Food and Nutrition Services
SUSTAINABILITY
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Vision
The vision for Orange County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) is to build sustainable partnerships with local charitable organizations (501c)(3) to rescue food.
Mission
The mission of the FNS Sustainability Department is to provide education, training and resources on the importance of conservation methods for staff and students to inspire others by creating habits that maintain healthy lifestyles and a healthy environment.
Goals
Our goals are to feed our students nutritious meals, control waste by proper inventory management, keep good food out of landfills with the use of share tables and rescuing leftovers with the FNS Food Recovery Program, and support school garden activities with school site composting or feeding campus livestock.
Non-profit organizations who wish to collaborate with FNS should contact
[email protected]
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According to sources, 30-40% of all food produced in the United States is wasted and discarded in a landfill. Based on this, Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) has developed programs to help reduce food waste in our schools using diversion and recovery methods.
During the week of April 7-13, 2025 FNS partnered with Food Waste Prevention Week 2025, a nationwide movement focused on educating and empowering people at home, work and school. Students and staff helped to recover 15,000 LBS of food waste from entering our landfills through composting and food donations, this is an outstanding achievement!
Click here to learn more https://www.foodwastepreventionweek.com/
In addition, the USDA has partnered with agencies to eliminate the confusion about food expiration dates in an effort to educate and reduce premature discard of wholesome foods - which can ultimately save consumers money.
https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste
This institution is an Equal Opportunity Provider.