by Jessica Harper
Thisweek Newspapers

When children do not clean their plates, parents often say, "You're wasting food." But when Prior Lake-Savage Area School students don't finish their meals, it becomes a pig's feast.

Rather than dumping their food scraps in the dumpster to be hauled to landfills, students place their uneaten food into recycling bins to be cooked and converted into pig food.

The district initiated the food recycling program during the 2006-2007 school year at Jeffers Pond, Five Hawks and WestWood elementary schools in Prior Lake and at Glendale Elementary in Savage.

The program is another step in the district's recycling program that was adopted five years ago, environmental education coordinator Cara Rickenberg said.

Last year, 79 tons of food was collected and converted into pig food, she said, which means less wasted in landfills.

"There's very little (waste) that can't go to the pigs or be recycled in other ways," Rickenberg said. "There's very little trash left in the dumpsters."

According to a December 2007 Environmental Protection Agency report, 96 billion pounds of food are wasted in the United States each year.

Less food in the trash bin also translates to more money saved, Rickenberg said.

The district saved $23,000 last year in costs it would have spent on trash-collection fees, she said.

"It's a self-sustaining program, Rickenberg said. "If we didn't do the program, we wouldn't have the savings to do the program (this year)."

The district planned to expand the program to Grainwood Elementary and Hidden Oaks and Twin Oaks Middle School in the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, but the initial grant for the program from Scott County expired, and the district struggled to pay for start-up equipment and did not have a method for collecting the food from each school.

The project was put on hold in the fall of 2007, but Rickenberg said she plans to use the $23,000 saved last year and a $2,223 grant from the Prior Lake-Savage Education Foundation to continue the program this school year.

She said she intends to start the program as soon as the district hires a food-waste delivery person, which was approved by the School Board on Jan. 14, to pick up wasted food from each elementary and middle school and bring it to Twin Oaks to be picked up by Barthold Family Farms three times a week.

Barthold Family Farms has participated in the food recycling program since 1988 and collects food from about eight school districts, including Shakopee Area Schools, which recently joined the program.

In addition to the program saving the district money and reducing landfills, the farm benefits by obtaining free food for its 5,000 free-range pigs, farm manager Harry Hjermstad said.

Although the program is temporarily at a standstill, students continue to separate their food from other trash and recyclables to maintain the habit, Rickenberg said.

The program provides a positive lesson for students by teaching them how their personal choices impact their environment, she said.

"It shows students how much they waste, and provides a sense of empowerment and ownership for their place on the earth," she said.

Jessica Harper is at priorlake.thisweek@ecm-inc.com