Beverly students and food services expand recycling, hydroponics and food‑waste efforts

Students and staff from across the Beverly Public Schools presented a multi‑school update on sustainability initiatives at the March 12 School Committee meeting, describing classroom hydroponics, school “green teams,” recycling drives, share tables and food donations to community partners.

Why it matters: the district’s nutrition and operations staff told the committee those programs are being integrated with school meals work and vendor partnerships to reduce food waste and packaging, and to increase local purchasing.

Elementary students described hands‑on projects at Ayers, Centerville, Cove, Hannah and North Beverly: fourth‑graders at Ayers are growing lettuce, basil and other plants in hydroponic towers; Centerville’s Green Team runs classroom recycling checks and cafeteria share‑table practices; Cove students worked with the nonprofit Change Is Simple on wind and energy lessons and wrote letters to local leaders asking support for 100% renewable energy; and Hannah students are planning a whole‑food compost program and produced classroom “what‑to‑recycle” displays.

Centerville staff noted the Green Team inspects classroom recycling on Fridays and monitors food waste in the cafeteria. North Beverly students reported assembling bat boxes to encourage local pollinators and said they plan a future tour of Beverly High School solar panels.

At the middle school, staff reported a food pickup program that collects edible leftovers to donate to low‑income housing and halfway houses. The presenters said the first two weeks’ collections included more than two dozen pounds of fruit and other items and that partner nonprofits distribute the food quickly.

Beverly High School Green Club members described a bottle‑cap bench recycling project and a returnable bottle and can drive that will fund Beverly Bootstraps, a local food‑security nonprofit. The high school club also volunteers with Green Beverly and participates in town composting events.

District nutrition director Christina Leal (title in meeting: food service nutrition expert) told the committee the school nutrition program serves more than 1,000 breakfasts and about 2,500 lunches daily across the district and is expanding local purchasing through vendors such as Hood Milk, Walden Beef and Red’s Best Seafood. The nutrition program is piloting Simple Pack compostable, BPI‑certified trays and said the materials contain no PFAS.

Food Waste Prevention Week is scheduled for April 7–13; students indicated they will lead school‑level activities that week to encourage taking only what they will eat and using share tables for unopened items.

Ending: Committee members praised student leadership and asked staff to continue coordinating with community partners and to report back on the outcomes of pilot projects such as hydroponics towers, the middle‑school food pickup, and Simple Pack trial packaging.