50 lbs
of food recovered per school, per day
Students leadthe workto keep schoollunchout of landfills.Students lead the work to keep school lunchout of landfills.
Lunch Out of Landfills gives school nutrition directors a practical way to turn cafeteria surplus into a student-driven, staff-supported, administrator-backed recovery program.
Who We Are
LOOL is a nonprofit advancing K–12 food recovery.
We provide the structure, coordination, and philanthropic support schools need to implement recovery systems effectively. Note: LOOL does not operate cafeterias. All recovered food remains under the care and control of the participating school district.
Impact Numbers
Benchmarks behind the public dashboard
$10,000
diverted from landfills annually per refrigerator
11,500+
milk cartons recovered per school each year
At scale
126 schools over a 180-day year = 1.23 million pounds recovered annually
How It Works
Share refrigerators keep recovered food under school control.
Students place unopened food in designated SHARE refrigerators for free access during the school day. At the school's discretion, surplus items may be donated to local charities. LOOL never resells or transports food, ensuring alignment with the Emerson Food Donation Act for federal liability protection.
Where LOOL Is Active
LOOL is active in 1 schools across 1 states.
California
Why LOOL
The source materials frame LOOL as a K-12 food waste prevention initiative for principals, staff, students, parents, and community members. USDA baseline data shows why school cafeterias need simple, repeatable recovery habits.
30-40%
of the U.S. food supply is estimated to be lost or wasted before it can nourish people.
133B lbs
of food loss and waste was estimated at the retail and consumer levels in USDA's 2010 baseline.
50%
is the national reduction goal for food loss and waste by 2030, with schools positioned to teach and model recovery.
Sources: USDA Food Loss and Waste and U.S. Food Loss & Waste 2030 Champions.
Program Loop
LOOL turns a cafeteria commitment into a repeatable reporting loop that schools can run from the lunch line to district-level updates.
- 1
Pledge
A school or district commits to the LOOL recovery program and documents readiness for share tables, refrigeration, and local support.
- 2
Track
Student and staff teams record lunch period, food item, waste code, item count, and disposal method from the source tracking forms.
- 3
Recover
Safe unopened food moves through approved paths such as share tables, recovery refrigerators, re-serve, compost, or other local outcomes.
- 4
Report
Submission history becomes usable evidence for school nutrition leaders, administrators, and LOOL program reporting.
Bring LOOL to your district
Start with the Facility Participation Pledge and give your school community a clear path from approval to recovery reporting.