$1,000 – Seniors West of the Tetons
Youth Philanthropists at Teton High School fully funded the purchase of 200 reusable to-go meal containers for Seniors West of the Tetons’ Home Delivered Meal program. Reusable containers will replace the current disposable containers which end up at the landfill.
Seniors West of the Tetons delivers lunches five days a week to homebound seniors. These seniors rely on the meals to ensure nutrition and receive a friendly welfare check. All meals are free or by donation. SWOT delivers meals to roughly 15-30 seniors at any given time. This adds up to a tremendous amount of waste from current disposable containers. Their current clamshell containers made of sugarcane and soup containers made of paper are a step up from former styrofoam. However, these “eco” disposable containers are very expensive and not financially feasible to use over the long term. From January to October of 2021 they spent over $1,500 on disposable food containers.
This is an important community project in that it reduces waste for our already overburdened landfill. On average we send out over 5,000 disposable clamshell containers annually, and 2,000 soup containers. That’s a LOT of garbage. These reusable containers will dramatically help cut waste headed to the landfill.
Seniors West of the Tetons will purchase 204 clamshells, and 48 soup containers. The containers are made of durable plastic that is dishwasher safe, microwavable, and the product sheet touts they can be used up to 1,000 times.
Perhaps the most critical component of this project is getting the containers back in a timely fashion. They plan to have all stickered meal containers from the weak sent back with Thursday delivery drivers, who will then deliver containers back to the Senior Center for sanitization and use the following week.
Youth Philanthropists were glad to divert trash and help Seniors West of the Tetons purchase 204 clamshells, and 48 soup containers. The containers are made of durable plastic that is dishwasher safe, microwavable, and the product sheet touts they can be used up to 1,000 times. 204 containers will provide a 2 week supply for roughly 20 participants with a buffer for clients who are slow to return containers.
