Cincinnati Country Day School Students Help Last Mile Food Rescue

By Mary Casey-Sturk

Cincinnati, like many areas, has neighbors in need. In the Greater Cincinnati region (including Northern Kentucky) more than 270,000 people live with food insecurities, this includes more than 80,000 children.  At least 17 million meals are needed to feed those in need.

Last Mile shares, “Despite high numbers of people with food insecurity, huge amounts of good, fresh, surplus food from places like grocery stores, hotels, convenience stores, food distributors and corporate cafeterias gets dumped every day.”

“Wasting food wastes the water, land, energy and other resources needed to produce it. And when food is left to decompose in a landfill, it releases toxic methane gas, a greenhouse gas that fuels climate change.”

This is where Last Mile Food Rescue steps in with their mission to save good food and get it to those who need it most. They empower local change-makers to make a critical difference in the lives of our neighbors fighting food insecurity. By using the power of volunteers fueled by technology, they connect Food Donors with nonprofits who serve the region’s food insecure, fighting food waste and helping to end the hunger that’s closest to home.

Do you ever wonder where the left-over food goes from restaurants, groceries, ball parks, events?

In 2024, 3.6 million meals were provided locally, and 4.4 million pounds of excess food was saved.  Since their founding in 2020, over 11 million pounds of excess food was saved.  This food is delivered to other non-profits, helping to feed at-risk people in our community. Referred to as food rescue, it gets food that would normally be discarded to people in need. This includes shelters, day cares, food pantries, senior centers and more.

This is how Cincinnati Country Day School got involved initially, Sage Dining Services, who works with CCDS to provide student meals, rescuing left-over food to Last Mile.

Sage Dining Services and CCDS have been among the food donors for several years now. These donations-locally and across the community, benefit 150+ agency partners and is supported by over 800 volunteers (Food Rescue Heroes) and over 400 food donors. Connecting food, volunteers and the organizations that need it is done via their app. Volunteers download the app and select their assignments. Their volunteers are comprised of all age groups, retirees, students, people with flexibility during the week and families.

Cincinnati Country Day Students Lending a Hand

IHL spoke with Laura Gunn, who is an Upper School Math Teacher and the Director of Service Learning at Cincinnati Country Day School. Over the course of the past school year, upper school students made more than 2,800 ham and cheese sandwiches for Our Daily Bread in Over-the-Rhine. As part of a partnership with Last Mile Food Rescue, the students meet about once a month to make the sandwiches in the Dining Terrace before the start of the school day.

Gunn shares how this began, “As Director of Service Learning, I was looking for ways to bring service into the building, especially for the younger students that can’t drive. That’s how the sandwiches started. I was using my budget to cover expenses (bread, meat and cheese), Sage Dining Services had already been working with Last Mile Food Services to donate excess food.” Adding, “Through that partnership, I was able to get bread delivered directly from a factory to the school. They would deliver the bread; we’d make the sandwiches and then Last Mile Food Rescue delivers the sandwiches to Our Daily Bread.”  It’s important to note that prior to this, Gunn delivered the sandwiches herself for two years during her free bells-so as not to miss class.  In all, sandwiches have been made and provided to Our Daily Bread for nearly four years and this partnership will continue.

“Students are required to do 90 hours of service over the course of their four years. Students perform both volunteer and service hours. Service hours serve many types of underserved populations. (With the sandwiches) it’s a way to get food into bellies.” Their goal is to make 300 sandwiches a month.

“Any way that we can help, we try to do that. We have a house system representing our core values, once a year the house system also makes 400 sandwiches a year. We let the lower school students make sandwiches. For the younger kids, it helps them realize that not everyone has food and we discuss this at their level.”

If you are interested in volunteering, donating or learning more about Last Mile Food Rescue, visit their website at www.lastmilefood.org.

Photos provided.