Every day, school cafeterias across the nation serve meals by the steaming trayful. And every day, millions of pounds of that food gets tossed away uneaten.
Hoping to rescue the tons of unwanted chicken nuggets, Tater Tots and peanut-butter cookies that land in garbage cans, Syd Mandelbaum, a scientist and father of five, cooked up a plan. His Rock and Wrap It Up! school program allows middle- and high-school students to collect their school's leftover food and donate it to needy people. The goal: to end hunger in the U.S. by the year 2000.
"I want kids to be active," Mandelbaum said. "We're going to end hunger in this country as a group."
Rock and Wrap It Up! has been working to end hunger since 1991. Mandelbaum's program began by collecting leftovers from backstage parties at rock concerts. More than 100 rock stars, including Hootie and the Blowfish, Sting and U2, have pitched in. To encourage the program at schools, some of the bands are autographing award certificates for participants.
Since it began, Rock and Wrap It Up! has collected more than 1 million pounds of food. That's enough to feed nearly 3 million people one meal each! Students have a hunger to help out: already 305 schools have signed up.
"I look in my cupboard, and I have pudding, snacks and everything else," says Charlene How, a sixth-grader in Festus, Missouri. "Other people don't have anything. I'm just hoping to help change that."