For many of the 20 million children qualifying for free-and-reduced lunches, school is the only place they get to eat. Research shows 60% of low-income students report going to school on an empty stomach, and it gets worse during the summer when many of them no longer have the school food safety net.

The good news is that agencies, organizations and even lawmakers are taking big bites out of this problem through small, innovative steps. But oftentimes, it’s only a cost-effective matter of preserving leftover food or re-purposing unused resources.

  1. Food trucks deliver. The food truck fad is booming on college and university campuses, and schools are also using these vehicles as rolling restaurants to reach more students in convenient ways. But in the summer, these trucks sit idle.
  2. Texas tweaks rules to allow in-school food pantries.In some cases, lawmakers are stepping in to allow simple solutions to repurpose unused cafeteria food. In 2017, Texas lawmakers passed The Student Fairness in Feeding Act, which allows schools to create food pantries. This allows a school to accept and store food from its cafeteria that would otherwise be thrown away.
  3. Corporations kick in. Darden Restaurants, the parent company of Olive Garden and several other restaurants, donates both dollars and fresh, unused food. Left-over fresh food is carefully vacuum-sealed in restaurants and delivered on refrigerated trucks to feeding sites, some of which are set up for low-income students during the summer.

Read the full article about tactics to tackle food insecurity by Shawna De La Rosa at Education Dive.