40% of food grown on farms will never be eaten.

Food Waste in the Lehigh Valley is a special presentation that highlights how food waste affects our community in the Lehigh Valley & how local Lehigh University students are tackling the issue head on.

In this competition, eight teams of students were given 48 hours to design a prototype that would help minimize food waste, on a national or local scale. Some of the ideas ranged from a program to help grocery stores order more efficiently, smart lids that would tell you when to eat leftovers, ways to reuse misfit produce, and more. The entire event was hosted at The Factory LLC, a new business incubator that just opened in one of the former Bethlehem Steel buildings on the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem. Mentors from The Factory guided the students, giving them feedback, and helping to bring their ideas to fruition.

This special presentation was directed by recent graduate and new PBS39 team member Daniel Ray, who was nominated for two student Emmy Awards for his work while attending Temple University. Megan Frank, also new to the PBS39 team is part of the “Reporter Corps” and covers the Northampton County region. “Food Waste in the Valley” is the first long-format documentary produced by the PBS39 Reporter Corps.

For more details and resources to do your part to reduce food waste, click here.