Tired of seeing carrots, green beans, apples, bananas, and fruit cups thrown out? Are you the kind of person who gets inspired by National Geographic documentaries? Do you still have a little time left at Solon High School?

Project Leftovers, a community problem-solving group, has been working on this important issue for the last two years. Food has always been an important value in our households, so coming to school and seeing our classmates discard perfectly edible lunches never sat well with us. In response, we banded together, held an art contest, took surveys, made PSAs, and traveled across county and state lines to spread our message.

At the 2018 Future Problem Solving International Conference, we spoke to student representatives from all over the world, whether it was Wisconsin, Singapore, or Australia. At the Youth Advocacy and Leadership Coalition, we met with other Northeastern Ohio students who cared about making a tangible impact on the world and shared our past achievements and future goals. At the local Orange High School, we spoke with other passionate high school students about our experiences and encouraged them to tackle issues they noticed at their school.

For the 2018-19 school year, you might have seen one of us walking around and talking to students with a cardboard box. Each week, we collect uneaten packaged food items around the cafeteria and redistribute them to SHS students that cannot afford school lunches or the local food pantry. Additionally, we have also conducted more student outreach activities and are planning to hold an OXFAM Hunger Banquet with UNICEF Solon High School later this year, so keep your ears open for it!

Unfortunately, there is still a significant amount of work left to do at SHS, and our team will be graduating this year. So to all underclassmen: if you and a few friends are interested in continuing this project after we have graduated, please let any of us know. We would be more than happy to welcome a new face to our team so long as you have the time and motivation to help plan future events and reduce food waste at SHS.

Persons to contact:

Club Advisor: Sabrina Tirpak – [email protected]

Team member: Lea Kim – [email protected]

Team member: Sandy Shen – [email protected]

Team member: Julia Fan – [email protected]

Team member: Rachel Wilson – [email protected]

Team member: Katherine Dai – [email protected]