A staff member and co-leader of the District Sustainability Committee told the Metuchen Public School District that local students and volunteers are driving two sustainability efforts: a Tree Ambassador program launched two years ago and a daily meal-recovery "share table" that collects uneaten school meals for community distribution.

The staff member said the district received a Green Team Collaboration Award and described the programs as ways to engage students and the wider community. "One of the things I think is so amazing about Metuchen is how willing everybody is to come together to partner," the staff member said.

The Tree Ambassador program began after Dr. Ken Salmon of the Shade Tree Commission approached district leaders with the idea, the staff member said. "So we created a program whereby the kids would learn about trees, learn how to plant them, learn how to take care of them, learn how to identify them, and take part in part of the process to transform things," the staff member said. The district said it is planning tree plantings on school campuses and wants to encourage sustainable practices.

District staff credited collaboration inside and outside the schools for the meal-recovery effort. The staff member said that "last year, Dr. Cabruto's student advisory board was meeting with our cafeteria, and we were talking about sustainability efforts. So one of the ideas came up about a share table concept." Under the approach, uneaten meals are returned to the high school, placed into containers and collected by volunteers for delivery.

"We have volunteers within our community who are volunteering weekly to come pick up these meals and bring them over to the First Presbyterian Church," the staff member said, adding that the effort began at the start of the school year and had already recovered "hundreds of meals" in a few weeks.

A student who spoke about the programs said they inspired career interest: "I think if more students had the same experiences as me, we would have way, way more future environmental scientists to help combat climate change in the future among other environmental problems." The remark came during the district update portion of the meeting rather than as formal board action.

No formal motions or votes on these programs were recorded during the meeting. District staff described the items as ongoing programs that involve students, the Shade Tree Commission and community volunteers; they did not specify funding sources or implementation deadlines.

District officials said the Tree Ambassador program and the share table are intended to combine student education with community service, but they did not provide details on long-term staffing, budgets or how recipients of recovered meals are selected beyond delivery to First Presbyterian Church. The district described the meal-recovery effort as volunteer-operated and the tree plantings as planned campus projects.