Third grader Naomi Ward at Lowell Elementary School wants to ensure that no one in the Watertown community goes hungry. Now, bags full of food from lunches at the school are saved and provided to those who visit the Watertown Community Fridge.
Naomi told the Watertown News she was inspired to turn what would have been school food waste into something people in need could eat. “I was seeing all the food that was being taken (from the Watertown Community Fridge), and then I sort of combined them in my head — and thought about how the food was food that the school was already buying. It wouldn’t be making them pay more money,” she said.
Naomi and her mother, Erin, had to navigate several levels of government approval to support her idea of donating her school’s uneaten food to the community fridge. The two presented their plan to the Board of Health, Sen. William N. Brownsberger, and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education…