(KSTP) — Zoey Petersen is a food rescue warrior.

“Food waste is a major issue,” she declares. “It’s something like a fifth of the food we produce for human consumption in the world is never eaten.”

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) agrees, saying 62% of food Minnesotans throw out could have been eaten or donated.

The MPCA also says food waste makes up 18% of landfills across the state.

“Food waste is a really huge problem all over the world, but it’s especially a problem in the United States,” notes Petersen, a volunteer at Basic Needs Food Market, a Cottage Grove nonprofit food shelf.  

Now, South Washington County School and Basic Needs are joining forces to keep unused food from the trash bin.

“We definitely don’t want to see waste, especially in this holiday season, and especially when so many families are in need,” says Tina Altman from Cottage Grove, whose eight-year-old daughter attends classes in the district.   

A district release says 2.7 million meals were served during the last school year under the state-funded School Meals Program.

That’s a 10% increase from the previous year but it also meant more food waste.  

“Granola bars, milk, you know, full containers of milk,” Altman notes. “I mean, I’ve seen it all.”

Under the district’s Pilot Food Rescue Program, launched in October, nutrition staff sort and store unused food items and Basic Needs volunteers pick them up about once a week, sometimes more.

Petersen says the nonprofit collected 1,435 pounds of food from five different South Washington County Schools in November.

Now, they’re working with three more schools and are expecting to pick up even more food, including snacks, canned food, cereal and fresh fruit.

“It’s usually breakfast food, so we see a lot of applesauce, cranberries and produce,” Petersen says. “Usually, it’s things that are more perishable too that would go to waste if it didn’t come to us.”  

The school food will help feed the 200 people who visit the market each day.

“When we can have the community work together to pool their resources together and not waste the food and have it go to a good cause, that’s the reason for the season,” Altman says.