Demand to Expand Food Recovery in NC Schools

Every day in North Carolina schools, hundreds of thousands of unopened and unpeeled food items are discarded in our cafeterias, despite the fact that 1 in 5 children in our state face food insecurity (Feeding America, 2025). This waste is not only heartbreaking, but entirely unnecessary. You can help us request a change!
Sharing tables are identified spots in school cafeterias where students can “donate” items they have not opened and do not want to eat, rather than throwing them away. In some situations these foods are made available to any student in the school as snacks. In others, they are donated to community food pantries. Share tables are considered an “innovative strategy to encourage the consumption of nutritious foods and reduce food waste” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA, 2016).
Sharing table guidelines from the NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) allow for the sharing of some packaged foods, but recommend that Time/Temperature Control for Safety (TCS) foods (e.g. milk and yogurt) “are not allowed”. Additionally, many school districts have found the guidelines prohibitive, and have thus decided to not implement sharing or donation programs of any kind. See NC DPI’s Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety plan for more info.
Toward Zero Waste, and other food waste and food recovery partners across the state, want to see all schools in NC supported in implementing sharing table programs AND have the guidance to safely recover unopened milk, cheese and yogurt. With appropriate guidance from our state agencies, schools can collect hundreds of pounds of nutritional food each week that would otherwise be thrown away. Other states, including South Carolina and Virginia, have successfully implemented similar programs without increasing costs or safety risks. It’s time for North Carolina to follow their lead.
We ask that NC Department of Public Instruction (NC DPI) and NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) adjust the HACCP to provide support and guidance for the safe and effective collection, storage and redistribution of unopened and unpeeled items, including dairy/TCS foods, through school-based food recovery programs, like SHARE.
This change can and must happen for the 2026–2027 school year.