Catasauqua Middle School fifth-grade student Maliya Walp saw an opportunity to help reduce the amount of food tossed out at CMS. At breakfast and lunch, students must select from at least three of the food groups - meats and proteins, whole grains, fruits, vegetables and milk. One item must be a fruit or vegetable. In order to take the minimum number of items to create a student meal, a student may be required to select a food he or she will not eat.

Maliya remembered Sheckler Elementary School had a Share Table at lunches for people to share unopened food with those who might need an extra snack. Catasauqua High School has a similar table. Maliya wanted to bring the same Share Table idea to CMS but with an extra step - any food left on the table at the end of the day would be sent to Catasauqua Community Food Bank. Maliya and her mother, Heather, took the idea to Melissa Inselmann, CMS principal, who thought it was a great idea.

The Share Table officially opened March 19, and the first delivery to the food bank was March 20. Deliveries will be made every Wednesday and Friday.

Maliya and fellow students Lilian DeLabar, Matthew Beck, Dylan Lorah, Alivia Kurczewski and Julia Harth formed the Green Team. These students assist with monitoring the table during the fifth-grade lunch period and help to take the food to the food bank.

Food items that can be donated include milk, juice, yogurt, bags of carrots and unopened a la carte items and whole fruits such as apples, oranges and bananas. Students can only share food that has been provided by the CMS cafeteria, so no food from home can be donated. The food items must be unopened.

The table monitors during the sixth-grade lunch period are Adyn Wellington, Mykenzie Bealer, Elexia Gonzales, Kirra Stepp, Maya Osorto, Lillyana Gacitua, Andrew Schlosser, Lynkan Moore, Braden Bartholomew and Owen Smith. Not members of the Green Team, these students were hand-picked to assist with the efforts.

Members of the Students Taking Active Roles Club (STARS) monitor the table for the seventh- and eighth-grade lunches. These students include William Aguirre, Aiden Gannon, Delaine Popa Nina, Savannah Davis, Lauren Delong, Jaylianna Martinez, Cedric Bright, Dijon Chambers, Jerzie Ramos, Emma Zinggeler, Mckay Lewis, Keera Primer and Elisa Osorto.

According to Heather Walp, it took approximately a month to get the idea up and running. The CMS PTF purchased the items needed to make the Share Table a reality. The process involved working out details with the help of Mrs. Forstoffer, librarian at Sheckler Elementary. CMS art teacher Kimmie Miller worked with Maliya and eighth-grade student Kaylee Weidaw to create the poster over the Share Table. Guidance counselor Amy Dymond-Jones worked with the Green Team to write a script and create a video for the morning News Show, which aired March 19.

In addition to the Share Table, there is also now a recycling bin for empty water bottles.

Heather Walp said they are hoping to make the Green Team and Share Table an official club and to incorporate other ideas, much of which have yet to be worked out, such as “recycling more items, composting foods from lunches and turning the composted food into a garden on the school grounds.”