Pallets Go Back to School

Just like your kids, pallets go to school, too. They arrive packed full of school supplies for the classroom; but, more often, they transport food to the cafeteria for the school food service program. In fact, there are over 29 million meals provided daily by the National School Lunch Program, all of which arrive packaged on pallets.

Many school systems do an excellent job working with their vendors and distributors to recycle and repurpose the pallets and, in some districts, schools participate in a pallet exchange program with companies like US Foods, one of the country’s leading foodservice distributors, to pick up used pallets for reuse instead of sending pallets to the landfill.

Still another way to re-use pallets in school is for hands-on learning activities. We were impressed with one example from a school in Liberty, Indiana. An agricultural teacher, Kari Roberts, at Union County High School took leftover pallets, received from school supply orders, and—with her students—created raised garden beds for growing tomatoes. The project is fairly simple. Line the bottom and sides of a pallet with landscape fabric to hold in the soil. Fill the pallet with potting soil and plant your favorite crop. In this case, after students planted and cared for their tomatoes, the plants were harvested and donated to the school lunch program. What a great way to teach the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle! The National Association of Agricultural Educators thought so, too, and presented her with an award in the “Ideas Unlimited” category for her unique teaching idea.

It’s obvious to see that pallets serve a highly useful purpose in our education system and we are happy to provide pallets for many in the foodservice industry that distributes supplies and food to schools around the country.

If you’re in foodservice distribution, let us help you with your pallet management needs. We’d love to learn more about your operations; contact us today!