School cafeteria scraps helping to fatten up farmer’s hogs

NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I.—Half-eaten tuna sandwiches and other food scraps students discard during their lunch periods in North Smithfield are being repurposed as feed for more than 3,000 pigs living in Burrillville.

Through a new recycling program established and overseen by town Recycling Coordinator Donna Kaehler, the North Smithfield High School, Middle School and Halliwell School turns food scraps leftover from school lunches to nutritious food for pigs at My Blue Heaven Farm in Pascoag.

The program, which mirrors a similar food scraps recycling program in Burrillville public schools involving the same farm, has been so successful in North Smithfield that Kaehler is planning to include the North Smithfield Elementary School in the program this September.