Bethlehem, PA. – September 12, 2018 – On Tuesday, September 18, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. PBS39 will present a 30 minute documentary entitled “Food Waste in the Valley.” This show, produced by the PBS39 Reporter Corps and hosted by Megan Frank, will focus on a “hackathon” organized by the Lehigh University Innovation Lab, which challenged students to come up with ways to help end the problem of food waste. Forty percent of food grown on farms in the Lehigh Valley will never get eaten. Within Lehigh and Northampton Counties alone, 45,000 tons of food are thrown away each year.

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. In the show, Megan Frank also interviews local farmers, managers at local grocery stores, and even people who make their own compost.

“PBS39 is taking every opportunity to address a variety of issues affecting our community,” said Tim Fallon, Chief Executive Officer of PBS39. “Exploring the issue of food waste is just one of many examples of how the PBS39 Reporter Corps and public media can help expose important issues that are impacting our population, and examine potential solutions.”

SPOILER ALERT: No student group won the Hackathon competition because judges said that none of the groups fully solved the problem. In the United States, approximately 40 percent of the food produced is wasted, adding up to over 62 million tons of food that goes uneaten each year.

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.

PBS39 is a community-owned public television station licensed to Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, Pa., serving eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. PBS39 is owned and operated by the Lehigh Valley Public Telecommunications Corporation. PBS39 acts as the catalyst to promote civic engagement, and to fulfill the regional needs of the Greater Lehigh Valley through its dynamic communication platforms and resources. PBS39 “Reporter Corps” journalists are now embedded in the ten counties that make up the Greater Lehigh Valley, including Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks, Schuylkill, Carbon and Monroe in Pennsylvania, plus Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. The “Reporter Corps” is currently creating community-focused content for the PBS39 digital platform. The new nightly, televised newscast will launch September 17. For more information, visit wlvt.org.