The USDA encourages “share tables” as a way to reduce food waste in school meals. The idea is that children can return untouched food and beverages that become available to children who are still hungry, says Civil Eats, “But there has also been some surprising pushback lately.”
Earlier this year, Connecticut’s Education Department issued a memo telling school-food providers that school nutrition programs are intended “to serve reimbursable meals to students,” and it severely limited what is allowed to go on the share table, says Civil Eats. And in late 2016, North Carolina drastically cut what share tables can offer, too. A high school student in Charlotte says, “The list of items we’re allowed to collect is tiny.” Among the banned items: fruit, vegetables, rolls, cookies and cartons of milk.
Nicole Civita, director of the Food Recovery Project at the University of Arkansas, says there have been no legal actions against share tables of the regulations that allow them. Civil Eats quotes Civita as saying, “Local health and safety codes may operate to limit what can be shared in this format … but hopefully regulators at the state and local levels will be guided by common sense instead of hyper-technical interpretations of rules designed for other types of food commerce and exchange.”