Charter school’s Fall Harvest Festival gets students talking about food waste

Every fall, the cafeterias (known as Harvest Halls), at Wonderful College Prep Academy in California’s Central Valley, are transformed into a full-fledged fall wonderland. 

The decor is part of the nutrition team’s Fall Harvest Festival which aims to educate students about the harvest season and how to prevent food waste during the fall months. 

While the team does have a hand in the event’s planning process, it leans heavily on students to market the celebration and teach their peers about keeping food out of the trash.

“We provide [students] guidance and we provide them resources, but they are responsible for the cultural awareness and the education around [the event],” says Devinder Kumar, Senior Director of Student Health and Wellness. 

For the past two years, the Fall Harvest Festival has allowed students to learn more about food waste, while also savoring some of the season’s best dishes. 

Turning decor into seasonal dishes 

Since preventing food waste is one of the Fall Harvest Festival’s central themes, most of the decor used for the festivities, including the pumpkins, winds up in students’ meals. 

“All the pumpkins, except for some which are strictly ornament, will be all used in our food,” says Kumar. 

Pumpkin bisque is one of the fixtures on the menu. This year, students were also served different types of winter squash, including butternut and kabocha. The team stuck to a simple preparation and served the squash roasted with the peel on.

“The peel is the most delicious thing once it’s crispy,” says Kumar. 

Since Wonderful participates in the National School Lunch Program, all of the meals offered as part of the event follow the school nutrition standards set forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Peer-to-peer communication 

The nutrition team works closely with the students involved with Soldiers of Change, a nutrition-focused elective course for sophomores, to plan and execute the event. 

The students spend time talking to their peers in the classroom about food waste and post about the celebration on social media. They also make themselves available during meals if one of their peers has a question about the event. 

Having the event’s messaging come from the students themselves and not an adult, motivates the student body to become more engaged with the event and its purpose, Kumar believes. 

“If the messaging is coming from one of the students, it gets more traction,” he says. “If all of a sudden their classmates are talking about something, it has a different impact.” 

And that, in turn, creates a ripple effect as other students go on to spread awareness about what they learned. 

“Now, [students are] going to put it on social media and inspire others to do something cool when it comes to food and the ecosystem around food,” he says.