Every class’s Student Council board chooses a philanthropy for the class to support and this year, the freshman class decided on decreasing- and eventually eliminating-food waste, and increasing recycling at LHS.
The class believed that these are both relevant issues at LHS that they can find new ways to help solve.
One focus of the project is to increase recycling at LHS. The class council plans on reaching out to Libertyville Environmental Action Force, or LEAF, a club at the school that focuses on helping the environment, to help promote recycling at LHS and bring more awareness to the issue in the community.
“We realized that there weren’t any [recycling bins in the cafeteria] and thought that it would be a good addition. We were thinking to talk to [LEAF] to get more posters up to spread awareness [about recycling],” Victoria Villanueva-Guzman, a freshman board member, stated.
The recycling bins are planned on being put in the cafeteria for next year.
The other half of the project consists of eliminating food waste at LHS. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, almost 40 percent of the food supply in America is wasted, which equals more than 20 pounds per person per month.
The freshman board believes this is a big issue that they wanted to take on. Drew Hopkins, a member of the freshman class board, is excited to help LHS do its part to limit food waste.
“[Freshman student council] believed, with the help of the administration and fellow students, that we could begin to address this issue and reduce the amount of food waste, while bringing food to those who need it,” Hopkins said in an email interview.
The plan is to put waste bins in the cafeteria where students can put any unopened food. Other students will be able to get food out of the bins throughout the day. The remainder of the food will be sent to a local food pantry and given to people in need. The board is currently seeking approval from the administration in order to implement the food waste bins.
By donating the food, the project will not only help the environment, but also other people in the Libertyville community.
There are many rules as to what foods can be reused, which makes the project more difficult. The food must be nonperishable and unopened in order to be given to out to food pantries. There also needs to be a lot of participation from the student body in order for the project to be successful.
“The single most important thing needed for the completion of the project is the support of our fellow students,” Hopkins stated.
The freshman board not only wants to eliminate food waste at LHS, but they also hope that the project will make students and teachers more aware of their food waste. Hopkins expressed his desire to spread this initiative to students’ homes as well, where they can also attempt to cut back on food waste.
“This awareness, we hope, will encourage people to be more conservative with their food, and to avoid wasting too much of it,” Hopkins explained.
