"Watermelon and carrots," said Jarvis Thomas a first grader at Hancock-Hamline Magnet School, as he recalled what was left on his plate at lunch on Thursday.
Even though Thomas didn't eat everything on his plate, his food will not be wasted. Hancock-Hamline is piloting a new recycling program that gives a second life to food that would have otherwise been thrown away.
The scraps of food are transported to a pig farm about two hours north of the Twin Cities and fed to livestock.
"It cost us [St. Paul Public Schools] about a third of the cost of hauling garbage, to haul the food to a farm and then feed the livestock," explained Patrick Quinn, Executive Director of Operations.
Margorie Warrington is principal at Hancock-Hamline and she said this is a great program, and "the one thing that kids get most confused about are banana peels, because the pigs will eat the peels, but the kids do not."
Warrington says her students have become more aware of what they eat, and the portions they are eating. She said the level of waste is down tremendously over last year.
The school district stands to save about $50,000 in a single year with the pilot program, because of the savings from transportation and trash collection.
Last year, there was enough waste to warrant three trash collections per week. Now, there are two collections, and as of next week, there will be only one trash pick-up.
By Rondah Kinchlow, KARE 11 News
(Copyright 2006 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
