Schools turn cafeteria food waste into compost, learning opportunity

Associated Press · Alexa St. John, Emilie Megnien · 2026-11-06 14:01 UTC

Schools are often a hub for food waste: Parts of lunches brought from home don’t get eaten, or perhaps the cafeteria menu isn’t all that appetizing. Experts say tons of food from school meals is wasted each year. Not only does that cost schools, but it’s also a major contributor to methane in landfills. Recovery, recycling and composting have cut food waste at many schools and provide a learning opportunity for students. Public schools serve more than 30 million lunches each day, according to federal figures. A vast majority of them come from the National School Lunch Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Buckets, chickens and worms: Schools reduce cafeteria food waste through compost, shared tables

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — At Lovin Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, students play with their food. Sort of.

Some walk around the cafeteria with buckets collecting leftover lunch scraps. These apple cores, banana peels and grape stems ultimately head to Lovin’s outdoor compost bin. Others put unopened milk in a shared refrigerator for students to grab as a snack or take home. Uneaten salad scraps are dumped into the school’s chicken coop.

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