Problem:
Everyday, an excessive amount of food waste is produced in 'Akahi and our goal is to lessen the amount. There are many different areas food waste is produced: Tray waste, food dump line, and leftover food waste. We have decided to target the leftover food that has not been served to the students. We discovered that all the perfectly edible food that is leftover gets dumped into the landfill and that is not necessary. There is an organization called Aloha Harvest that we have chosen to work with. They collect uneaten food from restaurants, stores, and other groups, and donate them to social service agencies to feed the hungry of Hawai'i.
Proposal:
Our project is focused on the food waste in Akahi Dining Hall. Not only is there an excessive amount of food that students don’t finish and end up dumping, but there is also a lot of leftover food that is not even put onto students plates by the end of the period. We would like to find a way to put this uneaten food to better use, and one way to do this would be to get an organization to take the food and put it to better use. When looking up organizations in Hawaii that do this type of thing, we found one in particular called Aloha Harvest. There are probably other organizations out there as well that would be willing to take our uneaten food. Another option we are considering is finding a place to donate our dumped food. Most of the food that is dumped every day could most likely be used as compost, or for other reasons. We are considering finding a farm to donate our food to that would use it resourcefully as compost to benefit their plants growth.
Our project would make Kamehameha a better place in a couple of ways. The most predominate one is we would no longer be wasting an excessive amount of food everyday. As of now, all of the food (and paper/plastic) waste is thrown in the landfill because it is “biodegradable”. There are so many places in the world where even the smallest amount of food per day is a blessing, and we treat food like we are entitled to it. This would also make Kamehameha a better place because it would be benefiting others. Because we are a large and powerful place, it is important that we give to places that are not as fortunate and that need help from larger corporations.
This project addresses the need for a better place for the wasted food to go. Right now the wasted food is not used to its fullest potential. There are places out there that will stop this excessive waste and help people who are more in need. It is ridiculous that we have so much food that kids take too much and then dump it and there is still left over food that hasn’t even put out to serve, but yet there are people in Hawaii alone that don’t know when their next meal will be. Farmers are also always in need of new compost to add to their plants and/or to feed their animals. Animal feed is expensive and yet food, that could be put to use as animal feed, is just dumped in the trash.
The people benefiting from this project will be the underprivileged people that the food gets donated to and/or the local farmers. If we go with a company that will distribute food to the needy for us, they would take the food to social service agencies that would then give the food to the hungry. They would greatly benefit from this because a lot of them are scared and don’t know when their next meal is going to be, but because of the food we will be donating, at least they will have something for a short while, and possibly longer if our project continues to be put in place for the future.Farmers could also benefit from our donation of dumped/already eaten food. Compost and animal feed is quit expensive but something that farmers are required to buy. If we are dumping our food every day for free, then why can’t we help the people that supply our food to us out? This can consist of food farmers that need the wasted food as compost, or, animal farmers like pigs and cows because they are the kind of farm animals that contribute greatly to our daily meals and they are able to eat the “slop” we could donate.
It took our group quite a while to decide on what we wanted to do for this project, and we are honestly still not 100% sure. We considered approaching the Akahi waste problem in a different way at first, through approaching the students. We were thinking of making posters and PSA’s to make the students aware of the amount of food that is wasted every day. Some ideas we had outside of Akahi problems were the rubbish that is littered around campus and the amount of water and energy that is wasted in the different buildings. Our plan is already available to others as well. There are many schools that donate their waste to farmers and pig farms and many people donate unused food to organizations.
We are choosing this particular solution because we feel it is one of the best ways to make a strong impact. Not only are we helping with the waste that is produced every day, but we are able to help others in need as well. This can benefit ourselves as well because we know that we are creating a positive effect on those that are in need. Other solutions would pretty much keep the benefits on school campus, but this way we are able to impact others as well, those that might be in more need.
We don’t believe there will be too much maintenance included in our project. We would have to find a company that will help us deliver our food first. Once we do that we will probably need to help gather up the food. We are not sure yet how much times we will be donating the leftover food to the organization. We will also have to coordinate with the Akahi staff to ask their permission to collect the food and give it away. If we decide to donate to farmers, we would need to gather the thrown away food. Only certain foods can be composted so there is a possibility we would need to sort through the tossed food. If we were to donate to plant farmers, they probably would have different acceptable foods than if we donate to animal farmers. The longevity of these projects would be for a couple of weeks. Definitely more than once because we want to make a difference and once will not do it. Our goal is to donate at least three times in the next 6 weeks of this ongoing project.
Our solution is very practical. Most organizations want any donation they can get and will work fast to get them. If we go with an organization collecting the leftover food, we will need to contact them as soon as possible. This would definitely take less than a month but hopefully the school will continue this project even when we are personally done with our project. There is no reason so much food should go to waste when there are organizations out there that would take the waste out of Kamehameha Schools hands and put it to better use. We would also need to start looking for farms in need of food and compost for their plants. We are aiming for small local business farmers because those are the ones that are the most connected to the land and are most likely the ones who struggle the most. Once we contact the farms we are guessing we could deliver the compost to them whenever they are available because most likely they would really appreciate the support and donations.
We would have to know the rules and guidelines of the organization we choose to give the extra food to. There is most likely a special way we would have to transport the food to the organization, unless they pick it up from campus. If we donate to farmers we would need someplace to store all of the food we separate until it can be delivered. We would also need someone (with a truck) to deliver the food unless the farmers come to campus and pick it up themselves.
At this point we are thinking there should most likely be no cost towards this project. Most organizations will pick up the food for free because they are non-profits. It shouldn’t cost us any money because we are using materials that are already provided to us, like the leftover food. The only possible expense would be towards the pans that the food would need to be carried in and some sort of bin that would hold the composting food, but neither of these are guaranteed expenses.
It incorporates the principles of reusing and not wasting, which sort of go hand in hand. The food that was already used once (and sometimes not even used at all) would have a second chance at finding a different purpose. It is very important to reuse as much as possible in today's day and age because of everything else that IS being wasted. There is so much trash being produced daily around the world, and eventually, there will be a time when we would really have to crack down on the amount of waste produced. We are thinking that we might as well try our best to not contribute to the build up of waste and find a better place for it. Not only would we be helping the ecosystem, but we would also be helping those in need.
We decided to interview Chef Dean in order to get a better idea of what we should do for our project. We thought he would be the best person to go to because he is the Executive Chef and knows what is going on in the kitchen. Killian was able to interview him during dinner because he is a border and Chef Dean helps with border dinner. The questions Killian asked him were all focused around the same idea, waste in ‘Akahi and the best way to fix the problem (sustainably). Chef Dean told Killian that all of the waste, which consists of, leftover food, dumped food, and the paper and plastic utensils, are dumped in a landfill because everything is biodegradable. It is a shame that all of the leftover food that is produced everyday is just dumped, when it could be put to way better use. We also asked him what he thought would be the best way to fix the waste problem. He said the best way would be to get the dishwasher fixed. This would stop the excessive amount of paper and plastic waste that is produced everyday and it would also help with the cost. The only problem is, to fix the dishwasher it would cost about $60,000. They have been requesting for the dishwasher to be fixed for a quit a while. We have been using paper and plastic utensils for about 2 years, which is how long the dishwasher has been broken. We tried to gather the information for how much it costs to buy all of the paper and plastic goods but Chef Dean was not able to give us that information.
Our project would make Kamehameha a better place in a couple of ways. The most predominate one is we would no longer be wasting an excessive amount of food everyday. As of now, all of the food (and paper/plastic) waste is thrown in the landfill because it is “biodegradable”. There are so many places in the world where even the smallest amount of food per day is a blessing, and we treat food like we are entitled to it. This would also make Kamehameha a better place because it would be benefiting others. Because we are a large and powerful place, it is important that we give to places that are not as fortunate and that need help from larger corporations.
This project addresses the need for a better place for the wasted food to go. Right now the wasted food is not used to its fullest potential. There are places out there that will stop this excessive waste and help people who are more in need. It is ridiculous that we have so much food that kids take too much and then dump it and there is still left over food that hasn’t even put out to serve, but yet there are people in Hawaii alone that don’t know when their next meal will be. Farmers are also always in need of new compost to add to their plants and/or to feed their animals. Animal feed is expensive and yet food, that could be put to use as animal feed, is just dumped in the trash.
The people benefiting from this project will be the underprivileged people that the food gets donated to and/or the local farmers. If we go with a company that will distribute food to the needy for us, they would take the food to social service agencies that would then give the food to the hungry. They would greatly benefit from this because a lot of them are scared and don’t know when their next meal is going to be, but because of the food we will be donating, at least they will have something for a short while, and possibly longer if our project continues to be put in place for the future.Farmers could also benefit from our donation of dumped/already eaten food. Compost and animal feed is quit expensive but something that farmers are required to buy. If we are dumping our food every day for free, then why can’t we help the people that supply our food to us out? This can consist of food farmers that need the wasted food as compost, or, animal farmers like pigs and cows because they are the kind of farm animals that contribute greatly to our daily meals and they are able to eat the “slop” we could donate.
It took our group quite a while to decide on what we wanted to do for this project, and we are honestly still not 100% sure. We considered approaching the Akahi waste problem in a different way at first, through approaching the students. We were thinking of making posters and PSA’s to make the students aware of the amount of food that is wasted every day. Some ideas we had outside of Akahi problems were the rubbish that is littered around campus and the amount of water and energy that is wasted in the different buildings. Our plan is already available to others as well. There are many schools that donate their waste to farmers and pig farms and many people donate unused food to organizations.
We are choosing this particular solution because we feel it is one of the best ways to make a strong impact. Not only are we helping with the waste that is produced every day, but we are able to help others in need as well. This can benefit ourselves as well because we know that we are creating a positive effect on those that are in need. Other solutions would pretty much keep the benefits on school campus, but this way we are able to impact others as well, those that might be in more need.
We don’t believe there will be too much maintenance included in our project. We would have to find a company that will help us deliver our food first. Once we do that we will probably need to help gather up the food. We are not sure yet how much times we will be donating the leftover food to the organization. We will also have to coordinate with the Akahi staff to ask their permission to collect the food and give it away. If we decide to donate to farmers, we would need to gather the thrown away food. Only certain foods can be composted so there is a possibility we would need to sort through the tossed food. If we were to donate to plant farmers, they probably would have different acceptable foods than if we donate to animal farmers. The longevity of these projects would be for a couple of weeks. Definitely more than once because we want to make a difference and once will not do it. Our goal is to donate at least three times in the next 6 weeks of this ongoing project.
Our solution is very practical. Most organizations want any donation they can get and will work fast to get them. If we go with an organization collecting the leftover food, we will need to contact them as soon as possible. This would definitely take less than a month but hopefully the school will continue this project even when we are personally done with our project. There is no reason so much food should go to waste when there are organizations out there that would take the waste out of Kamehameha Schools hands and put it to better use. We would also need to start looking for farms in need of food and compost for their plants. We are aiming for small local business farmers because those are the ones that are the most connected to the land and are most likely the ones who struggle the most. Once we contact the farms we are guessing we could deliver the compost to them whenever they are available because most likely they would really appreciate the support and donations.
We would have to know the rules and guidelines of the organization we choose to give the extra food to. There is most likely a special way we would have to transport the food to the organization, unless they pick it up from campus. If we donate to farmers we would need someplace to store all of the food we separate until it can be delivered. We would also need someone (with a truck) to deliver the food unless the farmers come to campus and pick it up themselves.
At this point we are thinking there should most likely be no cost towards this project. Most organizations will pick up the food for free because they are non-profits. It shouldn’t cost us any money because we are using materials that are already provided to us, like the leftover food. The only possible expense would be towards the pans that the food would need to be carried in and some sort of bin that would hold the composting food, but neither of these are guaranteed expenses.
It incorporates the principles of reusing and not wasting, which sort of go hand in hand. The food that was already used once (and sometimes not even used at all) would have a second chance at finding a different purpose. It is very important to reuse as much as possible in today's day and age because of everything else that IS being wasted. There is so much trash being produced daily around the world, and eventually, there will be a time when we would really have to crack down on the amount of waste produced. We are thinking that we might as well try our best to not contribute to the build up of waste and find a better place for it. Not only would we be helping the ecosystem, but we would also be helping those in need.
We decided to interview Chef Dean in order to get a better idea of what we should do for our project. We thought he would be the best person to go to because he is the Executive Chef and knows what is going on in the kitchen. Killian was able to interview him during dinner because he is a border and Chef Dean helps with border dinner. The questions Killian asked him were all focused around the same idea, waste in ‘Akahi and the best way to fix the problem (sustainably). Chef Dean told Killian that all of the waste, which consists of, leftover food, dumped food, and the paper and plastic utensils, are dumped in a landfill because everything is biodegradable. It is a shame that all of the leftover food that is produced everyday is just dumped, when it could be put to way better use. We also asked him what he thought would be the best way to fix the waste problem. He said the best way would be to get the dishwasher fixed. This would stop the excessive amount of paper and plastic waste that is produced everyday and it would also help with the cost. The only problem is, to fix the dishwasher it would cost about $60,000. They have been requesting for the dishwasher to be fixed for a quit a while. We have been using paper and plastic utensils for about 2 years, which is how long the dishwasher has been broken. We tried to gather the information for how much it costs to buy all of the paper and plastic goods but Chef Dean was not able to give us that information.
Detailed Design:
After our interview with Christa Collins we have a much clearer path ahead of us. We now know that both of our ideas are approved which means we now need to make these ideas a reality. The next step is to start calling around to make arrangements. We will be targeting Aloha Harvest first because we think they will take the most time to get involved with. The first step will be to start contacting them and set up dates for them to come and collect the food (Christa Collins said the best day of the week for this would be Friday’s). We are hoping Aloha Harvest will be available to collect our food on Friday the 4th. This is already next week which means we have our work cut out for us. We will start to contact the organization this weekend so we are not too down to the wire. We are still in the process of finding a pig farmer that would be willing to take the schools slop. There is an interview set up with Kapunahala Elementary School, which is a local elementary school that donates their slo to pig farmers as well, to find out how they do the whole process. That interview will most likely be over the phone and will happen on Monday, April 30th. If all goes well with the interview, we will hopefully have a source to donate the food to by the end of next week (week of the 30th of April). We are aware that there is a company that goes around and collects extra food and delivers it to pig farmers, but this company requires a contract and there is money involved so we decided not to go that route. If the pig farming idea does not work out then that is okay because we still have Aloha Harvest to work with.
In addition to getting everything in our project started up, we are also looking to find a way to keep our project going in the following years. It won’t really be sustainable if our project is only conducted once, because it will just end there. We would have made a difference in one day and that would be all. We are planning on asking Mr. Blake to help us continue our project on by taking it under his class and maybe assigning some willing students to continue our project. They would just have to continue to coordinate (because we would have already set everything up) and there task really wouldn’t be too challenging. They would be helping end the large amount of food waste that goes on on this campus at just a small price so hopefully they would be willing to jump on board.
SCHEDULE:
April 20th: Meeting with Christa Collins
April 27th-29th: Phone call with Aloha Harvest and arranging interview with Kapunahala Elementary School
April 30th: Interview with Kapunahala Elementary School
April 30th-May4th: Preparing for Aloha Harvest
May 4th: Aloha Harvest coming and collecting uneaten food from ‘Akahi
May 8th: Final paper will hopefully be done
May 11th or 12th: Final presentation will be done
May 8th-18th: Practicing for the oral presentation
May 18th: Oral Presentation
MATERIALS:
Working with ‘Akahi:
After talking with Auntie Christa we now have a better understanding about the food waste in ‘Akahi. We first discussed what we were allowed to do about the waste. Auntie Christa made it very clear that anything was possible for us to do. She did mention that Kamehameha Schools has worked with Aloha Harvest in the past, especially after big meals are served, like after Senior Tea. If we wanted to donate food to Aloha Harvest they would have to be able to pick up the food from us on their own. We also had to find out all of Aloha Harvest’s rules and how the whole donation thing works. We learned that Friday would be the best day for Aloha Harvest to collect food because they wouldn’t be able to use leftovers from previous days anymore, since the weekend comes next. Also, most borders leave campus during the weekend so less dinner is served. Auntie Christa said that no matter what we did, there would always be food waste, whether even just through the food that doesn’t make it to the plate when students serve themselves, but it would be great to lessen the amount of waste. They try to make the students more aware of the amount of food wasted by posting charts around the dining hall.
In addition to getting everything in our project started up, we are also looking to find a way to keep our project going in the following years. It won’t really be sustainable if our project is only conducted once, because it will just end there. We would have made a difference in one day and that would be all. We are planning on asking Mr. Blake to help us continue our project on by taking it under his class and maybe assigning some willing students to continue our project. They would just have to continue to coordinate (because we would have already set everything up) and there task really wouldn’t be too challenging. They would be helping end the large amount of food waste that goes on on this campus at just a small price so hopefully they would be willing to jump on board.
SCHEDULE:
April 20th: Meeting with Christa Collins
April 27th-29th: Phone call with Aloha Harvest and arranging interview with Kapunahala Elementary School
April 30th: Interview with Kapunahala Elementary School
April 30th-May4th: Preparing for Aloha Harvest
May 4th: Aloha Harvest coming and collecting uneaten food from ‘Akahi
May 8th: Final paper will hopefully be done
May 11th or 12th: Final presentation will be done
May 8th-18th: Practicing for the oral presentation
May 18th: Oral Presentation
MATERIALS:
- Containers to hold the food in (provided by Aloha Harvest)
- Leftover food
- ‘Akahi Staff
Working with ‘Akahi:
After talking with Auntie Christa we now have a better understanding about the food waste in ‘Akahi. We first discussed what we were allowed to do about the waste. Auntie Christa made it very clear that anything was possible for us to do. She did mention that Kamehameha Schools has worked with Aloha Harvest in the past, especially after big meals are served, like after Senior Tea. If we wanted to donate food to Aloha Harvest they would have to be able to pick up the food from us on their own. We also had to find out all of Aloha Harvest’s rules and how the whole donation thing works. We learned that Friday would be the best day for Aloha Harvest to collect food because they wouldn’t be able to use leftovers from previous days anymore, since the weekend comes next. Also, most borders leave campus during the weekend so less dinner is served. Auntie Christa said that no matter what we did, there would always be food waste, whether even just through the food that doesn’t make it to the plate when students serve themselves, but it would be great to lessen the amount of waste. They try to make the students more aware of the amount of food wasted by posting charts around the dining hall.