after school lunches, 52% of sandwiches during lunch, and 42% of main courses were wasted.  This represents perfectly usable food that could have gone to those living with food insecurity. With data in hand, the OCRA students are now designing a system to capture and transport unused food to food insecure individuals, groups, and/or institutions serving populations with chronic food insecurity. In the meantime, the OCRA students are coordinating with the district food service contractor and local faith-based organizations to capture and transport unused brown bag lunches to Mamaroneck Avenue School on Friday afternoons.

Discarded, unused food items that students collected as part of their research on wasted food in the high school lunches.